Three Beautiful Things

1. Nick reports that as they were going to school he and the children saw a deer standing on the common. 2. I don't have much time for chores today, but putting a drop of rainwater on the orchids doesn't take long, and I feel as if I've done my bit of gardening. 3. Watching Bettany reappear as her haircut progresses.

1. To shut out the world with a meditation podcast. (I recommend Moon Lover's Meditations.) 2. A little rain dampens the garden. I'll still have to do my watering, though. 3. Bettany teasing Alec and me about our city-building video game by pretending she's interested in trading with us.

1. To walk back with another mum and our boys. 2. The children sticking broccoli spears in their mashed potato to make a forest. 3. The moment an alarm stops.

1. Waming a stroopwaffle over my cup of coffee. 2. Across the field I can see Bettany and her Beavers playing with red and yellow streamers. 3. One starling in the playground has a worm. The other smaller starling wants it.  

1. Bettany has dabbed spots on her toadstools in thick white paint and now it is time to arrange them in her fairy house. [ Fairy house kit by Freckles] 2. The children running through the common chasing each other with sticks. 3. The smell of warm bread coming up the stairs.

1. My massage therapist's elbow bump greeting. 2. Bettany is howling because she has lost a tiny doll at the park. I give her the cat that sits near my desk to hold and she gradually cheers up, but continues grumbling quietly about her loss for the rest of the evening.   3. To feel soft and sleepy after listening to an episode of Moon Lover's Meditation podcast.

1. For some weeks I've been fretting quietly about chairing a fiction editors' discussion over Zoom. Now it's done, and I was really lucky to have some supportive helpers. We think it went well.  2. Nick shows off his haul from the new Lidel. 3. Bettany has invented a surprise pudding -- chilled malt loaf pieces with purple icing and sprinkles. At least she's showing an interest in cooking.