Three Beautiful Things

1. I walk in the middle of his room, mention that I'm in need of proofreading today and will pay a 10% rush fee. Then I walk out. The thump of feet of floorboards. 2. I get a quick peep at the new website; we talk about picture research and how to style credits and AI use and SEO, and it suddenly feels very real. 3. All these just baked biscuits arrayed across the work surfaces, trays double stacked.

1. After dropping off a donation, we run our eyes along the rails and shelves, wondering if we want to fill the space we've just made. 2. I still marvel to see her casually holding a plank position while watching videos -- she's up to four minutes now. 3. We put our duvet aside weeks ago in the heat. Suddenly this night I want its insulation and weight, so I drag it out and get under it.

1. There's a dad a few rows back telling his toddler that they need to thank the bus driver. He says, 'I'll do it first, shall I, and then you can copy me.' 2. Sling some dice, borrow a cocktail dress from the wife of the governor of Bermuda, get shipwrecked, fight some dinosaurs. 3. Ursa Major tumbles tail over head scattering stars in the sky gap down our street.

1. She has aquilegia seeds, gleaming black like obsidian grains, in a pink striped paper bag. 2. I remember I have a choice, and walk back through the woods. 3. It's been a while. Netflix has changed its layout, and we need to recap the previous episode. Between us, we have enough to get along with.

1. Waking early, see the poplar leaves fluttering green and silver in the unsettled air. 2. There is a lot of patience and persistence going on as Uncle Yog takes Bettany climbing. Her exercise routines have paid back in terms of strength and flexibility and confidence.  3. Black caterpillars the size of em-rules waving and undulating as they free themselves from swathes of webbing on a nettle stem.

1. From the scent of lemons and the questions about flour, I deduce that he's baking madeleines. 2. It's a warm, warm evening; there's dry dust underfoot, and the brambles and bracken are shoulder high and at their summer finest -- but the rowan berries are already less green and more orange. 3. Directly behind me, the sun is falling through the western sky. Its light has bounced off a window on the  far side of the High Street, struck a broken glass in the gutter on Castle Street and then, at the very end of its journey, dazzled me for a moment.