Web, niche and possibly a bit broody.

1. The delicate web of connections that has led Clare (my former housemate; introduced to me by an ex-girlfriend of mine) and Nick (one of my oldest friends; we sat next to each other in school and discovered a shared interest in science-fiction, roleplaying games and wargames) to meet at my wedding in 2007, fall in love and get married.

2. Small companies on the Internet that say ‘thank you’ when you enquire about their niche products and enjoy sharing their enthusiasm for them with fellow geeks.

3. I eat my chocolate mousse with one hand because the other arm is cradling a sleeping baby. After the meal we retire to the lounge and the baby awakens. Holding her with my hands clasped around her tummy, I bounce her up and down. She smiles and it’s the most amazing sight I have ever seen.

Text by Tim Knight of Heropress.net

Delayed pleasure, a changed cat and homegrown.

Today I am hosting a tourist: Fiona Robyn, who drops a Small Stone into my inbox each day. She is celebrating her book of the same title with a blog tour.

1. Enjoying my 'thank-you-for-having-me' gifts a week after Alex has gone: a wine glass of sparkling pear juice, hot pink gerberas on the window-sill, a square of Green and Black's dark ginger chocolate.

2. The warm weight of a curled-up purring cat as after seven years of choosing the sofa Silver develops a sudden preference for laps.

3. Sitting outside and craving fruit and knowing there's none in the house, before I remember to take four steps to my blueberry bushes where I pluck eighteen plump fruits and pop them into my mouth where they set off tart-sweet explosions.

And these are my beautiful things.

1. As we potter around the house, Granny sings 'Some Enchanted Evening' from South Pacific. 'People don't write romantic songs any more,' she comments sadly. I try to explain to her about Hey There Delilah, but she's more interested in 'We Joined the Navy to See the World' from Follow the Fleet.

2. There is now scaffolding outside my window and I can look straight down one of the cross-bars to see a circular picture of the trees beyond.

3. Nick tells me that he was just thinking about what he would say when he comes home from work when I move in.

The papers, our garden and this is where I go.

This is a public information message from Steve Stack, author of It is Just You, Everything's Not Shit.

I recently started a blog and wrote a book with the somewhat less than beautiful title It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit but lots of beautiful things have happened as a result. Here are three of them:

1. Meeting Oliver Postgate, the creator of Bagpuss, Clangers and Ivor the Engine. Still going strong in his eighties, he was one hero that did not disappoint in the flesh.

2. Receiving a wooden chest of sweets from the lovely people at ww.aquarterof.com. It was like opening a gateway to my childhood - flying saucers, sherbet pips, space dust and bucketloads more.

3. Hearing from lost friends who have stumbled across the book in shops and emailed me. Some very welcome blasts from the past.

The book is available from Waterstones and Amazon or from It Is Just You, Everything's Not Shit.

1. Sitting in bed with Nick and the Sunday papers.

2. Finding a secret garden and imagining that it was there solely for our benefit. It is arranged in concentric circles around a pond where sedges have dipped into the water, forming hoops with their reflections.

3. As we go over Ashdown Forest, the taxi driver says that if he has to wait around, he sometimes comes up here with a flask of coffee and a sandwich.

The other place, boing and commissariat.

1. A dream in which a friend who I fell out with a couple of years ago called round with a bottle of wine and a book I might like.

2. He who shall not be named (pictured) calling me to the window to watch him drop his new bouncy ball. It goes higher than the roof of the oast and lands on the other side of the road.

3. A fridge so full of food that you can't see the light.

Also a postcard arrived from Fenella and Andy in Fuerteventura. Their beautiful things are:
1. Sleeping - hadn't realised how tired we were, commuting really takes it out of us.

2. Dozing by the pool, whilst sunbathing and between reading the many paperbacks we needed to catch up on.

3. Eating (then sleeping) enjoying the paella and potatoes. Been trying to stick to salad bar, but discovered banana splits today, so fear it will all go down hill.

Produce, on their way and paint in my head.

