The cherry blossoms along the Tidal Basin get all the glory, but for beauty themselves, I actually prefer the Kwanzan cherry trees.

They bloom a little later than their Yoshino cousins, which also means you are way more likely to get a chance to see them without having to duck crowds.

The pink ones are part of a grove on Hains Point, near where I showed you the shot a few weeks ago. The white ones were next to the Potomac.

I have a couple things on the agenda this weekend:

I won a drawing for being among the people who visited the farmers market every week this winter. (Adhering to COVID travel restrictions meant I was here, and I’m not really deterred by crummy weather — or, apparently, threats of insurgents.) I have to go pick up the gift card (to a vegetarian sausage maker) at a new-to-me farmers market Saturday morning.

Sarah and I are going to head to the Wharf in the afternoon for an in-person event put on by the Quebecois government where they’re going to be giving away samples of maple snow candy. We are both big proponents of maple syrup and it would be unneighborly not to sample Canada’s if they want to share with us.

If it’s not raining, I may suggest to Rudi that we go the Rock Creek Kings show at one of the local parks in the evening, but he has a charity bike ride the next morning, so he may want to spend some time inside.

Sunday, I may try to get across the river to the library there to pick up a hold that’s ready for me, and, if I’m lucky, some of my spring greens should be ready to harvest from the garden. I don’t know that I have enough for two salads, but we’ll see.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sarah turned 50 last week, and we opted to celebrate in person.

2. I got the first dose of a COVID vaccine, which means I will be able to start seeing more people in real life again soon. It was super easy, and except that virtual strangers now feel entitled to inquire about what brand of medicine I’m taking, I’m glad it’s done.

3. Tuesdays, I often get a longer break between meetings in the mid-afternoon, so Rudi and I scooted over to the bagel shop to grab lunch and eat outside in the sun.

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

New things are afoot on both the page and the needles. I have a new stripey sock started, and I’m sure you can see why I’m excited by it. I’ll give you details about the yarn next week; the tag is in one bag, but the yarn was in another, and I don’t feel like hunting right this moment.

I finished Veronica Speedwell and could move on to Charlotte Holmes. This is the most recent in Sherry Thomas’ excellent series, but there’ll be a new installment in the fall. It’s nice when favorite authors publish works in time for birthday and Christmas gifts.

I also wrapped up the audiobook I’d been listening tonight while I was knitting. Tomorrow I’ll be starting up The Bounty, the latest in the Fox and O’Hare heist series by Janet Evanovich and friends (this time Steve Hamilton). I haven’t liked the series as much since she stopped collaborating with Lee Goldberg, but Hamilton is pretty well-respected in his own right, so maybe this will be an improvement on the last book, which she wrote with her son.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts, but here’s what’s going on around here right now:

Hearing: Cars driving by, including one playing goth music and another with its bass boosted way up. Birds, with their own unique nighttime music.

Seeing: A lot of mess that I need to invent time to deal with.

Feeling: The warmth of a cat curled up next to me asleep.

Tasting: The last mouthful of hot cocoa I recently finished.

Smelling: Not a whole lot because I should take an allergy pill to clear my head and go to sleep.

What’s it like where you are?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl took me a little while. Our assignment: to share book titles that might make good crayon colors:

1. The Wonderful O (James Thurber): A bright orange, the color of the first citrus of the winter season
2. Sucking Eggs (Patricia Nicol): Venom green
3. Rancid Pansies (James Hamilton-Paterson): Greyish blue-purple
4. The Vinyl Princess (Yvonne Prinz): Sparkly black
5. Last Days of Summer (Steve Kluger): Cornflower blue
6. Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury): A pale, clear yellow
7. Canary (Rachele Alpine): Chartreuse
8. Vintage Attraction (Charles Blackstone): Dark plum
9. A Darker Shade of Magic (V.E. Schwab): Dark blood red
10. The Starless Sea (Erin Morgenstern): Dark midnight blue

How about you? Can you think of any book titles that should be a crayon name?