Three Beautiful Things

1. I like walking through town carrying a trug, containing a few plants for a friend. 2. I am glad to collect my engagement ring from the jeweller -- and now it doesn't keep slipping off my finger. 3. This is the time of year we celebrate our anniversary. We go to the restaurant where we had our first date, and spend the evening grinning at each other and not saying much.

1. Katie-at-work hands me a carefully protected parcel of kitchen roll. 'I've got something for you. It doesn't suit me, but I thought you'd like it.' It's a black and silver beaded choker, and I love it immediately, and start thinking about an outfit to wear with it. 2. At the appointed time, a man comes home from work and wakes me up from an afternoon sleep. 'I've got a present for you.' It's a box of banoffee truffles. 3. Katie-previously-at-home describes Fenella's new bedroom as having a carpet so lush you leave footprints.

1. Leaves copper plated, smeared and sketched with blues and greens and oranges. 2. Chatting to stallholders at a craft fair. I hear stories about ocarinas, am complimented on my voice, overhear a description of a green man, discover how flowers end up in paper weights and discover that the metal leaf man got his machine from someone who was emigrating. 3. Watching ants going about their tiny business up and down the leg of a bench.

1. The rain has barely stopped when the sun comes out. The lime tree over the road sparkles as if hung with thousands of jewels and the wet branches gleam as if they have been polished. 2. Seeing the reflections of the stones in my green dragon fly brooch dancing on the walls. 3. I have a fleece underblanket now, so instead when I get into bed on a cold night, the matress doesn't swallow all my warmth.

1. A cunning bracelet made from a bent silver fork. 2. Mint tea with fresh leaves floating in it. 3. Our newly cleaned cream sofa covers make the living room seem brighter and higher.

1. People who always look stylish and elegant because they carefully match their jewellery to the rest of their outfit. 2. At 9pm there are still some families sitting in the park. Most of the fathers are wearing shorts and T-shirts, except one who is in smart casual and carrying a briefcase - he must have come straight from work. 3. PaulV waking me up with a phone call at midnight because he wants to tell me that his archnemesis is about to be dumped but doesn't know it yet.

1. A woman walks down the path on the Common that runs parallel to my road to work. She is walking a tiny dog and wearing dull brown colours and bright scarlet gloves. 2. I sent my pearls off to be cleaned and restrung - and now three weeks and £30 later they have returned. They definitely have a moon-like glow about them, and they feel a lot less sticky and the string seems less likely to snap at any moment. Their flaws and individualities are a lot more obvious, too - but it's all part of their charm. Ladies, it's good to have you back. 3. I greedily watched the entire first season of Spaced , which was hugely enjoyable. I love the way it blurs the lines between reality and imagination. The way Tim and Daisy would like the story to go is followed by what actually happened. It is a fantastic portrait of a male-female friendship. I also love the film references.

1. The coolness of pearls when you first put them on. 2. My book of Siegfried Sassoon's poetry . It has gorgeous thick pages and a cover the colour of a blackberry juice stain after it has been washed. 3. In Sons and Lovers the passage where Mrs Morell and Paul walk in the woods in May. It made me forget it was February outside.

1. Between the ages of nine and 13, Miss L terrified me. She was loomingly tall, skinny and strict and never hesitated to remind me of how rubbish my needlework was. While queuing in the Post Office, I spotted her and realised that I am now taller than she is. And she praised the clerk for his stamp-sticking speed. 2. I inherited my jewelry box from my grandmother. Its red velvet lining is marked with the star imprint of a cut-glass scent bottle that was broken long ago. 3. While tidying my dressing table a plait of intensely bright rainbow strings reminded me of a boy called Hamish Lemmens, who complimented me on it when I was 12 or so. I was at school with him from three to 13 and he was always doing or saying something that made people laugh.

1. Pearls. They always seem so erotic and yet so innocent. 2. The block opposite me has a balustrade round the roof. A filthy balustrade. I woke up to see that a painter had started work on it and it looked as if snow had fallen. 3. Was watching the street instead of writing and saw a chap I used to adore achingly and wordlessly from a distance. He has pudged up and the cheekbones I used to so admire are no longer on show. And he was walking hand-in-hand with a sour-looking... yeah, I'm almost sure it was a woman.