1. Wet walnuts and peaches and sharon fruit piled up at the French market.

2. Late at night I hear geese honking. They must have been flying over the High Street on their way to somewhere warmer. As the moon is nearly full now, this is an good time to salute the song These are a few of my favourite things, which helped inspire this blog. It lists 'wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings' as well as raindrops on kittens and warm woollen sleighbells.

2. Olivia Findlay shares a beautiful thing: 'Having my face painted with imaginary paint (a dry paint brush).'

Brushing, laid out and village life.

1. From Olivia Findlay: 'Having my hair brushed until it's dry after a bath.'

2. It is a crisp, hazy autumn day and the trees and hedges looks like cutouts done on card in progressively paler blue-grey.

3. Seeing how my grandmother's village is supporting her and helping her to adjust to being a widow. Everyone we pass says hallo to her, and her calendar is full of events -- keep fit, coffee, lunches, meetings.

Jumping, spices and feeding time.

1. Guest contributer Olivia Findlay says: 'Popping bubble wrap by jumping on it with bare feet.'

2. Mixing hot oil and spices for a curry.

3. When dinner guests walk in and say: 'That smells good.' The other nice thing they can say is: 'We brought a bottle of plonk.'

Sand, devil and boots.

1. Guest contributor, Olivia Findlay aged five, says: 'Falling asleep on warm sand at the beach.' Items from her little list will be appearing over the next few days.

2. I know you're not supposed to eat blackberries after October 1 -- apparently the devil wees on them the night before -- but it had been raining since so I thought they would probably be all right, and they were so sweet and delicious. There was hardly a handful to pick anyway -- just enough for a fruit compote.

3. My past experience of the staff in Bay Trading: they don't much care to help you and then continue gossiping to each other while they serve you. But today a really friendly knowledgeable girl helped me choose a pair of boots. They were the first pair I tried, and when I wanted to leave them under the counter while I scouted out the rest of town, she agreed: 'Try Faith, too, and New Look have good shoes, and my mum says BHS has some good boots this year.' And when I came back an hour later, she greeted me cheerfully and chatted about boot buying and why these were the best in town while I paid. Not bad for late shopping night. Bet she goes far.

Psychic, crossing paths and Alison Lapper and a guest.

1. When you are talking about someone and they phone.

2. Our designer works from Capetown, so I haven't met her yet. She has come to England for a holiday, so we took her out to dinner in London. It's good to finally put a face to the e-mails.

3. We went out to Trafalgar Square to see the sculpture on the Fourth Plinth. It's made of white stone and it's called Alison Lapper Pregnant. Alison Lapper is an artist who was born with no arms and very small legs. The statue really does challenge ideas of what ought to be put on plinths in the middle of Trafalgar Square. Heavily pregnant disabled women aren't your usual subject, so this statue has really thumbed its nose at the parade of dead war heroes on horses.

And a guest contributor Douglas Findlay adds his own Beautiful Thing: 'When you're in the bath and you put your head underwater and move it from side to side so water goes in your ears.'

The de Grey Birch method

These beautiful things are written by guest contributor Ed.

1. Slapping routine on the bottom by getting dressed for work on the stairs.

2. The taste of Bush -- Belgium's strongest beer (12%).

3. Clare Grant's nose.

It's time to leave home, I'll never drink again and solid by Clare.

1. Sitting under an oaktree watching bluetits skrawch and scrabbit overhead teaching their babies to catch insects, while the babies try to convince their parents that they are so young they still need feeding. They do this by sitting on a branch and flapping until they seem to vibrate.

2. A boy with an eyelinered on mouse face and a broken leg so drunk that all he could do was fall over, grin goofily and throw up. He was surrounded by girls, who stroked his hair and let him lie with his head in their laps. Then his sister shouted at him, threw water in his face and called the paramedics. He was taken away on a stretcher to face his mother.

3. Everyone pissing themselves at Welsh crew Goldie Lookin' Chain: 'HRT is what I need. I'm growin' tits cause of smokin' too much weed.'

Oli again:

Bread, Castles, and Jumping Fountains by Oli.

1. I bought this parmesan and sun-dried tomato bread mix yesterday, made it, and had it for lunch. Home-baked bread, you see. Mmm. Sweet.

