Well, Grandpaw raccoon checked into the Cage Hotel last night. He enjoyed the marshmallows and cat food! He’s had a shower from the rain and is waiting for my nephew to check him out. Took Penelope for a walk between rain showers and she didn’t notice him, thank goodness. He’s close to the bushes. I put her in the playpen while I did some porch pondering and she’d occasionally sniff and growl. She knows he’s around. I just wonder how many are here living in the bamboo. Stew has seen four of them together many times. They used to party outside the bathroom window upstairs.

I know the raccoons were laughing about the time Grandpaw turned the water valve on high on the commode upstairs and sent 40,000 gallons of water washing down the toilet. Thank goodness the water just kept running down the bowl and didn’t overflow. The bathroom was covered in greasy raccoon hand prints. The Roanoke Utilities office called us in Alexander City and asked Chief if we were building a swimming pool! It’s funny now but wasn’t then. And yes we had to pay the $800 water bill. The city graciously knocked $100 off the bill. Want a good laugh, search for my blog titled, “Raccoon Party.”

Sat in the swing on the porch after breakfast when the rains had stopped. You can tell bad weather is near. It’s hot now and then a cold breeze blows. We’ve had hot sun and blue sky and strong wind and torrential rain. Now the sun is out, blinding white. The wind is again picking up and bringing heavy rain filled clouds back to the sky. Nature is quiet, anticipating an angry storm.

Been reading on this rainy day, looking for inspiration. Jotted down lots of quotes on my scraps of paper. Still haven’t broken that habit. Came across this quote by William Wordsworth, “Fill your papers with the breathing of your heart.” I think that is a beautifully written quote. I always loved Wordsworth’s poem, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud. The poem was written after he walked in the woods with his sister and saw a big field of daffodils near a lake. “I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils; beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze…”

Never thought of a cloud as being lonely but that’s an interesting thought. The clouds look down on Mother Earth as they aimlessly float in the sky, slowly drifting with no direction. Changing shapes and changing colors, lonely and thoughtful. They see all. I guess some of us float as clouds through our lives, always looking for the field of daffodils. Sometimes you don’t even have to look, the blooms just appear when you need them, dancing and swaying in the wind. Symbols of hope and joy. Other times they’re gone and you don’t have the wherewithal to search for them again. I think I’m lucky with my field of daffodils. There always seem to be a bloom close by when I need it and I try to nurture these blooms and keep them close to my heart.

“Then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils,” — William Wordsworth.