Three Beautiful Things

1. I notice that Nick has hung Alec's new brown cord trousers on the end of the bed next to his own pair. 2. Caroline and Maggie (who is now nine months old) come to meet Alec. Caroline swears he gives her a smile -- I think she might be right, as I'm sure I've seen him do it, too -- while Maggie empties the wastepaper basket, plays it like a tin drum and appreciates the scrunchy papers inside. 3. The doorbell rings. I pick up Alec and his trousers fall off. By the time I get the door open, his nappy has also gone astray. The salesman almost runs down the path.

Wow, thanks for all the frozen food advice! Really appreciate it. 1. I buy a pair of maternity jeans -- after all, the midwife told me: "You really have got a bump now." 2. To find a hairdresser who is willing to cut my hair right now this minute. 3. To take off a new pair of jeans which still have their own idea of shape.

To continue the theme of exciting news, Oxfam Bookfest is coming to Tunbridge Wells. I've been invited by our lovely Oxfam bookshop to spend a couple of hours at the shop helping out and chatting with customers about 3BT and about some of my favourite books. If you are in the area on July 3 from noon until 3pm, do come along and say hi. The following week (July 11 from 2pm to 4pm) science fiction author Stephen Baxter (he should be very familiar to anyone who reads Interzone) will be in -- illustrious company or what! 1. She's still getting the hang of sitting down and standing up, so she tends to land on her nappy with a bump. Her fine blonde hair floats down more slowly. 2. While Nick is in the bathroom, I like to lie quite still in bed and think of Baby Badger cupped safe in the red dark, and through the window watch the limp cupressus branches twisting and shaking. 3. I feel sad to be taking my broken down winter boots to the recycling. They were so smart when I bo...

1. I interview a lady who embroiders tactile copies of famous paintings for people with visual impairments. She uses textures to express temperature and colour. It's fascinating to experience a piece of stitching with my fingertips as well as my eyes. "Try touching it lightly -- it sort of tingles," she says. 2. She brings us coffee -- and her sugar bowl matches the dinner service that I inherited from my grandmother. She tells me that she found a pair of matching egg cups in a charity shop, and that she eats boiled eggs just for the pleasure of using them. 3. Two newly-washed pairs of jeans lounge on the bed, proud of their clean, cold blues (one deep water blue and one shallow water blue).

The Three Beautiful Things podcast is up -- with some bonus springtime items. I've been getting some really lovely comments lately -- I very much enjoyed yesterday's crop , particularly Daisy May's own list of beautiful things, and Louisa's description of spring round her way. Never underestimate the power of a kind word about 3BT to make my day! 1. To go out in the first days of spring wearing a coat, and find myself damp and overheated when I get home. The second time I go out, I leave the coat behind. I am serious and workmanlike on the outside, but inside I'm whooping with joy. 2. It's so good to see people strolling around -- we are coming out now the weather is warmer. One man in a sky blue jumper looks a bit dazed, as if he'd forgotten over winter how much world there was. I see him pause at the top of the road and examine the pole of a traffic sign. 3. To cut through the crisp skin of a baked potato -- the hot insides are soft and creamy...

On our wedding day, one of my favourite bloggers Mr London Street wrote a 3BT post , which is so full of love and pleasure that I hope everyone will give it a read. 1. Katie comes by after breakfast (by which I mean about noon) to drop off a card and have a catch-up. As always, she looks very glam in a smart coat that is the perfect length to show off her beautiful conker-brown boots. I am still in my pyjamas. 2. While waiting in a bookshop for the rain to stop: "That'll teach me to leave my coat in the car. Shall we go across the road and have a cup of coffee in BHS?" 3. We have so many people to thank that we need a spreadsheet to keep track. It's getting more and more heavily pencilled as we remember the kindnesses.

I hadn't really appreciated (until now) how many things untangled yesterday. 1. I picked up my wedding dress today. It's everything I'd been hoping for, and I feel beautiful in it. I wish I could say more about it, but I want to keep a few surprises for the day. My parents come round and I try on the whole ensemble -- shoes, veil and jacket. I wish they weren't taking it away to keep it secret from Nick. Otherwise, I think that the moment he left the house each morning, I'd put it all on again. 2. After a chat with the manager of the training centre, the funding that I've been waiting for since July comes through as if by magic. I'm going to learn audio typing, which is a skill I've never picked up. 3. Getting an email from an editor saying he'd like more work from me. This is a huge relief; and very exciting, too. It's a licence to ask nosey questions of interesting people and then to write about it. And be paid.

