Ate breakfast on the porch and pondered the meaning of life. No, I did not. Just kidding. I wondered why my yard was so quiet. There was no bird symphony playing. No wind chimes singing. Cardinals, downy wood peckers, chickadees, wrens, and wood thrushes were scurrying around and eating at the feeders. I saw the most beautiful purple finch. Never seen a male with such coloring. His head was the color of ripe raspberries. He was reddish purple with a white belly. Looked like he had been bathing in raspberry juice and had dipped his head in a few more times to darken his feathers. He’d sit on top of a bird feeder pole and strike a regal pose. Probably posturing for the females. Such a handsome fellow!

I watched the storm clouds gather and thought maybe the birds were concentrating on eating before the wind and rain started. I watched the clouds boil up with rain. Never realized how many gray colors a cloud can hold. Silver, pewter, slate, smokey, ashy, faded white, dark gray, charcoal, almost black. So many shades as they pooled with rain. The horizon was darkening an angry dark bluish purple when Penelope and I came in the house. At the first clap of thunder she was ready to leave the porch. The color chart described the horizon clouds as the color porpoise.

Mother Nature quickly whipped up quite a storm. She broke a few bamboo stalks and blew my potted plants around the porch. I ran out to get my bird pillows and the wind and rain were really boisterous! Stew was yelling, “Get in the house!” Don’t think I’ve ever seen the oak trees and bamboo bent and tossed around so. The large oak trees, in the back yard of my next door neighbor, brushed his roof. Once the storm was over I took Penelope for a walk. The neighborhood barred owl flew over my head as it headed to the back yard. If I had raised my arm I could have touched it. Scared Penelope. The owl was large, bet its wing span was four or five feet. Daddy always called these owls hoot owls. They’ve been here for years. Daddy used to get mad because they’d wake him up when several of them were hooting and carrying-on. I’ve written about them before and described their hoots as saying, “Who cook for you? Who cooks for you all?” Seriously, sounds just like this. Classic hoot owl calls.

After Mother Nature’s blustering was over I sat in the swing on the porch and waited for the sunset to close the day. It was cool, like an early fall evening, very pleasant. The faithful cardinals were enjoying the bird feeders with a small flock of chickadees. A large wood thrush was running around and pecking the ground. The sky was a gloomy gray. But the sunrise will wake up the day tomorrow with a smile of warmth. And that’s all we need.

“Mother Nature brings a sense of calmness, helps us destress, and brings a greater sense of appreciation for life, which is why it’s so beautiful to see, ”—Sophia Lee.