Three Beautiful Things

1. We pass boys in blazers walking home from the grammar school. The first years are tiny under their huge rucksacks. Then I look at Alec in his pram and they seem like giants. 2. On a grey day of blurry rain, the bright fresh colours of fruit and vegetables in the cavernous green grocers are very appealing. 3. While I am feeding Alec, Nick brings my cake in so I can see if it is properly browned. 4. There was a romanesco cauliflower in our veggie box. We spend some time after supper admiring its mathematical spirals and pinnacles. Picture from Stock.xchng

1. A card comes from Nick's sister, niece and great nephews. Dylan, who is just about to start school, has embellished the envelope with pencilled letters, diligently copied from our address. 2. The health visitor encourages us to help Alec's wind by giving him a finger to suck between meals. We'd already been doing that, but didn't want to admit it in case it was the wrong thing to do. 3. A mouthful of dark chocolate -- according to Fenella it will make my milk taste better for Alec.

1. A parcel for Alec: a knitted tanktop depicting a workmanlike digger, sent south by Nick's gaming friend Simon. 2. We pop into the Oxfam bookshop to show Alec to Sandra the manager, and get chatting to one of her volunteers who is a proud grandfather. "You can look at babies for hours," he says. I can only agree. 3. Shhh. One of my favourite moments of the day is when we lay the sleeping Alec in his moses basket and snuggle up together. He'll probably join us later in the night, but for now, it's just the two of us.

1. Nick takes me out for breakfast -- at 10am the streets are Sunday silent and the air is so cold and still that it feels as if we are watching the world through glass. 2. Hot chocolate with a peak of foam on top and flecks of chocolate melting into it. 3. He calls down from the attic: "Darling wife, I can track our pizza on-line!"

1. The first thing Nick says when I wake up is that when I sleep snuggled up behind him, he can feel Baby Badger moving against his back. I'm amazed to discover that BB can kick that strongly and not wake me up, and pleased to think that the two of them get some time alone together. 2. Katie has put a call out for bulb planting assistance -- so I go round and spend a few hours in her sunny back garden -- in return, I get lunch and two slices of chocolate cake. 3. There is a children's party going on in the hall across the hill. Little voices roar out cheesy pop music -- "Hey-ay-ay baby, will you be my girl?" and laugh at the DJ's jokes. A few brave souls get up to sing: "Twinkle twinkle little star" and from one rebel: "Happy birthday to you, stick your head down the loo..."

1. Sarah Salway gave us a nestbox for a wedding present. I think it brought us luck in our house-hunting. Nick has come up with a cunning plan that allows us to wire it to the trellis in the garden. 2. Nick's dad rings. I say I'll call Nick down from the attic. "Tell him to be careful on those stairs." 3. Recently I friended a fictional character on Facebook. She's the creation of a friend -- a character in a TV series (I think) that he's working on about an institution for gifted teenagers. Blue Malone 's gift is that when she holds an item, she knows things about the last person to use it. She writes up her diary on FB and posts snippets that she's picked up. She's been known to comment on her friends' posts, which is strange -- but pleasing, too. I've never consumed fiction like this before -- I know it's out there, but until now, I've never found anything that appeals to me. I think anyone can friend her -- try this link to...

1. One of my least favourite pregnancy symptoms is the constant peeing. From the start, I lost the ability to make it through the night -- they say it's preparation for the sleep-deprivation to come. The exact time varies -- but this morning, it was around dawn. The sky was shell pink and streaked with con trails, and I was glad that I had seen it. 2. About ten years ago, I had a back problem that caused pain in my hip. I dreamed that the pain was back, and that I was walking around an unfamiliar town trying to find a shop selling food for supper. The door was always round the next corner, down steps, along a beach, up some steps, under a bridge... Then I woke up, safe at home in bed, and there was no pain. 3. We've been really looking forward to Sherlock -- Mark Gattiss and Stephen Moffat's up-dated re-telling of Sherlock Holmes. I'm really fond of Mark Gattiss, and we know Stephen Moffat from Dr Who, but we felt a bit cautious. I have BBC drama series trust issue...

1. Oak wood. Before my eyes, a caterpillar (fallen through space) hangs on a thread. 2. Two black scottie dogs pass by, their legs blurred. 3. Tiny twins are being fed in the precinct. One wears a blue broderie anglaise sun hat, the other is in pink.

1. Granny Pat remembers my husband. "She said: 'That's Nick Law'," my aunt tells us. 2. Stand still. Willow tit (drab little fellow in a black velvet cap) and nut hatch (black Lone Ranger mask, blue-grey jacket and a waistcoat the colour of the ragged inner bark that clings to sweet chestnut rails). 3. "That bright star on the horizon is Venus," says my uncle. "And at about four o'clock, there's a dimmer one -- that's Mercury. You don't often see them together." Later, as we walk home from the station, we look at the sky again. "Do you see stars, or just dots of light?" Nick asks.

1. A lot of train journey means a lot of reading time. I picked up Michelle Lovric's The Undrowned Child on my way out of the house, and I'm glad I did. It's set in Venice, and it's the story of a bookish girl who must fulfil a prophecy to save the city from a watery fate -- with some salty-tongued, curry-loving mermaids to help her. 2. We go up to Alexandra Palace for a model train show. Among the grittily realistic industrial layouts and nostalgic rural idylls, was found Smallbrook Studio's lofty locos in Yellow Submarine colours. They look as if they've chuffed out of a Heath Robinson illustration, but a chat to the maker revealed that they were inspired by another illustrator, Rowland Emett . 3. We dig in with Stardust -- a romantic fantasy film based on a novel by Neil Gaiman in which the heart of a falling star is pursued by... well pretty much everyone. I particularly love Mark Williams' performance as a goat turned into an innkeeper.

