Ate breakfast on the porch this morning perched comfortably in the red porch swing watching a male yellow American goldfinch flit around the feeders. He’s so handsome in his bright yellow plumage and shiny black wings. I saw a few female goldfinches yesterday, beautiful in their muted cinnamon and honey colored feathers. The breeze is chasing the brown magnolia leaves down the street. I look up expecting to see a jogger but just see a tumbling line of leaves. Fall is trying her best to show up but Mother Nature wants a few more days of summer.

When I sat down in the swing, I noticed I had greasy raccoon foot prints all over the porch. That little devil of a raccoon took a suet basket off a bird feeder pole in the yard, brought it over to the porch, and partied till the suet was gone. Left the basket by the front door, guess he thinks I’m going to fill it up again for him. I only have one bird feeder pole that’s wide enough for a raccoon to crawl up so I took it up and changed the feeder poles around. I put hot pepper suet in the basket and hung it back up. That kind of suet is supposed to deter squirrels so maybe it will work on the raccoons. Honestly, sometimes I think I should buy a bag of critter food and put it out in the backyard for the squirrels and raccoons and chipmunks. But I know that would attract more raccoons.

The breeze was so wonderful this morning, cool and fresh, strong enough to make the wind chimes clangor with a loud boisterous fall sonata. After a few hours of bird watching, I went in the house to watch the Auburn and Alabama football games and returned to the porch at dusk. All was quiet except the circling chimney swifts, chattering excitedly in their spherical flights around the house, enjoying their supper time of insects. Eventide is invading my yard, getting ready to bed down the day and say hello to the darkness of night.

I sat in the swing with my cup of coffee to watch the coloring of the sunset. There were only a few clouds where Father Sky had briefly drug his gray pastel stick across the sky canvas. The sun set as a glowing yellowish-orange ball, slowly dropping down the horizon as peachy pink hues spread across the landscape, so beautiful in contrast with the jet black silhouettes of the large oak trees. On the left of the horizon I watched three small clouds briefly turn turquoise. These turquoise clouds dissipate so quickly, their beauty fading as you watch them. Before the porch party lights popped on I could see Father Sky only pinned the North Star to twinkle in the dark sky so as not to wake the moon sleeping under a thick cover of clouds. This day is gone, never to come again, but we have the promise of the dawn of another day.

My friend wrote today “to be with you and Chief, to share a hug, a front porch swing seat, and a conversation was the best of life’s simple pleasures. Always a delightful moment and a bonus was your sweet tea and a nibble from your stove.” What a great compliment! I’ve always said life’s simple pleasures are the most wonderful of our experiences.

The world turns so fast now we are missing out on these moments with our families. Cell phones and talking in texts has driven us away from face to face conversations. Our children are losing the art of conversation. They are missing the world’s beauty out the car window when traveling. A thousand channels on our smart tvs have taken away our family time and are baby sitting our children. Porch sitting or sitting in the yard at dusk is so relaxing and it’s so beautiful to watch the day end and the night begin. Now that the weather is cooling off in late afternoon maybe I can persuade you all to put down your technology and sit on the porch or out in the yard and enjoy the gloaming.

“What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” –E.M. Forster