Three Beautiful Things

1. Nick sends a proud picture of the chutney he and his mother have made from the tomatoes that definitely won't ripen. 2. Jackdaw has found something of interest in the brickwork on the sealed chimney. He stands on the cap and dips his head down to properly inspect the courses below his feet. 3. I am flagging in the hour before supper, arguing crossly with Word's spellchecker, when my phone rings. It's a friend wanting a quick editorial chat, and that seems a much better use of my time than backchatting at a machine (which, after all, is only doing its job).

1. There's her reassuring dot on the map, at the cinema. 2. Tilting the shutters against golden light after a sudden rain shower. 3. The paving crack weeds -- selfheal, ragwort and violets -- gleam with dew in the light falling out of the kitchen.

1. Listening to a dad and little boy in the front seat of the bus chatting about their plans for the day -- play in the park, go swimming, catch the bus back to Fenicks (it's Fen- WICKS , Dad) to buy a toy (oh about twenty pounds). 2. The counter-protest carrying signs about peace and good Samaritans is much larger than the protest of red-faced people play-acting as security guards and shouting abuse at buses. 3. When I come down to make supper, Nick has a bread and butter pudding waiting to go in the oven.

1. He takes a moment to show us the long soil sample he has just taken before bouncing off again in his speedy buggy. Later, his truck, with the buggy loaded on the back, whooshes past the high street pub where we are having lunch. 2. There are mycena mushrooms tan and brown and ghostly pale trooping close to the earth, easily missed, but hard not to notice once you've got your eye in -- but best of all I like the hand-sized parasols that we can see from the far size of the field.  3. Standing on a bridge and listening to the water of the Teise, a proper Weald stream, running over black-stained sandstone under arching hazels.

1. The sumac tree flames red against the grey roofs of the ugly terrace up the hill. 2. A front garden wall covered in conkers accumulated by someone who can't help picking them up. 3. We didn't quite get to the top of the park in time to see the sun passing the horizon -- but the sky tinting into dusk is a pleasure as always, and we feel better for going out.

1. It's half term and the clocks have just changed, so we're allowed to sleep a little later. 2. No one can remember making this beef rendang that I've found in the freezer -- but it is delicious, well flavoured with fat and all kinds of vegetables, as if someone was emptying the fridge to make it. 3. I start a brand new pad for my schedule list. I use Rhodia pads, and the covers are scored so that they fold back on themselves in a way that is so satisfying.