1. The grubby yellowish light of a thunderstorm. 2. My Tunbridge Wells Twitter pane lights up as a thunder storm goes over. Exclamations and back-up reminders make me feel as if I'm working in a friendly office again. 3. The last piece of work has been a slog -- I feel as if I've actually climbed the South Downs that I've been writing about. I'm so glad to be standing on the top of the hill looking back at my progress.

I added three new 3BTers to the Roll of Honour -- all in Spanish. Estando en Babia , El w.c. de Eric , and Despiertos . I've been using Google Translate to get an idea of what they're saying. Muchas gracias por los tres cosas agradables. 1. To hear the shopkeeper discussing ingredients with the family ahead of me in the queue. He is opening a bag of fresh herbs and saying: "I've got some black vinegar downstairs, but it's very expensive." 2. While I work, I can hear Nick and his friend Nigel battling their forces up and down the kitchen table. At the end of the afternoon, they say rather ruefully that they spent most of the day stealing chickens from each other, rather actually engaging. 3. We watch the lovely, lovely Professor Brian Cox revealing the wonders of the solar system . I'm sort of aware of space and moons and eclipses and doesn't the sky look cool through binoculars . But as a result of a disturbing incident with a science book ...

1. The Common, with its bare trees and clear ground, seems barren at the end of winter. But it’s smiling in the sunshine as if it has a secret happiness. 2. Crocuses (baby mauve, egg-yolk yellow and whole milk white) have pushed their way through the khaki dead ground in the park. Today, they are the only pure bright colours in all creation (apart from the sky, I mean). 3. The financial advisor comes round, and I ask him a question that has been bothering me for months. He looks over a few pages, taps on his calculator and says that it's best to leave things as they are.

I had the pleasure of interviewing artist Lesley Featherstone recently about an exhibition of her pictures at Trinity and Town and Country Foundation Gallery that runs until March 14. She also ran some workshops for women at the gallery. Lesley emailed me to say that she thought the article was a beautiful thing, which tickled me immensely. She added: "The other was the incredible women at the workshop Monday. The third was putting it up with Jane." Jane is Jane Churchill, who runs the gallery, and she's a very lovely (but busy) person -- I'd really like to interview her one of these days, too! The podcast is up . 1. I look up to see the dustman passing the window where I am working. The fourth time he passes (on his way back from replacing our bin) we exchange half nods. 2. I am making a ginger cake, and I am mystified by the instruction to add a certain weight of golden syrup and treacle. I picture myself standing there until Turpentine Sunday while the...

1. There are green and purple cabbages in our veggie box -- almost too beautiful to cook. The bases of the leaves are spring green. Gradually they shade into a deep midnight purple. 2. He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named sometimes shares things in Google Reader. This week, a radio phone-in prank about Gordon Brown made me laugh. 3. Nick brings home a pair of rocky roads from the Hummingbird Bakery . They are more like rocky mountains, actually -- we finish up like a pair of toddlers with chocolate all over our faces.

1. I like to meet artists who talk about how important it is to live now. 2. I interview Debbie Reynolds about the variety show she is bringing to Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall on April 10, and she talks about what a blessing it is to be a mother: "My daughter is Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher..." 3. We eat our supper quickly, and hurry out to the theatre. It's Blood Brothers -- Willie Russell's musical tragedy. The first half is a bit of a love letter to a deprived Liverpool childhood. PS: Here's a short Debbie Reynolds playlist for anyone who does Spotify!

1. The sun in shining, but shards and motes of snow have set the air glittering. 2. At The School of Life , they have a mural by Charlotte Mann in the classroom. It is done with black marker, and depicts a busy, cluttered room, with wide open windows. It feels as if some people have just stepped out for a moment, leaving their Scrabble half finished. Teacher Mark Vernon explains that it's to make you feel as if you aren't in a basement, and to maybe help you think a bit differently. 3. At supper they have a sort of fruit in slices. It looks like a pear, but it isn't. It turns out to have been soaked in vodka, and it is delicious. Later I pick up a thumb sized piece of chocolate cake -- it is both salty and sweet and fills my mouth in a very sticky, satisfying way.

1. Nick stays at home to watch the Superbowl, which he recorded late last night. His beautiful thing for the day is that his wife (who had to get up early and start work) didn't wake him up and tell him the result. 2. Watching snowflakes wink out as they land. 3. To hold a friend's new baby for the first time, and marvel at his tiny fingers curled round my thumb.

1. There is a dusting of snow this morning -- as if the world has been lightly sugared. 2. As I am paying, my bottle of soy sauce falls over -- but no harm is done. "At least it's not fish sauce," says the shopkeeper. "When a bottle of that breaks, it takes a month to get rid of the smell." 3. I read until I can't keep my eyes open. It feels so good to put my book down and drift off to sleep.

1. Treading on a loose brick in the pavement and hearing it go "collop". 2. I lose Nick while shopping -- a combination of my dreaminess and the crowds. I like to catch sight of his head behind a book display. 3. Ladelling mulled wine into a pair of goblets made from purbeck marble. Purbeck marble is really polished limestone, not marble at all. It's packed full of fossils. Every time I use these goblets I spot something new -- this time, two translucent spots on my goblet distinguishes it from Nick's. The wine was good, too.