For some reason while I was walking Penelope this morning a quote from Maya Angelo just popped up in my mind. “This is a wonderful day. I haven’t seen this one before.” Never really pondered on it but everyday is different than the one before and the one coming after. We walked in a light misty rain this morning. My focus every morning is to look at the bird feeders and then glance up at the sky. I’m always checking for new birds and new color words to describe the clouds and sky and sunsets. The sun came out mid-afternoon and I can feel its warmth on my legs in the swing. A thin layer of soft-hued gray clouds are moving across the horizon. I can see bits of the azure blue sky in the cloud breaks.

Right now there is a very loud yard symphony playing down the street. I’ve named it “A Little Lawn Music,” with soloists by Weed Eater and Leaf Blower. Thank goodness their musical selection is finally over and I hear mine as it continues with bird songs and my wind chime percussion section’s tintinnabulation. I knew there must be a word for the music of the wind chimes. Never thought to look it up till today. That’s the new word for the day — tintinnabulation. Tintinnabulation is the bell-like ringing of wind chimes.

Remember the card catalogs in the libraries? Flipping through those stacks of cards in the little trays. I wonder if they still exist. My generation went through several long processes of research when we wrote papers in college. College students now have easier access to research with the internet. Wonder how you write a footnote for an internet quote. And I wonder if you have to have research from hard copies of books? Just looked that up, how to footnote an internet fact, and it has six steps to it. I hated typing all those footnotes at the bottom of the pages, hoping you had an inch left at the bottom after the typing. How much easier it would have been to make corrections with a computer or lap top. With a degree in English I was continually writing papers. I actually enjoyed the research but as I’ve written before I hated the Britannica encyclopedias.

Just read that libraries stopped using the card catalogs in 2015 after 150 years of service. Now they use the Online Public Access Catalog, OPAC, which is an online bibliography of a library collection. I just realized I’ve accessed that several times in my library searches. Just from my time sitting in the swing this afternoon I’ve used the internet to look up facts about bees, carrion beetles, card catalogs, wind chimes, libraries, tintinnabulation, footnotes for internet facts, and how to cook bacon a day ahead. That would have put six or seven encyclopedias by me in the swing if I couldn’t access those topics over the internet. I can’t even carry more than two encyclopedias. Need to make a little wagon for P to bring them out to the porch! Plus I accessed the weather and chances for rain the next few days, checked my bank balance, ordered groceries from Wally World, did some Amazon searching, and checked on my blog pages all while in the comfort of the porch swing. Guess I’m addicted to the internet and didn’t even realize. I’m living in the world of technological wonders and it’s amazing I can even use them!

The magnolia across the street is blooming. So pretty. The blooms look like decorations placed on the tree the way they are positioned. I used to climb to the top of the tree when I was a child. The bottom limbs have been pruned back so you can’t climb it anymore. I was hoping my grandchildren could enjoy climbing, too. The magnolia further back in the yard used to have a long limb that touched the ground. You could just walk up the tree to begin your climbing. I used to scare my mother to death climbing all the way up to the top. She’d be on the porch and I’d call her from the highest point. My children climbed these trees, too. And they called to me, too, while I was on the porch. I’m guessing the trees are at least 120 years old. They were old when I climbed them years ago as a child. I just wonder if children even climb trees anymore.

It’s dusk and the cardinal are flocking to the feeders. I can count 8 pair of cardinals. The neighborhood hoot owl has perched on a big limb in my oak tree and has stayed a long time. So beautiful in his brown and black colored layers of feathers. He has deep dark serious eyes. He looked right at me several times. I bet he was looking for a hobby horse to steal! Actually, he would have stayed longer but he was constantly bombarded by an air raiding mockingbird.

Well, I have no pondering profound lesson today. I’ve just enjoyed the world spinning around my swing perch.

“At the end of the day what really matters is that your loved ones are well, you’ve done your best and that you’re thankful for all you have.” — Gloria Shalom