2. Knights and maidens used to live in them. In England we have loads of them. Turrety, flaggy and hard. Castles. Everyone likes them.

3. Water features, sculptures, gardens etc., in particular the jumping ones. Nothing was cooler than that as a nine-year-old at the EPCOT centre. Except maybe Space Mountain.

Tent, cup and shake by Clare.

1. We saw men carrying 20ft poles into the campsite and then a tipi went up. A chap shinned up a pole monkey-style, hanging upside down to adjust the canvas. 'Bet they're on the pull,' remarked Ian.

2. Pimm's tents with no queue.

3. Faithless had the crowd and everyone was dancing ecstatically.

Here are Oli's beautiful things

Joni, France and trust by Oli

1. She's not appearing at the Isle of Wight festival. I don't even know if she does live dates anymore. But MAN, this hippy chick can sing. And she's beautiful. Listened to Blue twice this weekend already.

2. It's big, its hexagonal, it's full of mouthy socialists that cook great chips. They make terrible pop music and they don't care. They have elevated daily living to a high art. It could only be France.

3. Letting a near complete stranger play around with your precious site. Oh the power. Some more beautiful things from me might follow if I behave.

Technics, bargain and all for me.

More loveliness from guest 3BTer Katie.

1. Remembering where the hell to put a battery backed write cache enabler in a Proliant DL380 G3.

2. Finding two perfect lamps in the Oka sale with 60% off.

3. Knowing that there is half a bottle of white wine in the fridge, but wanting to enjoy it quietly alone, when the boyfriend calls to say he will be out seeing a friend tonight. Perfect.

I'm not the pheasant plucker, rays and manners.

These are by a guest 3bter, Katie.

1. Pheasant feathers. They look like a patchwork quilt of Indian jewels.

2. Winter afternoon golden sunlight shining along the valley on the farm.

3. Cheering your mother up by writing a thank you email to one of her best friends. The best friend then rings the mother and says what a wonderful daughter she has.

There will be a short interlude while I go on holiday. I will return next week with some beautiful things.

Love

Clare

Night soil, quick job and crispy sheets.

1. Walking into the kitchen I discover an empty 3L Coke bottle. I remember something... 'James, Adam, did we drink this Coke?' 'No. You threw it out of the window.' Ah yes. The shouty drunk with his screeching female. The perfect arc. His leather jacket. The fact that they had no idea which window it came from. Yay.

2. When tidying up doesn't take as long as you thought it would. 'I think you shouted at Jon for trying to use a plate at one point. You told him to tip it on the floor because hoovering is easier than washing up.' Oh.

3. Changing bed linen so that you can sleep in cool, clean sheets.

Anti grav, inappropriate crockery and hnort.

1. Because I had been knocking back the mulled wine my senses were a bit softer than normal. When midnight came I opened the fizzy wine and the corks seems to float between my hand and the mouth of the bottle for minutes.

2. Drinking whiskey out of coffee cups. I told my guests that they were Japanese spirit cups. I think they were fooled.

3. When you are drunk and you say something completely crass that causes drink nose squirting laughter among your listeners. And you can't remember what it was you said the next morning.

Special guest

Fenella's postcard from Jamaica arrived yesterday and she wanted to share her beautiful things, so here they are.

1. Water - from the turquoise sea where we've snorkeled and seen octopus, dived amongst the coral, canoed (or in Andy's case sat back while I did all the work - no really) to the crashing cascades of clear sparkling water of the 975 foot Dunn River Falls which we climbed to the top of.

2. Food - copious amounts of fresh, yummy food - papaya, watermelon, pineapple, seven-course candle-lit dinners, open-air beach parties and Andy's first (and last) sampling of lobster.

3. Swimming with dolphins - we are doing it tomorrow. Need I say any more?

I made them tell me all about this last and they showed me the pictures. It was hard to say who was smiling most - Fenella, Andy or the dolphins. 'We conducted and they sang to us.' And 'Male dolphins have rough skins and female dolphins have smooth skins.' And 'We made smoochy faces and they kissed us.'