Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. One of the houses that adjoins the back of ours has a cat they let out into the backyard periodically. The cat enjoys coming over and peering in our bedroom window. Jeremiah and Della took affront at this when it first started happening, but Della has grown bored with the whole thing. Jeremiah still likes to defend our honor, but in a non-bushy kind of way. He stands on the inside window sill, Neighbor Cat stands on the outside window sill, and they box back and forth as if they could actually reach one another. Jer looks just like he does when he’s rassling with Posey in real time. I think he won this morning’s bout because he looked very proud of himself when he eventually abandoned his post by the window.

2. Pericles was an enjoyable romp in the woods Saturday night. It was obvious that the National Shakespeare Theatre enjoyed putting it on, particularly when you saw a pirate character emerge dressed like Captain Hook from Peter Pan.

3. When I was out on the C&O Canal path this weekend, I kept my eyes open for ducklings because I hadn’t seen any yet this season. I did eventually see some on the way home — two little yellow fellows swimming by themselves as well as a wood duck family with three tiny babies (about the size of a Peep, but not as easily melted). I also saw some Canada Geese families, or maybe daycare centers. One pair had 14 young’uns; the other had 17! They were all swimming in lines, just like you see little kids in on field trips. They were utterly adorable.

Bonus beautiful thing: Our favorite Ben’s Chili Bowl counter man, David, was back at work when we stopped in last night. We hadn’t seen him in months and were afraid that he’d left Ben’s without saying good-bye. But instead he’d just gone home for 2 1/2 months for a visit, so it was good news all around.