The sky was lovely early this morning.

Glory be! D.C.’s parks are likely going to reopen on Friday. I took this shot as I passed by our park recently. I’m sad I wasn’t able to hang out there during iris season, but obviously public safety is more important than my desire to spend time in pretty places.

If I can get my act together to actually shut my computer down at 3 when the “office” “closes” on Friday, I am absolutely going to take a book up to the park and sit up there and read. (Work is super busy with personnel transitions this week and next and lots of deadlines coming up or overdue, so it may be closer to 5, but still…) I will probably take one of our portable chairs with me, because I don’t really want to touch shared surfaces any more than necessary, but I am going to be outside!

Phase 1 of reopening also allows people to get haircuts, but not pedicures. I’m not really sure what the specific difference is there, but I’m not going for either anytime soon.

I went for a bike ride this evening in Georgetown. I had meant to go to the pond at Constitution Garden to visit some water fowl, but instead decided at the last minute to see what the Potomac River and C&O Canal had to offer.

They are several years into construction on some of the locks closer to the mouth of the canal, which means that several miles of the canal upstream from downtown Georgetown have been allowed to grow fenny. I knew they’d become overgrown, but hadn’t understood exactly how solid the ground now was until I saw deer walking in the canal itself.

First I saw this young buck on the far side:

I had a hard time getting the camera to focus on how very velvety his horns looked.

Maybe half a mile down the towpath, I spotted a doe’s head poking up from below the bank on my side of the canal. I hopped off my bike and walked back, speaking quietly to her, because clearly she’d seen and heard me already.

While she kept an eye on me, she just seemed more wary than worried. In fact, she started walking even closer. (These shots are not zoomed in at all.)

Sometimes, you just have to scratch that itch on your head, no matter who’s watching, right?

After that, I headed home. No duckling sightings today, but up-close deer are just as good.

I discovered this mural on Hughes Mews, a little dead-end alleyway in Foggy Bottom, while Rudi and I were out for a late afternoon/evening constitutional.

Mum made the mask, which matches an apron she made me for my birthday several years back. She also sent one made from the same material as the curtains in my brother’s and my childhood bedroom, plus one more in a navy material that I didn’t recognize (but that I would guess came from a suit she made herself).

When you live in the middle of the city, there is no going out of the house without a mask on. Or, at least, this is true if you are us. Cases in D.C. are on the rise and critical care beds in Montgomery County, Maryland, directly to the north of us, are full. Other people may feel cavalier about this information, but I’m not. Our sidewalks aren’t wide enough to give people the suggested six-foot berth they suggest is minimally acceptable, which pushes someone out into the street, and that’s if both of us are wearing masks. If you’re not wearing a mask, I assume you are disregarding other health recommendations and try to get even more space.

So, I’m grateful to Mum for the masks, because that stretches a little further how long we can go between loads of laundry. We are nearly out of quarters, so Rudi is going to see if he can find a bank that’s open where we can get a couple rolls on Monday morning. We had more than three rolls at the start of quarantine, because I suspected we’d need them; now I wish I’d gotten two more, since the closest bank to us has suspended its operations for the time being. And since everyone wants you to use a credit card right now, it’s not like I can just use the change I’ve gotten during the week. Although if we can’t find a bank, maybe Rudi could start paying for our weekly day-old bagels with a $10 and asking for a couple bucks in quarters with our change. They and the egg people at the market are the only people I know who still prefer cash.

Okay, I’ve rambled on enough. Time to wash the day’s dishes and go to bed!

Some people have yard flamingos. Others have yard mammoths. (Their yard was not especially bigger than their decoration.)