Three Good Things
The idea here to be optimistic and cheer myself up each day by picking three good things, usually, but not always, vaguely related to what I've done that day.
It's loosely related to the concept of gratitude journalling and thankfulness but I find both of those terms can get a bit toxic, this is just intended to be nicely optimistic and counter my natural tendency to think of the three worst things that have happened recently when anyone asks me how I am.
This is an archived collection of stuff I've been posting on social media for a while. Initially I thought these were best kept ephemeral but then I realised I wanted to keep them because looking back through the entries really does cheer me up and why not lean into a happy feedback loop for a change?
24 July 2026
🏊🏻♀️ Managed to time swimming so that I had the big pool almost to myself.
👓 Lost my glasses but found them where they had blown under a garden chair.
🍇The hedgerows are loaded with blackberries. Going back tomorrow with a tub!
22 July 2026
🛬 Managed the airport pickup within the ridiculously tight limit where parking is merely bloody expensive.
🧳 Which means the offspring is home for a while and it’s lovely to have them here.
🌳 A benefit of this dry spell is that even the super muddy footpath is usable.
20 July 2026
🌞 We’re back to much more normal UK summer temperatures and it’s really nice. Hopefully the rain in the weekend’s forecast actually turns up though.
🚲 It’s the beginning of the school summer holidays here and there were so many less cars on the road today.
📄Got some paperwork sorted out. One of those things you put off for months and then find it takes ten minutes.
19 July 2026
😌My mind was addled and annoyed when I left home for a bike ride but calm when I returned.
🦋So many little wildlife spottings on the cycle paths today. Butterflies and other hovering insects, rabbits, mice, all sorts of birds.
☁ Clouds: giving me both pretty things to look at and shade from the sun.
16 July 2026
🧅Homemade cheese & onion rolls were really tasty.
🧾VAT return sorted out and submitted.
🚲Took my partner’s bike to the bike workshop and they were able to repair it in 5 minutes.
13 July 2026
🕊️It’s really peaceful in my garden on a weekday. None of the neighbours seem to be doing building work at the moment.
🧾A panic where I thought I’d lost a load of bank statements was completely baseless and I had just forgotten how months worked (I’m not going to dwell on that last bit too much!)
🌳 Found another shady reading spot in the garden - it’s small but I’m doing a good job of chasing the shade around it.
10 July 2026
⏳Created some time by getting up and doing stuff earlier whilst it was cooler.
🌅 Really nice watching the sun go down with a glass of wine and a book. Feel like I’m on holiday but I’m in my back garden.
🤔Reminiscing about holidays as a result.
8 July 2026
🧦 Sorted out my underwear drawer and threw out all the threadbare items.
🏖️Bought a new garden parasol, it’s not quite what I wanted but what I mostly want at the moment is extra shade!
I also now own a hoe with which to battle the weeds.
7 July 2026
🧼Cleaned my laptop screen.
🛒Got the supermarket shopping done.
💻Opened up a project I’d abandoned and had some ideas for what to do with it next.
6 July 2026
🧵 Arranged a day trip to sewing show with my mum.
👩🏻💻Did a software upgrade that’s been waiting months for me to get to it and all was ok.
🍓 Harvested (and ate) 7 strawberries from my hanging basket.
3 July 2026
📆 I started the day thinking it was Thursday so Friday evening has been an unexpected surprise. (I think I thought yesterday was Wednesday. I remember it being Tuesday for definite before that. I’ve no idea what happened to actual Wednesday.)
💾Caching.
🥃White chocolate liqueur, since it’s Friday after all!
2 July 2026
⚡️Lots of negatively priced electricity (because it’s windy).
🧺About a squillion loads of laundry done with the aid of that electricity.
⛲️ Azul: Queen’s Garden appeared on BoardGameArena so that’s my new distracting obsession.
