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Based on the Three Beautiful Things project by Clare Law, I try to write about three pleasant things from my day.

3BT – our daily excursion, alchemy, ice

27/12/2009 /

1. The cats glow in the soft sunlight. The melting snow is still too cold for their paws but they sit on the dry fence and watch me split logs. For cats that are scared of everything, they’re strangely fearless when I’m flinging an axe at wood.

2. The (flat)bread is perfect – startling white inside a golden shell. As always, I’m surprised by the alchemy that has taken place in the last quarter of an hour: from powder to goop to light sponge.

3. The snow around here has all but melted off the roads but at Olli’s house, the wide road is still evenly white. We find it rough on the way in but later, on the way home, it’s verging on slippery – enough to let us slide around but not enough to feel out of control (the perfect amount of fun/danger for boring 30-somethings like us). We dance and moonwalk in the dark silence.

3BT – whoosh, wood and weird

25/12/2009 / / 0 Comments

1. I move from room to room opening the curtains to let in the day. My favourites are the ones in the dining room because they whoosh dramatically.

2. The wood splits perfectly down the middle and by coincidence, the logs I’ve chosen stack neatly in the box. Despite the snow on the ground and on the wood itself, I’m sweating by the time I’ve carried the box up the stairs into the house and I’m reminded of an article I read a few months ago, about how wood should heat you three times: once with the exertion of felling the tree, once with the exertion of splitting it, and then finally when it’s on the stove.

3. I plop a heavy bubble of cranberry & cinnamon bath foam into the water. The torus is blood red and looks stunning but frighteningly visceral. I store the image in my mental “if I ever need gory special effects for a homemade horror movie” file.

3BT – whoosh, wood and weird

25/12/2009 / / 0 Comments

1. I move from room to room opening the curtains to let in the day. My favourites are the ones in the dining room because they whoosh dramatically.

2. The wood splits perfectly down the middle and by coincidence, the logs I’ve chosen stack neatly in the box. Despite the snow on the ground and on the wood itself, I’m sweating by the time I’ve carried the box up the stairs into the house and I’m reminded of an article I read a few months ago, about how wood should heat you three times: once with the exertion of felling the tree, once with the exertion of splitting it, and then finally when it’s on the stove.

3. I plop a heavy bubble of cranberry & cinnamon bath foam into the water. The torus is blood red and looks stunning but frighteningly visceral. I store the image in my mental “if I ever need gory special effects for a homemade horror movie” file.

3BT – white world, worry, tell-tale signs

24/12/2009 / / 0 Comments

1. We wake up to a world even whiter than before. Even the tiniest branches are covered with inches of snow. It looks so cold but under our giant duvet together, we’re blissfully warm.

2. I’ve been worrying about the old house for a couple of days – we hadn’t been back to check on it since the cold spell really got going and I’ve been troubled by images of burst pipes, flooded rooms and arguments with insurance companies. We take a break from work to drive over mid-afternoon and everything is fine – in fact, it actually feels warm in the house even though there has been no heating for weeks. I become giddy as my anxiety floats away.

3. I return from neighbourhood cat feeding duties covered in white fur from furtive hugs – the feline equivalent of lipstick on my collar.

3BT – my dream guy, rocking out, feeding, the future

23/12/2009 / / 0 Comments

1. I wake up and tell John that I had a dream I was being wooed by another man. He was a very pretty Italian boy who worked as a waiter and repeatedly brought me great pizza. John understands why it would be hard to resist that and we decide that I should allow the dream waiter to continue to pursue me, and share the doughy reward.

2. We – John, Dan and I – play Guitar Hero until the room starts to scroll away from us and we see coloured dots whenever we close our eyes.

3. We’re feeding the neighbours’ cats over Christmas – two next door and three next door but one. I make small talk as I spoon out the meat and conduct rollcalls.

4. People start disappearing from our private work chat channel throughout the day, with messages of “see you in 2010”. The individual years of the decade have crept by without me really noticing but 2010 feels like the future. 2009 has been a difficult year but I’m feeling positive about the beginning of the next decade.

3BT – wiped clean, productivity, buttons

22/12/2009 / / 0 Comments

1. The dusting of snow each night erases footprints like an etch-a-sketch.

2. For the first time in a few weeks, I write out a decent to-do list and use it as a project tracker throughout the day. The sense of accomplishment at the end of the day is wonderful.

3. I tip out the bag of buttons onto the bed sheet and pick through them to find the perfect three.

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