Three Beautiful Things

1. The little cyclamen which has been cheerfully putting forth dolly mixture pink flowers all winter has fallen back. There is nothing left but a pile of yellow leaves and a saucer-sized corm. 2. I've seen a rabbit and she wants to see it too. It's sitting by that fallen tree just past the strand of ivy, by those nettles, just up from the broken branches, down from the dead bramble. The moment it wriggles its ears and resolves itself. 3. A bag of lichen-scaled and tassled and fringed and bobbled sticks was collected on our walk for a photography project. I put them outside the back door until they are needed, and recall all the toddler stick collections that I quietly released back into the wild.

1. The town's horizons are layered in morning mist -- something intriguing to open the curtains for. 2. We quietly split a pastry and eat it before the children notice. 3. In sturdy boots we plough right through the muddy places.

1. When he comes home, his haircut is just fine -- pretty much exactly how it was, except it looks cared for and intentional. 2. A little brown bird with a stubby tail hops up the bare jasmine, on to the wall and through the trellis: the divisions significant to us and our neighbours are nothing to wrens. 3. It is nice to find a beer in the fridge after a good day's work. We share it -- those big bottles of ale are just right for two of our collins glasses.

1. Pulling tiny weeds from a pot I find among the tangled leaves chilled blue fists of grape hyacinth flowers. 2. At games night, there's a word puzzle -- the moment when you see three letters that could fit together, and then there's a cascade of fitting letters, and then a whole word and then another. 3. I'm falling asleep, but I'm trying to explain to Nick why I like Maigret. 'It's raining and there are boats and they've already poisoned the Pernod and calvados bottles. And everyone in the café has mistresses.' 

1. A hailstorm changes the ground from asphalt black to a strange bright grey that mimics the brightening sky. 2. We set up a disco light and dance in the kitchen to a playlist of bubblegum pop. 3. Nick calls us to look out of the front door at a rainbow in a brassy sky.

1. The increasing height of her jumps over the bumps at the top of the slope, and the deliberate swish of her turns. 2. A rainstorm has darkened the afternoon into evening. I start to close the blinds but find the western side of the house washed in light the colour of worn silver plate. 3. In the dark, snowdrops gleam and pale crocuses glow like a ghost army. A porchlight illuminates a scarlet camellia.