Three Beautiful Things

More delightful emails from Saga readers -- thank you once again. Les Moody shares a beautiful thing that I liked very much: To have that lovely smile from my 16months old grandaughter Lydia. Sunday we walked on the beach at Leigh-on Solent and the nicest feeling is a little hand reaching up for a couple of fingers to hold on to for support in walking over the stones. 1. The Knight City Chronicles . A former housemate of mine is story telling a small but loyal group through the rainwashed streets of Knight City. This is a place of mystery and gothic horrors, yet it is strangely familiar to anyone from around Tunbridge Wells -- I feel at home despite the abandoned hospitals and sinister circus tents on the Common; despite the porn king dwarf with the hook-hand and the Paddock Wood Old China Town , I know these places. Sometimes when I'm out in town I imagine that if I turn round quickly enough, I'll see Wolfram & Hart's glass edifice ; and that Fiveways will transform...

1. Coming into work and finding everyone full of gossip about Friday night's jaunt round the pubs of Tunbridge Wells. secrets were shared; questions were asked; people were carried home; poker was played; He-who-shall-not-be-named was sick the next day at noon. 2. Settling into The Structure of Evolutionary Theory . It is an enormous book that I got for Christmas (it was on my Amazon list), and I've been working away at it ever since. The material is complex, although the language (as you'd expect from Gould) is very engaging. I feel a real sense of achievement in building on my understanding of evolution; even more so when I am using knowledge picked up from other books on this subject to question some of the thinking. 3. He-who-shall-not-be-named coming out to rescue us because Oli's car is broken down. And Lorna giving us a lift home at the end of the day.

1. Starting a Falco novel and thinking that I'm going to have a lot of fun reading it. 2. In between typing, I watch a small boy playing by himself in the garden opposite. 3. Coming to the end of the day and feeling that I have done good work today.

1. Getting a load of rubbish out of our house. The thing I really like about the dump is seeing the guys who work there going over whatever you've just thrown out and carrying certain things off for secret purposes of their own. 2. My three pairs of boots lined up neatly with boot stretchers in them. 3. My mother brings me a ginger cake. There is a large hole in one edge where persons unknown have picked at it on the way over.

1. Ibuprofen and hot water bottles. 2. Ian trying to get a mention here by suggesting I write about his curly hair or possibly his thoughts on Tyrannosaurus rexes pleasuring each other. 3. Talking to the man next to me about a mutual friend and trying to explain what it is I like about her. Later in the evening, when everyone is drunk and making confessions to each other, I overhear him telling our friend that 'someone used the most wonderful word to describe you earlier...'

You Saga readers are a lovely lot -- thank you so much for the kind emails. 1. A dusting of snow makes my walk to work totally different -- stretches of pavement that I stride over confidently on a normal day must be checked for ice before I can cross them. Details that usually fade into the background are picked out with a dusting of white. 2. Coming home in time for The Simpsons . I love watching the opening sequence knowing that I have raced hom just like they are. 3. We are having the neighbours round for drinks later. Katie had the afternoon off work and has hidden away clutter and made the sitting room look warm and inviting.

1. Waking up to find that in the night without a sound, the world has filled with snow. 2. The snow clouds create a wonderful sunset. We watch not so much the western sky, but the woods in the east. The bare branches turn orange and then pink and then black as the sun goes down. And when we come to leave work at 5pm, it's still -- just about -- light. 3. A new lady in my yoga class giggling to herself as she does a shoulder stand against the wall. It is a bit of an absurd sight -- a line of people lying with their legs and hips pressed against the wall.