Three Beautiful Things

1. A few wine red geranium petals blow in through the open window. 2. He has been out and bought all the cake ingredients I forgot to add to the grocery delivery. 3. I look over my Toggl time tracker for the day and compare it with the work I've done. I feel rather astonished and also pleased with myself.

1. We give the coffee machine a try -- it grinds and moans and spits out black and cream -- and then we sit in the dappled sun and shade with our mugs feeling pleased with ourselves. 2. A lot of the floaty white curtains are made from vintage bed sheets still marked with embroidered initials of the women who once brought this linen to their marriage. 3. With chain link fence, I frame my family knocking tennis balls around the court and blaming each other.

1. An adder draws its diamonds through the dust and away into the scrub 2. It is so quiet that we can hear the wind flickering silver/green the leaves of a poplar across the valley.     3. The farm shop has curled cucumbers 'grown here'.

1. We come round the corner on to the cliff tops, and there is an awful lot of sky, much more than we are used to. 2. It suddenly seems like a good idea to order a glass of wine before we walk back for lunch -- so we sit deep in sofas, out of the sun but with a long view of the sea.   3. We smell the pizza long before we can see the van -- and when we get there, Nick has ordered for us and is bringing our drinks to the table.

1. It's been a journey -- took a while to find a taxi, but now we're here, crunching cases and bags down a gravel drive, and there's an arched door in a charcoal grey wall. 2. We trip-trap along walkways in the canopies of sea-stunted oaks and follow narrow gravel paths, open doors and cupboards and peep behind curtains 3. A long view to the sea, sun fat August blackberries in the hedge and on the way back, a bramley apple falls off the tree into my hand.

1. I am unsure about this shirt dress with a cyanotype print -- I'm sure I forgot it in the back of the wardrobe for a reason -- but it is lightweight and undemanding on a hot day. Both husband and son provide spontaneous compliments, anyway. 2. Unboxing a double row of sushi rolls on the supper table. 3. A new melon, soft orange pink inside and very cool and fragrant on this evening when the day's heat is still dissipating.