Based on the Three Beautiful Things project by Clare Law, I try to write about three pleasant things from my day.
1. We sit around the table, our fingers sticky with spicy gravy, laughing and telling stories.
2. The light reflects off her eyes and her silky fur as she sits proudly in the doorway.
3. After the big lunch, I don’t have time for dinner so I pack myself a tub of cheese, crackers & olives.
1. I look at the menu but know in my heart I’ll get the same thing I always do – the chorizo and potato salad with baby spinach, a poached egg and red pepper aioli. If they added cheese and a cat to it, it would be all of my favourite things in one shiny white bowl.
2. Joe’s all smiles when I return him to his favourite lady after her haircut. All smiles and sticking his tongue out. Today’s the day he discovered he has control over the floppy thing in his mouth and boy, is it fun to stick it out into the open.
3. The cats, circling my ankles, call out to me to hurry up as I sliced the freshly roasted ox heart into smaller chunks for them.
1. Even without my glasses or raising my head from the pillows, I can tell the world’s gone white again. Our plans are abandoned and we give ourselves a snow day of relaxation.
2. The cheese stretches between my teeth and the toasted bread shell.
3. I rarely play PvP battlegrounds and forgot how much fun killing other people can be. Fighting NPCs is rarely as exhilarating – it’s often just a case of going through the motions – but my half-hour in Warsung Gulch is electrifying.
4. Katherine & I discover we’re having the same soup for dinner. Katherine types “smiling now” and I am too. For all our differences, we’re so alike.
1. Two pleasantly dull sounds within ten minutes of each other – the sound of vomit hitting a window in a cartoon and the knock of wood on wood as I throw logs onto a pile.
2. Boron watches us from the wall then when I rest, he pads over to sit on my knee. One of his longest stints in the garden for a long time – spring must be on its way.
3. We stand by the beck – deep in the woods but still in our garden – holding hands and talking about our future.
1. The journey through Calverley is always great for dog spotting.
2. Following G’s lead, I have saltfish and callaloo for lunch. I go from being not sure I like the cabbage-like vegetable to loving it within a few mouthfuls.
3. As stray comment earlier in the day inspires us to watch ‘Wayne’s World’ in the evening. We giggle throughout the whole thing.
1. The doorbell rings and the delivery man is holding a large box: John had ordered 12 boxes of my favourite cereal to arrive just as I was running out.
2. Our neighbours return from their holiday and bring us wine & flowers to thank us for keeping an eye on their house while they were away. I carry the flowers around the house looking for something to use as a vase and my hands smell perfumed all afternoon.
3. We finish the rest of the cottage pie for dinner and because it was improvised, I realise it’s a George’s Marvellous Medicine dinner, never to repeated in the same form.
© 2025 Louisa Parry