1. Nick's mother shows us the shoes she's bought for her wedding outfit. They look elegant and comfortable. She's also bought a deep pink felted coat to go over her dress. It's a brave, joyful colour, and I'm glad she's going to be warm enough on the day. I'm hoping these will be clothes that she can enjoy again and again, too. 2. I am working and he brings me a cup of tea and some biscuits on one of the best plates. Then he goes away and does the washing. 3. I don't mind setting the alarm on a Saturday night if I'm getting up early for an event I've been looking forward to.

Fiona Robyn has published a tiny piece by me on A Handful of Stones . 1. At Kitsu, Tunbridge Wells' best sushi and noodle bar , the owner discovers that Nick's name is Law. "Same as my grandparents!" She writes in Chinese for him. 2. Nick, returning from a shopping trip, walks past the window. He is swinging a new suit bag. 3. I like to make a sandwich of the greasy, lemony shreds and fragments of cold chicken picked off the carcass.

1. The yellow plums have turned rich amber-red. 2. We race round tidying the flat for a viewing, and feel very pleased at all the space we now have. 3. I drop my jacket somewhere on our travels round town. We re-trace our steps, asking in shop after shop, and finally find it hanging on a railing close to home.

1. My mother and I pull her wedding dress out from the bottom of the camphor wood chest. 2. I stand in the garden after the rain and my father hands me roses to take home. 3. The smell of basil fills the car.

Today is Three Beautiful Things' fifth birthday. I can't quite believe I've been going for five years -- that's 1,825 days, and 5,475 beautiful things (plus a few extra for the days when I couldn't pick just three). Thanks for reading everyone -- I really appreciate your company and your comments. For anyone in the Tunbridge Wells area, I'll be at the Guinea Butt on Calverley Road from 6.30pm. Come over and celebrate with me. 1. Sunlight and shadow from the cupressus tree play on the wall outside the kitchen window. 2. Discovering that our nearest newsagents is a source of Polish cherry jaffacakes. 3. The lanolin smell of a wool jumper drying.

1. I take a shirt from the wardrobe. It smells of sky and sunlight because it has been dried outside on the washing line. 2. The two dogs take turns to thrust their heads out of the catflap and bark greetings to us. 3. Dinner is in the oven. We are in the bath.

1. Leaving for work with no coat on. 2. Finding a prize coupon in a box of hundreds-and-thousands -- it was only 50p off another box of hundreds-and-thousands, but I still felt a thrill as I opened the tiny envelope. 3. The sticky sound of a brayer rolling on ink. And then rolling the ink on to a piece of paper to see the print appear.

Over at Daily Mammal they are discussing My Family and Other Animals . 1. I leave the house without a coat. 2. A black cat shape has been cut out of the car park. 3. He's looking covetously at my pink lamb cutlets, but he's not having any.

1. Interrupting someone's credit card spiel to say 'no'. 2. I put my hand among the sweaters in the charity shop, feeling bobbled fleece and felted wool and sparking acrylic. My fingers meet something soft and light and dense. A cashmere sweater the colour of peanut butter. I'll find a use for it. 3. An almost new winter coat -- my old one is not going to do another winter -- for just £15.

1. Having my clothes laid out ready in the morning so I don't have to think too hard about getting dressed. 2. I really like Dr Manhattan in Watchmen . He's so blue and strange and calm. 3. Coming home to find Nick already in bed. When I am washed and ready for bed, I come in. He turns on the lamp to guide me through the dark.

1. "That's very you," he says, and I change my mind about the dress I want. 2. She has made paneer from scratch for our supper -- cheese is a small kitchen miracle. 3. Saiya snuggles up to me as I read her a story about a haunted hotel. "Your arm is nice and soft."

1. For the first time this year, I'm not wearing gloves outside. Holding Nick's naked hand is strange and new. 2. The traffic is backed up in both directions past work, and all the way into town. I like the feeling of knowing something somewhere is up, but not knowing quite what. 3. Nick reports that the cricket commentators on Five Live are happy because someone brought them in a cake.

I have tagged most of the posts referring to Nick for those who wanted this. It's really not a narrative, as 3BT was never intended to be used as such. These posts are an unsorted bundle of unimportant and important moments in our relationship. Some turning points in the story are not there, because I never wrote about them. Here is a link to the first page of the list . The oldest posts are at the bottom of the page, and there is a link to the newer posts at the bottom of the page. 1. I am wearing a few strings of sandalwood beads that my parents brought me from India. Every so often, I can smell them, warm, musky and woody. 2. Splitting the threads and recombining them plumps them up and make the colours as rich as fruitcake. 3. Click by click, the house darkens.