Three Beautiful Things

1. Waking up to a curious brightness at the tops of the curtains that can only mean one thing: SNOW DAY. A good foot had fallen in the night, covering the half-arsed efforts from earlier in the week. 2. A wren scrabbiting about under the azaeleas. It looked like a little ball of feathers with a too-long tail. 3. Cutting beanpoles in the woods. 'It has to be done this weekend or something'll stop me next weekend and then suddenly it'll be too late.' So we took the billhook and the loppers and dived off the road into uncharted territory. Every step we took made the ground under the snow release a rotty smell. It's a strange sort of place, a coppiced wood in the snow. You can see the road; and you can see the fields and hedge and you know the trees are like this because man has cultivated them; but you still feel as if you are trespassing a little. It's the sort of place where you might put your bill hook down for a moment and find that it's vanished when you t...

1. The sound of my father's coffee pot. When it gets going, it makes a bubbling, rattling snoring noise that always reminds me of weekend breakfasts. He has had it since before I was born and now the lid is gone and the plug is cracked open. He won't have a new one because he doesn't believe any other pot could make such good coffee. 2. The smell of woodsmoke - I think nothing is more homely. 3. The blue part of flames; and watching the gum boiling out of cherry wood and catching light.

1. Flatpack furniture is heavy if you don't have a car; so getting it home is a beautiful thing. And the floaty feeling in your arms have after you put down a heavy load. Plus the funny wobbly feeling that makes it difficult to do anything with accuracy - 'I'm sorry, I can't lay the table. I'd probably drop a glass.' 2. My parents live in the middle of dark forest, far from streelights and smog, so I love arriving there at night and seeing the stars for the first time in weeks. 3. The deep midnight blues and jewelly reds of anemones.

1. Not being outside in the vile... I'm not sure what to call it, because I'm not going to dignify with the word 'snow' the horrible, freezing stuff that falls out of the sky and won't settle on the ground or anywhere attractive, but cakes quite happily on my coat and glasses and slides down my collar. 2. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named has tidied the empty desk and underneath all the old computers and Christmas decorations he discovered... the football which disappeared just before Christmas. We've been batting about the office while we discuss things. 3. Really crispy bacon. The smoked, streaky sort that makes loads of grease when you fry it.

1. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named explaining that he doesn't like camomile tea because 'It smells like geese.' 2. Blackbirds chuck chuck-CHUCKing in the dusk. 3. Perfectly ripe avocado pear with Lea and Perrin's.

1. About an inch of snow has fallen, but someone has managed to build a snowman on the green between Inner and Outer London Road. 2. The trees on the Common all covered in snow. It makes the woods look misty and impenetrable. 3. Working from home in the afternoon - the novelty made the task go a lot quicker.

1. My blue radio. The story of how I got the battery-powered radio in my bathroom makes me believe in magic. Two moves ago, I was packing the last of my stuff and getting ready to give the flat a good clean. I was quite sorry to be leaving that place and felt a bit lonely without all my stuff around, so I wasn't looking forward to dusting skirting boards and swabbing out the fridge. 'If only I had a radio,' I said aloud to the echoey walls. Just then, there was a knock at the door. 'Parcel for you,' said the postman, handing me a jiffy bag. Inside was the blue radio and a pack of batteries. There was no card and no return address. I never did find out where it came from. 2. Watching snow racing down the High Street. There is something about a coating of snow that makes people walk where they want - I saw several umbrellaed commuters strolling right down the middle of the road. Perhaps there were fewer cars than normal and they were driving slower; or perhaps people ...