Three Beautiful Things

1. Unexpectedly, a child takes the cutlery basket and begins sorting its contents into the drawer. 2. We turn aside for a moment to look at the pond. A clump of non-descript green rushy-looking things have blossomed into deep blue iris flowers. 3. To mix up a strong gin fizz with some home-made elderflower cordial.

1. Today Alec has a cricket tournament at a ground close by, so we have a relaxed start and he can take the lead, deciding when we leave and how fast we walk. 2. I honestly thought no-one would turn up for the led discussion I am hosting -- but faces keep popping up on my screen until it is quite full. Afterwards, to see the chatter continuing on the forums. 3. Every time I glance at my phone there is another message of good news about the cricket.

1. Those minutes between waking to the sound of heavy rain and remembering that there is a day ahead. 2. To show your child the joys of a banana and chocolate toastie. 3. When I'm reading aloud to the children I experience the effects of other people's editing decisions as a reader in an immediate, practical way. These experiences -- good and bad -- make me more confident in asking for change and being that editor, even when it makes more work for people downstream from me, and even when there is a risk of introducing errors.

1. As we step off the train, before us on the lawn is a jumble sale. The children step out and marvel at must-have plastic tut, cassette tapes and comic books.   2. At the top of the hill, to stop on a shaded bench and look back over the way we've come. 3. 'What's that?' I exclaim, pointing at a tiny object that seems to be dropping out of the sky. Nick shades his eyes and looks as it catches itself and rises again. It's someone messing around in a Spitfire, throwing themselves about the empty air for the sheer fun of it.

Today’s mope concerns my vole of agranams. pic.twitter.com/rgnfKqCUhZ — Brian Bilston (@brian_bilston) May 19, 2022 1. Feeling cheered up by the morning's Brian Bilston poem -- it's about anagrams. 2. In our Sainsbury's order there is a box of very good strawberries. 3. Adding the recipe's spices to the onions and waiting for the smell to change.

1. I am almost certain that what I am planting is a lot of watering, nipping and tying in, and then some wavering about whether or not this or that plant is blighted and needs destroying, followed by three cherry-sized tomatoes. But I'll give it a go, nonetheless. 2. Soft grey-green buds on the foxglove spike at the front of the house. 3. During the storm, when the lightning and thunder are simultaneous and the rain is hissing down on the car park below us, I roll over and Nick is there.

1. There is a bag of pink and brown in the fridge -- conditioned as I am to finding child-made concoctions in the kitchen, I am immediately alarmed. Nick reassures me that he is making devilled kidneys for lunch. He does, and it's delicious. 2. Walking past the police station early evening. Feel the heat rolling off the yellow brick walls. 3. In the course of our adventures, my character pistol whips a dinosaur and then some Nazi stormtroopers turn up. We'll fight those next month, no doubt, and then steal their submarines.