Three Beautiful Things

1. The woods. The shady side of the street. Our flat. Very much welcome on a hot day. 2. She says: "Thanks for telling me this Prosecco is sweeter than Champagne. I wouldn't have tried it otherwise." 3. Daredevil swifts shriek over our hill. They fall, now skyward, now earthward. Always falling.

1. This milk (which has not been homogenised) from Able and Cole is the colour of late afternoon sunshine on a winter day, and tastes the way milk tasted when I was at nursery school . 2. I find two tiny green tomatoes on my plants. They are the size of peas and pearls. 3. Dear Writer , an Afternoon Play on BBC Radio 4 challenges me and harrows me and enlightens me. I feel a bit as if I've been on a roller coaster, or just climbed a mountain.

1. Tea roses growing bravely on wasteland. 2. He has such twinkly eyes. 'R Whites is the best lemonade,' he says looking at the can I am about to buy. 'Ice cold, there's nothing like it.' 3. I like cutting up fruit for a glass of Pimm's.

1. A biscuit dipped in hot tea so its thick chocolate coating melts slightly. 2. I am too ill to do anything but play Lego Starwars, take naps and lie in the bath. 3. After supper I feel well enough to tell Nick that I'll do the washing up while he supervises.

1. Waking in the small hours, going into the kitchen and drinking a glass of water. 2. Gathering out-of-place coathangers and putting them back in the wardrobe. 3. A large bowl of artichoke soup cools on the table.

1. A large cup of hot chocolate. 2. Fenella brings me a parcel, a something that she's seen and decided that I MUST HAVE. It's The Dodo Pad Book of the Big Day . It's wonderfully approachable, so I won't be scared to scribble all over it and paste scruffy bits of paper into it. 3. In his latest TV series, Amazon , Bruce Parry returns to the Matis who visited a few years ago as part Tribe . He projects the film on to the lumpy log walls of the longhouse and is relieved to hear them laugh at all the bits showing him in pain, throwing up or running for the loo.

1. In the grey light we leave the house together -- Nick is late and I am early. 2. Hot drinks from the machine have gone up by 5p. Teapots appear like desk mushrooms and the fridge is full of milk bottles. 3. Sleeping and waking twine in the first part of the night, and so do our fingers.

1. Without thinking I take up my mug from the end of the bath. I wonder if there is a health and safety rule that forbids drinking coffee while standing in the shower. 2. An oval moon makes me think of a blanched almond. 3. A blanket, a cuddle on the sofa, a few chocolates and Wind in the Willows fixes what nothing else can.

1. A cup of sweet tea in the morning. 2. Seeing a visitor walk past the window on their way to to our front door. 3. My feet are cold to the core when I come to bed after some late computer work. Nick is already settled and radiates heat.

1. I don't buy any coffee today, but the barista has a smile for me as I pass his cart at the station. 2. Genius says he asked his children, who moved here recently from Zimbabwe, if they liked London better, or Hastings. They like Hastings, because there are more dogs. 3. The man in front of me at the sandwich van picks up a can of Cherry Coke and then realises he doesn't want Cherry Coke and swaps it for an ordinary Coke. So I have it, because I so rarely see Cherry Coke. It tastes good at 11am.

1. Slices of toast cut from a loaf with sesame seeds on the crust. 2. Katie comes in from the hairdressers and says of her haircut and half-head-of-foils: 'But the best thing about it is the smell.' 3. The waiter at Palm Kerala recognises us and comes over to chat. I wonder if he remembers us because I like salt lassi and Nick likes sweet.

Another fantastic radio play, Sunbathing in the Rain -- sounds like a downer, but it really isn't. 1. Putting a drop of cream -- rather than milk -- in my coffee. 2. Biting into a choc-ice and feeling the chocolate crack, and finding that the icecream inside is slightly melted and speckled with vanilla seeds. 3. Katie gave Jules a locked box for his birthday. He knows the key is coming, but he doesn't know when, and he doesn't know how.

1. As we drink coffee in the garden, we hear a burst of applause from the cricket. 2. Opening the potato sack, I discover a bag of Jersey Royals smelling of earth and summer. 3. The evening park is crowded with teenagers. It's as if the babies and toddlers from the afternoon have all grown up.

1. Cracking a problem with a webpage. 2. In the middle of the morning, taking a proper coffee break, away from the computer and with real coffee and conversation, with my boss. 3. Getting our vacuum cleaner back -- it finally gave up, possibly from shock, after the man came and steam cleaned our carpets. The repair man said that the clutch had gone, but now it's mended and our carpets no longer crunch.

1. Dress down days at work. 2. A mug of coffee, a magazine and a spare hour. 3. A hot meat pastie when it's raining.

1. More snow is falling -- but not settling. There is clear air between the flakes here, but across the valley it looks as if all the air is full of snow. 2. A hot mug warms my hands, and the hot chocolate spiked with ginger warms my insides. 3. The view across Tonbridge from Tim's long-awaited games room .

1. The cup of tea that Katie brings me each morning in bed; and the cup of French press coffee brought to my desk each morning. I enjoy these drinks in themselves, for the taste and the warmth of the mug; but more important is the thought that someone has taken the trouble to make it for me. 2. On most mornings I pass tiny blonde twins hurrying to school with their mother. The girl is often lagging behind to pick something up from a hedge or to look at something important. She looks as if she might be a natural 3BTer, and we exchange understanding smiles. 3. Rosey rings -- she's waiting for a bus and I'm waiting for the printer to finish with my script. We chat about dreams and siblings and how people she hasn't seen for ages know what she's doing because it's mentioned in 3BT.

1. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named brings me an interesting tea bag that he thinks I might like to try and a slip of newspaper about a computer game. 2. A normally slippery brick pavement is covered in a fine layer of sand. 3. I take a different route home. A lady who I normally pass on the footpath meets me at the corner, stops and says: 'You've come a different way, too!' We discuss the whys of this -- she because it's getting too dark for footpaths, me because roadworks were blocking my way.

1. A cup of tea makes the chilly morning wait for my lift more bearable. 2. Housemates who notice when I forget my key and make sensible arrangements. 3.A thread card loaded with DMC stranded cotton, ready for me to start a new cross stitch.