Three Beautiful Things

1. Bettany has packed a potion kit and is ready to brew in the field. (that's the smoothie and pudding she made me when we got home.) 2. As we approach we can hear cricket sounds -- it's a Twenty-Twenty game, so a bit noiser than you'd expect, with shouts and music from the pavilion. 3. Cross, tired children cuddling up to tell me their grievances.

 1. When I wave the children and Nick off I realise that the air is so soft and summery that the only course of action that makes complete sense is to go for a walk before starting work.  2. In the park there are tall yellow and black irises, and in another bed the promise of another colour pairing that is too parcelled up to discern. 3. The children scampering around the house and up and down the street doing their dustbin duties. I only wish that they would do each part of the task without getting distracted and without arguing when we try to put them back on track.

1. Golden syrup on toast. 2. This evening I don't have anything on so there is no need to rush through the children's bedtime.  3. To go to bed early so we have time to read before we are too tired.

1. To feel okay about browsing in a clothing shop. 2. Our neighbour spots me in a coffee shop for the second time and pantomimes mocking gestures through the glass to suggest that I spend more time drinking coffee than working. 3. In the High Street to look up and see starlings on a bird feeder.

1. Getting a message enclosing a picture collage of my neice. 2. I get my walk in a bluebell wood. 3. The smell of acrylic paint and sealer works its way up the house: in the kitchen, Nick is painting a shield so Alec can go to school as a Spartan warrior on Greek day. 

1. To stand for a few minutes before the rain comes watching tadpoles in a shallow pond. 2. The tab on the back of my DMs that I use to pull them on. 3. Alec takes a bent stick and unclogs the spring gully at Brighton Lake so that water rushes out clear and shining.

1. An older lady wearing shiny scarlet lace-up boots. 2. The soft fronds of last year's fennel plants in a neglected public flowerbed. 3. To tip a quarter of a bag of epsom salts into my bath. There is something very satisfying and abundant about using a large quantity.