Beautiful, dark blue cloudless sky this morning. I’m back home porching and pondering in the swing. The wind is really playing a symphony on the wind chimes. The tree leaves and the brown magnolia are leaves dancing down the street. Got popcorn in my colander, Dr. Pepper with a blue straw, and Penelope is sleeping in her pen.

I’ve been visiting my children and grandchildren. Helped with an ice cream sundae party at my granddaughter’s school on Friday morning. The third graders were so cute and so pleasant and polite with their sincere thank yous. My granddaughter was so happy to see me handing out spoons at the end of the ice cream table. She didn’t know I was coming. Had a huge smile on her face when our eyes met. She introduced me to her three little friends. So cute!

Had a wonderful weekend full of soccer games, Scrabble games, a little trampoline jumping (no didn’t do that!), played with the new chicken coup I brought my granddaughter for her little wooden doll house, ate at a sushi restaurant, ate at a Mexican restaurant, chowed down on a delicious steak from my son’s grill, watched the NFL draft and a cute movie on tv. Just so you know I ate fried shrimp at the sushi restaurant, not that brave yet.

Trying to do some porching and some pondering but the wind is terrific. Blew my beautiful geranium pot off the porch table and broke a limb. I need to get a big clay pot to plant it in. Even blew the popcorn out of the colander and the chair pillows all over the porch. But the wind didn’t bother my bird friends. The cardinals and red breasted grosbeaks fought over the feeders all afternoon. I saw a downy woodpecker and a wren and few chickadees. Across the street a small flock of Eastern bluebirds were flitting around and occasionally perching on the wall and the power lines. They never cross the street. Been seeing them for years, always across the street. A group of bluebirds is called a hermitage. The bright blue plumage on the males is so pretty. A male with out a mate can sing up to 1,000 songs an hour! Love to watch them fly around. Read they can fly 45 miles an hour if necessary. That’s a fast little bird!

May is such a beautiful month. The earth seems to be stretching her limbs after winter and getting dressed in her spring finery. Not sure Mother Nature has decided yet if spring is here. Like us she’s not sure of how to dress. We’ve had some cool nights and the wind is giving us some cool mornings. She let her trees leaf out and is letting the garden seeds pop up, letting the flowers bud and bloom. After all the challenges of winter, spring is known as “a season of hope” as nature wakes up after a winter of being dormant.

Found this quote when I was reading some definitions of spring — “At last came the golden month of the wild folk — honey sweet May when the birds come back, and the flowers come out, and the air is full of the sunrise scents and sounds of the dawning year.” — Samuel Scoville, Jr.

On my drive home early this morning I was marveling at the sunshine and the green landscape and the occasional garden and flower beds. We just usually take the changing seasons for granted. I love having four seasons and I love the changing landscape of each one. It would be so sad to live in a war torn country where spring comes to barren, scorched earth. We know that when winter is over, spring will burst forth in her glory. Our days get longer and warmer, we raise our windows for fresh air and birds songs, the grass turn green and the flowers bloom. We want talk about the mosquitoes and critters that raise their young