This was a weekend full:

• of colors natural and manmade;
• of laughter and tears;
• of roadtrips;
• of quests;
• of relaxation with books, knitting, and cats;
• of people I love.

Also, I thought weekend roundups were a nice place to share my first ever bicycling challenge:

I am taking part in Chasing Mailboxes’ Coffeeneuring Challenge, which began this weekend and continues over the next six weeks. In it, I agree to accomplish seven weekend bike rides of at least two miles each roundtrip to different establishments that sells warm beverages and to consume one.

Yes, that’s right: I have to ride 14 total miles over nearly two months and to drink seven tasty beverages. I have found the perfect bike challenge!

Coffeeneuring Ride #1: Teaism
Saturday, Oct. 5

I started the weekend slowly, having slept past the event I’d planned to take part in on Saturday morning. I puttered for a while, did some chores, but failed to find any food that appealed. So, I thought, I could tie in my bike ride and coffee shop quest with a snack. By this point, it was later in the afternoon and my ride also had to include a stop at the garden, where my plants were awaiting water, parched after a week of sun and warm temperatures. Watering and picking vegetables takes time, though, even for such a small community garden spot as mine and by the time I finished up, it was getting close to 5.

My original hope for the day was to visit a coffeeshop nearby that I hadn’t yet tried. I took the L Street cycletrack over to L, but they’d put away their food. No worries, I thought. There’s a second location of Filter over by GW, and my phone suggests it’s open until 6. Not, apparently, on weekends, when it isn’t open at all.

Fine. I can start this week with a known entity: Bread & Brew is on the way home and they have a nice outdoor deck and tasty bread pudding (even if their tea leaves something to be desired). As I pedal up the hill, I notice the windows are dark and the patio deserted. They, too, were closed.

By this point, I’d pretty much given up hope, but then realized sometimes your heart’s desire can indeed be found in your own backyard: Teaism in Dupont Circle is 1.5 blocks from my house, but after all the other shops I visited, I completed the day’s ride with 3.11 miles under my belt.

I celebrated with chai and naan, my teahouse version of tea and cinnamon toast:

(Weekending along with Amanda.)

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I am not a fan of coleslaw, but the slaw that accompanied my lunch from the Cirque Cuisine truck was delicious — cabbage, celeriac, pumpkin seeds, and cilantro topped with a maple-cider vinaigrette.

2. [Reaching into his bag]: “I picked you up something today.” [Hopefully]: “Is it sugar?” [Proudly]: “It is sugar!” [Delighted]: “Yay!”

3. Our friend Sam was in town for a conference. We got to try a new restaurant just the three of us on Friday and then on Tuesday, we joined a couple of his other college friends at another restaurant, where we sat on their homey backyard patio for hours. And tonight we had one final dinner and ice cream with dear friends Amani and Marcus before they move across country.

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

It’s been a full week, with festivals and visits from an old friend and cleaning, so the post where I was going to get a little caught up by telling you about the National Book Fest will have to wait (although at least now photos are off my phone).

In the meantime, I’ll join with Ginny and share what I’m reading and crafting:

Work continues on my shawl, but it’s now reaching the halfway mark, which makes it cumbersome to carry around with me. Plus, during the aforementioned festivals, it’s nice to have mindless knitting to work on and that means a stockinette sock. The yarn is Tangy Self-Striping Sock Yarn in Purple Rain from Twisted Limone Designs, and I love it.

On the reading front I’m all over the place. I’m listening to an audiobook while cleaning and, otherwise, I’ve got three titles on the go: Virals, which I was reading a month ago and then put down because it got more stressful than I wanted from my reading (but since the library would like it back, I’ve circled back to it); Flight Behavior by the wonderful Barbara Kingsolver (who is one of my favorite writers of all time); and Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked, a middle grade title by Jarrett J. Krosoczka about a rookie platypus police officer. I saw it at Politics & Prose when I was up for their last member sale, but passed it by at the time. Later that week, I was at the library and didn’t repeat the decision.