Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Despite a worrying forecast, Saturday turned out to be a lovely day and we stayed out playing until suppertime, when a bunch of us trooped down the hill to the local Tex-Mex joint and then on to a bar for a nightcap. Apparently some of the others kept going until 2 a.m., but I was maxed out on crowds and retired home at 10.

2. Rudi and I went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on Sunday for the first time in several years and got to see herding demonstrations, sheep, and lots and lots of yarn. I’ll save the haul (Rudi is an enabler) to show you another day, but here are a pair of sheep who were happy to say hi.

3. Susan and I had lunch this afternoon. The coffeehouse at the cathedral had a tent up, which meant we could sit outside on a lovely afternoon without fear of her getting burned.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl is local authors. Here are ten authors who live or lived in Washington, D.C. (Please note, if you have Congressional representation, you aren’t from D.C., no matter what people from Maryland and Virginia may tell you.)

1. Elizabeth Acevedo (I met her on my birthday in … 2019, maybe, when I took myself to Mahogany Books in Anacostia and asked the bookseller for a recommendation for a local writer. I was still in the building when she stopped by, and the bookseller came to find me so she could sign my copy of her poetry collection, Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths.)
2. Jason Reynolds (Jason often comes out to support other authors’ talks, so you periodically see him out and about at a local bookstore.)
3. E. Ethelbert Miller
4. Leslye Penelope (She went to Howard, so we’re counting her.)
5. Tiffany D. Jackson (Ditto)
6. Jessica Spotswood (a D.C. Public Library employee, who helped run our book club chat for a while!)
7. Stephen Spotswood
8. Kyle Dargan
9. George Pelecanos (Confession: I haven’t read any of his books. But he’s probably one of D.C.’s most famous writers.)
10. Nicole Chung (I haven’t read any of Nicole’s books yet, but I will.)

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I went to the National Arboretum for the first time last week. The azaleas were in late peak bloom, and we got a nice hike in to see a good portion of them. (Azaleas and rhododendron remind me of my grandfather.) We also got to see the old columns from the Capitol, which stood back when Lincoln was sworn in as president.

2. The Mets were in town for one of their two visits this season. In the final game of the four-game series, they scored 19 runs to blow the Nationals out of the water. It was ridiculous, but, also, a win is a win, particularly if I get to see it in person.

3. My Saturday league resumed for the season last weekend. I loved getting to see folks I hadn’t caught up with since November and it was good to go out for supper, even if they’ve gotten rid of the sandwich I used to love.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to pick a word and find ten books where it’s contained in the title. April and May are the months when I spend a lot of time planting (and, this year, watering), so I thought I’d share ten books from my to-be-read list that contain the word “garden” in one form or another:

1. In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente
2. The Winter Garden Mystery by Carola Dunn
3. Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Unexpected Life of the Author of The Secret Garden by Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina
4. Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols
5. Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education by Michael Pollan
6. Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game by John Thorn
7. Lace & Pyrite: Letters from Two Gardens by Ross Gay and Aimee Nezhukumatathil
8. Garden Spells by Sarah Allen Addison (I think I picked this one up at a library sale when I was staying in Connecticut and left it with my mother.)
9. The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos (Goodreads informs me I own this book, which is a surprise to me.)
10. The White Garden by Stephanie Barron

Have you read any of these? Do you have other gardeny reads you’d recommend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rebecca and I walk across town after coaching to catch up on how life is going. And my upstairs neighbors, Ryan and the delightful golden puppy Miller, walk partway back from the park with me this evening, before I break away to do my grocery shopping.

2. The connecting bus I need does not show up, which means I am later than intended arriving at the Arlington library — and the closest door is already locked. But the library is open for three more minutes! So I sprint to another door and then across to the holds shelf, where a book I’ve been waiting for is about to go to the net person on the list. The librarian comes over — “Don’t run! I’ll check you out!” she kindly assures me.

3. Rudi and I were separately looking through photos to print and we both commented on how much the cats have grown: “Coal was so tiny! He curled up in my bowl!” And, “Remember how much Ember hated when we played music?!” But somehow, surprisingly, six months have passed since they moved in with us, and none of us can imagine the world any other way.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It was cold and rainy last Friday, so Rudi and I went and bought seedlings for the garden — endive, herbs, strawberries, beets, and flowers. It made us feel very cheerful about the spring gardening season. Now I just need to finish putting it all into the ground!

2. One of the things that I grow in the garden are violets, and the image above is why. When you pick a single violet, you don’t get the scent. If you pick an entire nosegay, on the other hand, you are treated to a gentle, but heavenly perfume that fades after a day or so.

3. Even though our local schools are on spring break this week, my coaching volunteer gig kicked off its outdoor season. It was good to see my fellow coaches and to get to start teaching kids volleyball again.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?