Back in the swing with my bagel this morning. Penelope is on snake patrol if she can stay awake. That dog sleeps her life away. Wish I could record the bird symphony today. So loud and pretty. Sounds like happiness. Claude Monet said, “I would like to paint the way a bird sings.” That’s my yard today.

The sky is a nondescript white. Can’t find the correct word to describe it. When I hold up the white color chart the color chiffon matches, but to me chiffon is a brighter white. The closest I can get to describing it is an old white T-shirt washed a thousand times. The sun just bleached out the T-shirt sky and my blue sky is back. There are a few fluffy white clouds highlighted on the bottom with gray but they are slowly clearing out. It is summer hot today in the sun.

I have a flock of goldfinches in my yard this morning. Most of the males have all their yellow feathers now and they are so handsome specially when they are sitting by a male cardinal. I call that my bird crayon box. The female finches are pretty with their muted colors of grayish brown and yellow. God highlighted their backs with a few strokes of his yellow paint brush. All the cardinals are here with a few chickadees and titmice. My little wren friend was on the back deck this morning.

I brought all the deck bird feeders in last night so Grandpaw retaliated by digging in all the planters out there. I have a big iron rooster that holds a large flower pot. Stew saw a raccoon, several night ago, sitting in the flower pot while Grandpaw was foraging in the bird feeders. Guess I need to call animal patrol and have them trapped and removed. Some one told me to wrap metal around the deck posts. Looked at baffles for deck posts and they cost over $100. I’ll just quit hanging feeders on the deck or just put humming bird feeders out back. My friend said the raccoon would probably drink the sugar water. He’s a tough old goat and huge. He’s probably passed the weight limit of a mature raccoon.

Been sitting in the swing and looking at how pretty my scuppernong vine is. It slowly getting leaves and they are so pretty and green when the sun hits them. Been tying the branches on the trellis since last year, trying to train them. The main vine was cut back by the yard workers and didn’t make any fruit last year. I’m hoping to have a crop this year and do some jelly making.

My mother loved scuppernongs and would drive a 100 miles up in the country to get a paper sack full. She would sit in the swing and eat them and chunk the seeds over the bannister. For some reason we never noticed the vines till several years ago when they covered the bushes by the steps and were covered in fruit. Chief picked a couple of Wally World sacks full and I made jelly. I was so happy to give the jars of jelly to my brothers at Christmas and I labeled it Mama’s Scuppernong Jelly. I can see her right now sitting in the swing and enjoying them. I don’t like them because I hate seeds in things. I used to make cobblers out of them for Chief. He loved them seeds and all.

Years ago one of Chief’s friends invited Chief to come and get some scuppernongs. His friend said his vines were loaded with them and he hated them going to waste. Chief brought so many plastic bags of them home I wanted to cry. I made jelly and froze enough juice to end up making a hundred jars of jelly. I froze the juice in milk cartons. Was a long time before I used up all that juice up. Took forever to cook all of them and I remember the fruit flies that came with them.

I’m thinking a scuppernong vine is a lot like life. The vine is rooted in the ground like we’re rooted in our faith and in our families. The vine can be our family circle. The stems need support and something to attach themselves to just as we need the support of family and friends in our lives. Think how determined a vine is, their long thin flexible stems, reaching out for something to grab onto. The vine is the source and sustenance of life for the branches. The vine depends on nature for sun and rain. I think God and our faith are our sustenance in our life’s vine. I guess my vine is my faith and its rooted with a deep love of my family.

As we grow and mature, we branch out of our family. We grow our own vines rooted in our own lives with our spouses and children. We need to care well for the branches of our lives so they can bear fruit. Our family stems need support. They need connection to faith and family to grow. They need friendships to sustain them and they need determination to reach out and hold on and to be strong enough to face life’s hardships.

As Max Lucado said, “The duty of the branch is to cling to the vine.” And Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” John 15:5