Three Beautiful Things

1. Looking out over the view from Mount Ephraim across the town's bowl, I can see that we are a lot greener than we were before Easter. 2. I ask Nick if he wants to come with me -- and he does. 3. After an hour of laughter and joining-in-with-the-chorus presented by two thirds of The Gluten-Free Trio (plus guide dog), we head home across the Pantiles -- which looks particularly charming all lit up. We are cheerily relaxed and really ready to enjoy Friday.

1. The traffic is so bad that we are just meters behind the bus that passed us at the start of our walk. 2. She asks to be allowed to trim the doll's bangs, which are for now pinned against her felt forehead to set flat. I will probably say yes. 3. We go out to see what we can see in the sky -- we're rolling through some dusty space and there are more meteors than usual. We don't see any of the promised Lyrid shooting stars, but we do see plenty of satellites, and Arcturus is shining straight down our street.

1. Ripe blackberries in April -- just a handful, gleaming in a cardboard tray -- brought in by slow boat from the Mediterranean and put at the front of the fridge to be eaten by anyone who fancies one. 2. Slipping the skins off boiled beetroots -- some for Nana, some for us. 3. A few dozen stitches and her little face appears.

1. Oddly, the burnt corner of my toast with chocolate spread is so delicious that I am jolted out of the story I am reading at breakfast. 2. The taxi driver tells us that now his second son has a university place. 3. We decide we do not like this and drop it mid-show, mid-series.

1. Last day of the holidays, and I've woken very early. I summon up George Saunders' Pond in the Rain  and bob around with his Russians and their short stories before sinking back into sleep. 2. Like a bonfire spark and its afterglow, a yellow centipede returns to the darkness at the bottom of the compost heap. 3. In the hour before bed we let David Attenborough's nesting swallows and path laying mice yank our heart strings around. 

1. Overnight soft and persistent rain has fallen and the town is breathing quietly. 2. The difficult purple of honesty flowers keeps catching my eye. 3. Our turn with the psychologist has arrived very suddenly but we're in a position to seize it with both hands.

1. Through the magic of persisting in poor decisions my Baldur's Gate character ends up with a new eye that can see the invisible. 2. Nick comes back from Lidl with a box of Moomin biscuits just for me. 3. I've had to chase and chase round the internet to get the instructions for a charity shop doll kit. I thought I could guess; but I needed the picture and steps in a 2013 magazine to make sense of the felt circles and limbs and dress pieces. 

1. While I wait, I rake a weeding knife along the narrow space behind the railings and raise the scent of springtime soil.  2. Along the path, blue drifts of early forget-me-nots set off the yellow of a few late daffodils. 3. A mug of hot tea and a couple of hours free on a Sunday afternoon.

1. As proud as Cornelia Graccha, I photograph the lawn daisies and dog violets that grow in my garden. 2. I see my son's hands are now larger than mine, and I wonder who stole away my baby. 3. Tipping threads and slivers of felt off the cutting mat and into the bin.

1. Just to stand in the sun and feel warm. 2. I can smell the weight of the wisteria blooms hanging from bare grey branches on the wall round the corner. 3. Three adventurers down, one swaying, and the goblins keep summoning more wargs and now this big blood spattered fella with a beard and plaits has appeared... Oh! That's the druid we were trying to rescue, and the goblins are running away.

1. When I open the window first thing, I hear geese in flight honking to each other. 2. Clear bubbles are rising in my pan of sugar, Neil Martin is chatting with a Dubliners tribute act and Nick is spotting planets through the open back door. 3. After all that careful mixing of boiling sugar and cooling and measuring, yes, I can taste caramel in the finished cake.

1. The shallow sunny part of the pond is now alive alive alive with tadpoles -- so numerous and so wriggly that we can hear them. 2. Out of sight, a woodpecker knocks. 3. After supper, I go down to do the bins in the alley along the bottom of the row. I'm startled to a halt by reflected sunlight bounced by a window that I can't see on to a wall that is normally only lit briefly at sunrise.

1. We are not even 100m from an A-road and birdsong is the main sound -- chipping and cooing and trilling and chiffing and chaffing and the ratchetting call of the magpie. 2. Violets on a woodland bank, blinking in the harsh April sun. 3. We have eaten enough chocolate and now we are cheerfully tired of it.

1. There is a lot of playful April foolery on social media. Some of the brands and organisations seem to be reaching towards a better world where otters trained in water rescue support the emergency services; while others are just looking for chaos (the Macquarie comma and Aldi's law arm, Legaldi).  2. Nick brings me a bag of asparagus, even though no one else likes it. I have some spears, cooked briefly to a bright clear green, with my lunch. 3. Sitting up in bed, tablet between us, to watch NASA's rocket launch. The BBC commentator says it's taller than the Elizabeth Tower that holds Big Ben. That's hard to hold that in mind as Integrity dwindles to a dot in the blue sky.

1. Yes, this movement takes less effort than it did in December. I give up less often, and I'm intrigued by the harder versions. 2. The moon untangles itself from the clouds and presses its face to mine as I climb the hill. 3. As we step out of the door, I reflexively pull my coat around me against the cold -- but there's no need tonight. The air feels softer, and more joyful, carrying voices and the scents of flowering hedges.