Ride #6 of the 2020 Coffeeneuring season was to the coffee place with the best name, which is saying something since I’ve already visited a place called The Roasted Boon.

Harpeth Swill
1801 Wyoming Ave., N.W.
Saturday, Nov. 14, late afternoon
Conditions: Pleasant

Harpeth Swill has two locations in D.C. now. I went to the original location in Adams Morgan, which is also, I believe, where Sweet Science got its start.

Harpeth is the Tennessee river near where the founder grew up, which could potentially make the name slightly less interesting. But I argue that for a Southernesque coffee outfit, heavily invested in the Mason jar aesthetic, it still works. They are a cold-brew shop, which means they have put their fireplace and their counters to good use, as you can see in the shot above.

This year has just been a challenge for my getting out of the house early enough to do rides properly, so this was, once again, eked out just before closing time. (To be fair, everyone is also closing earlier this year, so it’s not entirely on me.)

I locked up to a street sign, because there were no bike racks on this section of block, but it is just across the street from a Cabi station, should you want to arrive via a borrowed ride.

I opted for a chai tea and a Whisked pretzel cowboy cookie, which I consumed on their patio in a rocking chair while reading. (They were technically closed by this point and this was the only furniture left.) It was probably closer to the sidewalk than I would have preferred, so I kept pulling my mask back on, but it worked for the half hour I was sitting there.

Mileage: 3.35 miles

If you’re looking for inexpensive flowers, Trader Joe’s is a really great source. These are from the past two Sundays. The blue pitcher was scrounged out of a freebie pile (one of the best things about city living…).

My office generously gave us all next week off from work, which means I get my first prolonged stretch of time mostly for myself this year. Sure, would I have preferred to spend that time in Connecticut with my family and my BFF? Definitely. Would a good back-up plan have been to spend it here in D.C. with Rudi and my local pals doing a Friendsgiving? Absolutely. Is this 2020, when the lessons of making the best of things and making do and making new traditions is hammered home again and again? Yes, yes it.

So, I will do that. What will my time off include?

• Lots of reading. I picked up this pile at the local library this evening and have two more books waiting at other branches for me. The mid-Atlantic has adopted a pathetic fallacy for its Thanksgiving week forecast, so I believe I should have plenty of time to cross a bunch of these (and some others) off my TBR list.
• Knitting. I just have the toe decreases left on my second sock, so those will definitely be wearable on Thanksgiving. Once that’s done, do I pick up projects I put down partially knit or start something new?
• Cooking and baking. My Thanksgiving meal is still evolving, but I’m narrowing in on it. I’m also thinking that I’m just going to bake every day and maybe see if local friends or my upstairs neighbors are interested in braving my germs. (All fair if they aren’t. This isn’t a normal year.) At the very least, I’ve got a couple pies (or maybe mini pies?) on my to-make list and want to give some thought to Christmas cookies. And I still have dozens of tomatoes I need to do something with.
• Prepping the apartment for Christmas. This is sort of a catch-all item that includes cleaning up my living room so there’s room for a tree, putting new batteries in the fairy lights, and
• Making some progress on my Christmas to-do list. I’ve been working off and on on this year’s Christmas mix and should start working through a playlist. I bought stamps for Christmas cards (also already in hand) this week. The local bookstore is having their quarterly sale and the downtown holiday market has come up with a socially distanced shopping plan. Rudi and I need to talk through virtual tree-trimming parties.
• Biking and spending time outside. I haven’t been great at finding that midday break from work to get outdoors, so I’m definitely going to take advantage of unfettered access to daylight (even if it’s behind clouds) this week. I also still have potatoes in the ground in the garden that I should dig up.
• Having at least one more Netflix date with Rudi.
• Writing postcards to Georgian voters!
• Holding a bunch of video chats with friends and family. We have several in the planning stage, but no set times, so I will need to marshal folks into order in the next couple days.
• Catching up on sleep.

Yes, that does look a lot like my normal weekends these days, but that’s probably okay. If I can make it to next weekend feeling less exhausted and burnt out and on edge (or maybe just one of three, since this is 2020), I’ll feel like the time has been spent well.

How’s your weekend looking?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I went for a pre-work bike ride today in an effort to actually see daylight in person. There was frost on the grass, but the sun was out and the air wasn’t unpleasantly cold (although it did remind me I should look for my other knit headband). Plus, I got to stop and pick up a bag of bagels on my way home.

2. In prepping for my weeklong staycation, I’ve requested a whole heap of holiday reads. Each morning, I get a nice ping about which ones are waiting for me. I’ll be running over to the local branch tomorrow evening to pick a pile of them up.

3. I ran into Rudi’s friend Matt at the concert last Saturday. It was nice to chat with someone I knew in person for a few minutes.

How about you? It’s been a rough month. What’s been beautiful in your world?

I have reached the last stripe of my sock’s foot before I start the toe decreases. By this time next week, I will have a finished pair of fall socks!

I also hope to have returned this book to the library by then, with all my field hockey girls and guy ready to head into the 1990s with a better sense of their future. I’ve left them in Salem after a night at Papa Gino’s on Halloween for a couple of weeks now, and it’s probably best to propel them the rest of the way through their senior year season.

On audio, I’ve started Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert. I don’t usually bunch books in a series, so it’s a testament to the fact that I enjoyed the first book in the Brown sisters series that I’m listening to this in 2020.

Head to As Kat Knits to see what others are reading and knitting.

Sweet Science
35 N St., N.E.
Sunday, Nov. 8, afternoon
Conditions: Pleasant

A week ago Sunday, it was a lovely day and I wanted to get in a slightly longer ride, so I decided to head to Sweet Science, which had opened back in January. This is where I was going when I ran across The Roasted Boon last month. It’s just as well I changed my plans; that day I had enough time to get to where I thought Sweet Science was, but not actually to where it is.

NoMa is sort of a created business district, built out of several older neighborhoods and comprising a historic area once known as Swampoodle. It’s north of Union Station, and includes Uline Arena (where the Beatles first played in the U.S. and now home to an REI), NPR’s new headquarters, Union Market, and Gallaudet University. Sweet Science is tucked into the very edge of the neighborhood, at the boundary of Near Northeast and Eckington.

When Rudi asked me where exactly Sweet Science was, I had a ready answer: on the block that ends at The Chicken and the Egg statues!

(It should be noted that neither photo does justice to the size of these statues. The utility box the chicken is standing on is about six feet tall, and the egg is at least ten feet tall.)

Anyway, back to my visit!

Sweet Science had some of the most interesting drinks I’d seen in a while and I ended up ordering a Goat Noir — steamed goat’s milk and dark chocolate sauce — which made for a very earthy (albeit less smooth than cow’s milk) hot chocolate. It reminded me of these amazing chocolate chèvre cheese balls one of the farmers at our local market introduced last Christmas. I paired it with a sweet potato biscuit and their homemade seasonal cranberry jam. Everything was delicious, and I’d easily recommend both. You could even buy a jar of their jam!

There was plenty of indoor seating, but outside you had to rely on benches. Luckily, there was a free one facing into a tree box and hemmed in on the street by a construction vehicle, which gave me the opportunity to turn my back to the sidewalk and eat and drink without feeling too vulnerable from others walking by in close proximity. With a number of bike racks on the block, I look forward to returning with Rudi once he’s back in town.

Total mileage: 7.75 miles