Beautiful porch swing day! The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the wood thrush is bathing in the bird bath. All is well with my little world. Nature is bringing me peace today. That wood thrush is a thorough bather. His mother won’t have to check under his armpits. He almost splashed all the water out. He a bold bather! Some think the wood thrushes call “ee-oh-lay” is the most beautiful of bird songs. I love my birds. I feel they are gifts from Chief.

I’ve been watching a flock of cedar waxwings encircle a large holly tree across the street. You just have to see them to understand. It’s like a miniature tornado of birds circling the tree and consuming the berries. When they leave the tree their circular flight pattern brings them close to my yard and when they turn I see a flash of the beautiful yellow feathers on their bellies. I’d love to have a box of crayons in cedar waxwing colors. Might need to be a box of pastels to blend all the subtleties of their coloring, a blend of brown, grey and lemon yellow. They sport a subdued crest and a black rakish mask. Their tail feathers have a stroke of bold yellow on the end and their middle wing feathers are tipped in red. So pretty in flight. Wish I had some berries in my yard to attract them. I have to watch them from afar. When I was reading about the cedar waxwings I learned a flock of them is called a museum. That’s neat!

Oldest brother came by and we had our daily bird conversations. He’s missing his beautiful flock of little American goldfinches. So am I. Decided to jot down all the birds I saw visiting my yard today. Some on the feeders, some on the suet baskets, some on the bird baths, and some in the air. Others just perched on a limb of the big oak tree. I saw a turkey vulture, he was soaring high and riding the air currents. The other birds included my daily flock of cardinals, two wood thrushes, a wren, a large flock of cedar waxwings, a nuthatch, mourning doves, Eurasian collared doves, a downy woodpecker, two eastern bluebirds, a wren, two tufted titmice, a couple of chickadees, and a red tailed hawk. Didn’t see my sparrow friends today. Heard some blue jays and mocking birds but didn’t see them either. The hawk didn’t steal any bird for breakfast just scared everyone off the feeders and probably gave the birdies indigestion.

Saw a white butterfly, then decided it might be a nighttime moth. It had such an erratic flight path I was thinking it woke up in the bright sunshine and didn’t know how to fly in the light of day. Internet says it’s probably a European cabbage butterfly, the most common white butterfly. He or she needs to go back to flight school. I love the ease of research on the internet. I’ve researched so many things today if I had used Chief’s encyclopedias the pile by my chair would be as tall as my chair. One day I’m going to break out the encyclopedias. Chief will be so proud.

One of my favorite Tom Bodett quotes is “A person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.” I have family and friends I love and they love me. I love my dog Penelope and I love my song birds. I have lots of things to do and writing my daily pondering is one of my things to do. Lots of things I should do but that’s for another day. Something to hope for — a cure for cancer, world peace? I don’t know, never really think about what I hope for. I hope to live a long healthy life and see my grandchildren with their children. I hope to be reunited in heaven with Chief and Rosie. I hope my family always have safe travels and health and happiness. I hope they always wake to sunshine and bird songs. Let me know what you hope for.