What little things make you smile when you see them out and about?

[ItsCloudyToday]

I love to see these little things when I’m driving around:

Someone waiting at the bus stop/to cross a road wearing headphones/earbuds and they’re having a dance and really getting into it 🕺💃

Dogs that are so happy to be out on a walk that they are bouncing and jiggling from side to side with their little tails waggling 🐕

Toddlers who see something fascinating and their parent just stops and looks with them 👀

Groups of teenagers who are just chilling out together and genuinely laughing with each other 😊

People litter picking because they care about their environment 🚮

The first budding flowers in the spring 🌺

Anyone aged 2-4 in full character dress in the supermarket / park / hairdressers etc

Bonus points for wellies or other similarly mismatched shoes

I like to see little kids in their fairy dresses, or Spider-Man suits or whatever, going about their day.

I was walking over a bridge on my way to the station and there was a tour boat going underneath us. Two ladies with a toddler were crossing the bridge too and EVERYONE on that boat was waving up to the toddler, who was waving back most energetically.

And I was in the supermarket when a young lad came up to the till with two little Chupa Chup lollies, one for him and one for his little sister. When he went to his pocket he'd lost the £1 coin he'd been given to pay with, just about the entire queue offered to pay.

Things like this restore my faith in human nature.

I love hearing groups of sparrows in the hedgerow chirping so loudly to each other.

Also, one of my very favourite things to see is the Red Arrows flying over, they quite often fly in and out of Exeter Airport for Devon airshows in the summer so we see them flying over, I am sure they do a loop over the city on purpose 😁.

Bubbles. A hot air balloon. A dog carrying a big toy carrot along in its mouth. A little kid singing the alphabet song to his mum and getting the l m n o p bit all wrong like my kids used to. A child carefully looking after their doll while out and about. Babies. Rainbows.

Toddlers from the local nursery being pulled along in their little cart, or walking in their harnesses and tiny hi-vis and always chirruping like birds.

Kids being stood on the wall to wave to the trains

Little terriers trotting along beside their owners and looking up at them as if to say 'it's OK, you're safe, I'm here.'

This is the loveliest thread. I am here for it

Oh and another one this morning - local library and a father cradling what was obviously a new born and just rocking gently to and fro.

Children playing in my street, especially when they bring their toys outside such as dolls and play for hours with them.

Teenage girls in hysterics over something. The last situation I saw was two getting on the busy but silent tube carriage I was on. The tube started moving and one girl lost her balance and fully swung around the pole she was holding onto. The embarrassment of one set them both off. Reminds me of old times with friends, when things are so funny tears pour down your eyes and you can’t catch your breath!

Cats in spring when they do their wiggle dance on warm paving.
Any living thing enjoying a peaceful bit of sun or an icecream
Kids gathering autumn leaves for artwork and puddle jumping.

Awweeee all of those but mostly my heart gets so big at babies out in the world even more so when being interacted lovingly with 🥰

Noticing cute little details on buildings and houses. Pretty window boxes, nice pots with plants, a door painted a bright colour, a quirky number or house name sign. Small touches that show care and pride in the everyday environment for everyone to enjoy.

• Seeing people lean down and talk to their dog and seeing the dog look up and wag his tail.
• Hearing British people say please and thankyou and “would you mind” etc to shop assistants or waiters. I grew up with the stereotype of the British as exquisitely polite. I also grew up with the idea of the ‘English gentleman’. Just when you think that’s all dead and gone, it suddenly re-appears.
• Seeing people sitting outside a cafe reading a book, especially when it’s a classic (Jane Austen or Virginia Woolf or whatever).
• People saying thankyou to the bus driver
• Seeing people play cricket in the full white gear. My local cricket club has been playing all summer and to my amazement the kids seem to love it. There was a match last month between two teams of 12-year-olds, with loads of parents and locals cheering them on. They were all dressed in the traditional whites and it was just great. Not an f-ing IPhone in sight.
• A field of golden wheat with the sun setting over it.
• Horses in a field. They move so slowly and calmly. It’s a glimpse of the way life ought to be - calm and slow and tranquil, not the hyper-fast, noisy, overcrowded hell most of us now live in.
• Rural pubs in the winter, especially when they have a log fire.
• Seeing families out for a Sunday walk in the woods, especially in winter, when the kids are wrapped in endless scarves and hats.
• Watching the tractors ploughing up the fields for winter. I love the sight and smell of freshly turned earth.
• The sound of birdsong (mostly drowned out by screeching and backfiring of boy racers).

Couples holding hands, bonus points if they’re old!

Men carrying bunches of flowers.

Kids coming out of the shop clutching some neon slushy drink or a bag of sweets.

Dogs looking up at their owners to see if they’re enjoying the walk too.

Dogs, always. They just have such enthusiasm for EVERYTHING. A well-behaved, happy dog clearly living their best life will make me smile in most situations.

People playing the pianos at railway stations. I was at St Pancras the other day and a teen - he must have been no more than about 16 - was playing Total Eclipse of the Heart perfectly, his family watching proudly. Aw.

Raptors circling overhead. We get peregrines and red kites where I am.

A little nursery walking bus, they’re all in hi vis and holding hands all tethered together.
a baby who has found their voice and is chowing on loudly
birds singing
in noticing architecture now of buildings I’ve grew up near and never realised how ornate and beautiful they are.
butterflies and bees on the neighbours budleah (sp) that hangs over our fence

Dogs with a stick or a possession, always so happy.

Post box toppers - so much talent

Babies belly laughing at the silliest thing, like paper being wrapped in half, or peekaboo

The crow who visits my garden to dip his bread in my bird bath to soften it up

seeing someone vacating a space on the end of a row, near the supermarket door, when I'm actively searching for a parking space

A beautiful sunrise or sunset that seems to light up the whole sky

I once was at a fairly small museum and kept coming across a man with a very young baby (probably only a few months old) strapped to his chest. He was talking him through every single room, display and artefact as if he was giving another adult a proper full blown tour. I still smile when I think of it and think what a brilliant life that child is going to have.

It's the little things that make life worth living isn't it? Many things make me smile, mostly nature based though or my cat!

We've been trying to feed a baby hedgehog at the church behind the house, get it big enough for hibernation for the last 2 weeks. So every night we've been going armed with kitten biccies and water. Couldn't see it last night at the normal spot then realised there was movement under the bench we were sitting on, so quickly put some food down and a few seconds later we heard the loud munching of the hedgehog right by our feet. My better half and I just grinned a big grin at each other.

Wonderful thread OP, it's nice to read positive stuff on here!

Plants growing in unlikely places - weeds I suppose - in pavement cracks, up on walls, along railway embankments. Life finds a way.

Gorgeous shiny conkers in autumn leaves

Wild seas and waves crashing on shingle

A whole line of cars squeezing to the side of the road to let an ambulance go by

Yes- just this morning I was driving with my DS , as we heard the siren , all the cars moved to leave a space down the middle , like the parting of the seas .

And , on the subject of sirens , when DS was little , a Fire Engine in full on blues'n'twos , And DS would wave , one of more of the FireFighters would always wave back .

Plants which appear in my city in random places. Recently there was a tomato plant growing out of the steps in to my office. It was turfed out eventually but I was fascinated to see how far it got. Also chidren who seem happy and delightful like the little girl I sometimes see who skips to school with her bag and violin.

I love when a seed has managed to nestle in a crack in the concrete and a flower grows where it wasn’t supposed to

Those crochet postbox toppers they always make me smile.