If it’s Thursday, it’s time to think back on three beautiful things from my past week:

1. After biking back from an early morning jaunt to Virginia, I stopped in Georgetown for a bit. Their Business Improvement District, as with many neighborhoods’, has worked hard to reclaim public spaces and make them inviting. Today I noticed they’d recently added a porch-style swing to the seating along the walk by the canal. I sat there with a cup of tea, rocking slowly, watching the dragonflies and damselflies flit amongst the cattails and the water slowly meander over grasses toward the Potomac. (They’re currently overhauling the canal, so have let it go wild during the process.)

2. We got to the movies on Tuesday to catch Yesterday, about a 20-something singer of little success who, after awakening following a freak worldwide blackout and a subsequent accident to find that no one else remembers who the Beatles (among other things) were, proceeds to record the songs as his own. Himesh Patel as Jack Malik does a great job with the material and with portraying the stresses of both fraudulently representing someone else’s work as your own (Why did you write a song about the USSR, which dissolved before you were born, for instance), and of the changes to your life when you suddenly hit it big after years of getting by. The music is a standout, and Rudi and I were not the only ones to find ourselves singing along in the theater over the closing credits.

3. A neighbor on the next block had a large, diseased tree cut down last Friday. Normally, I wouldn’t say this was a positive thing, but the fact is that there was a large warren of rats living underneath its roots and I’m glad not to have to hot-foot it past in the dark any more. (Like any city girl, I can cope with rats on their own just fine — they’re way more scared of you and just want to get away — but saw way too many cartoons as a kid to be comfortable with them ganging up.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The crape myrtle are particularly lovely this summer.

2. We went out for pizza on Tuesday, courtesy of a Christmas gift from my parents.

3. Our baseball game Monday evening got rained out and rescheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Rudi had to work, but Sarah and I got to enjoy the perks of unemployment and spent the afternoon cheering the Nationals to victory through a gloriously sunny day game.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Fort Reno concerts started back up last week, which seems fitting because it’s impossible not to equate heat waves and the free local series, now in its 51st year, held at the highest point in the District, where even on the most miserable evening, it feels like a slight breeze gives you some relief. We introduced our new friends to the concerts and they are excited to share the experience with their teenaged nephews when they come for a prolonged visit in a few weeks.

2. Every year, the Fort Reno organizers designate one of its evenings as the Night of a Thousand Cakes in memory of the late local musician John Stabb’s birthday. Attendees bring cakes and other goodies to share, and I’ve been lucky enough to make the evening fit into my schedule several times over the years. This year, I left the baking a little late in the day and then discovered partway into the coffee cake recipe that I had no eggs and no sour cream. I did have farm yogurt, which is pretty tangy, so I made that substitution without even blinking. And did you know that you can substitute both a quarter cup of yogurt and a mixture of baking soda and vinegar for an egg? Since I needed two, I used both, which worked perfectly. We didn’t get a thousand cakes, but we did exceed Amanda’s hopes for at least ten, and a smaller crowd than usual means Rudi and I got to take home our leftovers!

3. Yesterday and today’s Tour de France stages have been filled with beautiful fields of sunflowers. Some people might watch for mountains or cathedrals or even the bike racing, but I watch for flowers — sunflowers and lavender — and coastlines.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The blackberries that grow along our garden fence are finally ripening. I have to compete with passersby, fellow gardeners, and birds, though, so most of the ones I pick are still a little on the tart side.

2. Four inches of rain fell on D.C. in a single hour on Monday morning, but mostly it stayed on the outside, where it belonged.

3. I am up to my third home-brewed ice tea success of the season. The first two were fruity herbal teas my folks gave me for Christmas a couple years back — pomegranate pear ginger and hibiscus raspberry currant — and today’s was Moroccan mint. I brew a pot at a time and then store it in the fridge in an old gallon glass milk jar. We’re out of simple syrup, but I mix it with lemonade for aromatic twists on the traditional Arnold Palmer.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I’ve probably said this before, but I love seeing superhero movies on opening weekend, because there is an incredible vibe in the theater from people who love the genre and the format and who can’t wait to find out what this story holds for them. It’s like a communal form of reading. We caught Spiderman: Far from Home on Tuesday night at the Uptown and while it wasn’t a sold-out crowd, there were a lot of people there. And you could just tell that we were all excited to find out where Marvel was going to take us in our next adventures. This iteration of Spiderman is a sweet one and this was no exception, with Peter and his classmates off on a European summer trip in which Peter plans a romantic scenario to let M.J. know he’s in love with her. We aww’ed and we buzzed and we gasped at all the appropriate moments and generally left the theater pleased with the movie and our time together.

2. Like many cities, D.C. used to have a system of streetcars to transport people around the area. Dupont Circle was home to its only underground station, built in in 1949 and used for the next 13 years until the streetcars were taken offline in favor of buses. The station spent the next decade or so as a bomb shelter, but then was abandoned until the 1990s, when a developer — obviously a guy — thought a creepy underground murder tunnel would make an excellent food court. Unsurprisingly, it failed in spectacular fashion and remained boarded up and derelict until a couple years back, when it was turned into the occasional arts space. Friday morning, Rudi and I got our first chance to attend a free event there, and we were not disappointed with the ambience, which felt like a throwback to the slightly grittier neighborhood we’d moved into.

3. Yesterday I stopped by another local farmers market to return the flat and pint containers our cherries had come in to the farmer. They were selling delicious peach lemonade, which I enjoyed while walking to the pool.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. D.C. is in the midst of a heat wave, which makes doing anything feel gross. I went to the pool yesterday evening for the last couple hours it was open for the day and it was easily ten degrees cooler there than elsewhere in the neighborhood. (It’s adjacent to a park and woods that run down to a creek.)

2. As my friend and I were walking past my building to the bar this evening after our volleyball game, we happened upon my upstairs neighbor, who was out trying to share some of her homemade cookies.

3. I made pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes last year and I finally defrosted some of it to have for supper last night alongside our daiquiris, made with strawberries I’d also frozen last summer.

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