Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The huge, full moon looms just over the horizon, lighting up the night sky between buildings. “Impressive moon, isn’t it?” I say to a man as we wait for the light to change. He turns around, head waving back and forth, trying to find what I’m talking about. “Yes, it is,” he replies when he finally finds it.

2. Our volleyball team needs to win a majority of our games and the team in front of us must lose all of theirs in order for us to make the post-season. Our shortest player gets a kill, and another, whose fingertips just barely graze the top of the net, gets a block. And we come back in our final match from 13-16 to win 18-16.

3. Rudi and I walk down to the garden to see how it’s looking. Stems of ruby and gold and white chard have pushed through the leaf debris and are growing in a lovely, thick row.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement, by L.M. Montgomery (Edited by Rea Wilmshurst)

From the jacket: “The common thread among the 18 stories in Against the Odds is the way people can resourcefully overcome obstacles to realize their ambitions and dreams. The ‘odds’ are varied in these skilfully written tales. An obstacle to one’s success or happiness may lie in one’s own character or the prejudice of someone else.”

My take: This book, by the author of Anne of Green Gables, is a collection of short stories compiled in the early 1990s. All but one were previously published in newspapers or magazines, sometimes in more than one. And while they work together as a whole, I found them best ingested one or two stories at a time (which made them ideal commuting reading for a week).

I don’t know if Montgomery was capable of writing only one type of hero, or if that was merely the type she (or her publishers) preferred. But each of these 18 stories features, like Anne Shirley, a (usually young) protagonist best described as optimistic, smart, upright, and plucky. Usually they’re down on their luck, but combined with their good character, hard work, and a little serendipity, they’re able to turn their fortunes around. (Generally, though, Montgomery is tempered in her rewards. No one wins the lottery, discovers a rich, dying relative, or embarks upon a get-rich-quick scheme.

Whether it’s convincing a prospective employer to take a chance on them, crossing a flooded Canadian countryside to reach a wedding in time, or persuading a relative to pay for college, each of these tales will have you rooting for the protagonists to find their path to a better life.

Pages: 246

Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta

From the jacket: “Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham, now seventeen, is finally being confronted with her past. But as the reluctant leader of her boarding school dorm, there isn’t a lot of time for introspection. and while Hannah, the closest adult Taylor has to family, has disappeared, Jonah Griggs is back in town, moody stares and all.”

My take: Taylor is in her final full year of at the Jellicoe School and is beginning to feel the pressure. She was already head of her dorm. Now, she’s just been elected leader of her school’s army in the three way turf battle between them, the townies, and the pack of military school boys who come out from Sydney to their woods for a six-week-long annual training camp. It’s an unpopular decision among her fellow dorm leaders, who threaten her with a coup. Plus, her relationship is rocky with Hannah, the woman who took Taylor in when her mother abandoned her at a local convenience store when she was 11. It’s been particularly strained since the previous year when she and one of the cadets ran away together in an attempt to go find Taylor’s mother and the answers to why she’d left.

But when Hannah leaves without saying anything to Taylor, it’s unbearable. Could something have happened to her? Would she, too, have just up and left Taylor? And does The Brigadier, whom Taylor has seen skulking around Hannah’s cottage, have anything to do with her disappearance? And are there any answers in the story that Hannah has been writing all these years?

Taylor’s best friends, Raffaela and Ben, have her back, but it’s going to be a challenging time for her. Chaz Santangelo, head of the town kids, is an ex of Raffaela’s, and the leader of the cadets is none other than Jonah Griggs, who stole Taylor’s heart when he agreed to help her find her mother the year before, but then dashed it when he called his school to tell The Brigadier where to find the two of them. Neither of them are what you would describe as sympathetic. And if the three factions weren’t in an all-out war at the beginning, their stressed interpersonal relationships are going to lead to big trouble.

Taylor’s story is interspersed with pieces of Hannah’s book, which tells the story of Tate and siblings Narnie and Webb, all of whom were orphaned when their parents’ cars crashed in a head-on collision on the Jellicoe Road; Fitz, who found the wrecked cars and pulled the three children to safety; and Jude, who reminded them all what was worth living for. Both sets of kids are troubled and moody and melodramatic, but they all feel realistic, and you can’t help but root for them to move beyond their problems to find some sense of peace and family.

Taylor will get her answers, but they aren’t necessarily going to be what she wants or expects to hear. It’s what she does with her new-found knowledge, though, that’s going to help her figure out how to move forward when her own time comes to leave the Jellicoe Road.

Pages: 419

Remember when I used to finish knit objects on a somewhat regular basis, take pictures of them, and share them here?

No, me neither.

However, I did finish a pair of socks last week and they are so darn cheerful it’s nearly impossible to prevent myself from showing them off to everyone I see.

I’m calling these my Starburst Socks.

The colorway is really called Strawberry Banana, and the yarn is Sunshine Yarns’ merino sock. But I don’t like banana, even when mixed with strawberry, so a new name was needed. The skein came from the very first yarn swap I ever did (organized by Amanda, way back when).

The pattern is Crystalline Socks, designed by Cailyn Meyer. It combines slipped stitches and cables. (I added four extra stitches to the original pattern when my first version wouldn’t fit. In retrospect, the pattern probably would have fit as written, except that the wraps around the slipped stitches weren’t loose enough.)

I began them on September 29 last year and finished last Saturday.

I think the wraps make darling little flower/star shapes, and Corey agrees. He likes when I offer him claw holds in my clothing.

Speaking of which, I already had the perfect pair of shoes to wear with my socks — hot pink sneakers!

It’s the first Thursday of March. Today was an oasis of sun and warmth between days of rain, but yesterday brought a bonus day and tomorrow brings the promise of the weekend and of a concert, so I think it all evens out. And the rain can be beautiful, too, you know.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We got on the same metro car first thing Monday morning. Her knee-length brocade jacket is two shades of sky blue with a burnt orange design emblazoned upon it. Her scarf matches the deeper blue, as does the bird on her tote bag. I feel happier just looking at her.

2. We seem to have reached a time when people no longer telephone each other for fear they are interrupting real life. But without those calls, people really are far away. I force myself to dial, and after explaining there is no emergency or bad news precipitating the occasion, we spend half an hour catching up.

3. Starburst are required for a photo shoot. After we are done, we eat the props.

How about you? What beautiful things have you noticed this week?