Today was warm enough to do some porch pondering. Penelope enjoyed her porch time and I loved watching all the birds in the yard. The sky was overcast but the collection of cloud colors was so pretty. I’m almost out of bird seed so tomorrow will be a bird banquet of fresh seeds and suet. Mr. Downy Woodpecker has enjoyed the hot pepper suet. I always think he’s so dressed up in his black and white checkered suit and little red beret, cocked on the back of his head. He discovered the suet cage outside the lady den windows and has been out there most of the day. Birds are immune to the hot pepper’s burning taste and don’t digest the seeds. But the raccoons can taste the hotness and once they get a taste they leave those feeders alone.

Got my animal trap today and took me forever to figure out how to set it. I read the instructions ten thousand times and finally got it set. I put a handful of dog food and two marshmallows in the trap. Last summer I borrowed my nephew’s trap and he chunked a few marshmallows in there and when dusk fell, we caught the raccoon immediately. I have three raccoons I’ve seen wandering together so I hope I can get them gone before they round up of some more thieving relatives. Still haven’t found the two suet baskets they took down.

Sunset today was beautiful in purple and blueberry and honey shades. The horizon was painted a pale gold and the layers of clouds were brush stroked by Mother Nature’s watercolors in layers of vanilla and gold and blueberry purple, their shades pale and ethereal where they melted together. Cotton ball clouds, high in the sky, looked like pie meringue, their rounded tops kissed golden by sunlight. The sun strutted down the stage, escorted by Father Sun, resplendently dressed in a gown of flaxen gold silk, walking between layers of blueberry and honey colored clouds. As twilight swept over my yard, the sun turned out the day’s light and Father Sun went to wake the moon and stars, hiding in their cloud covers, to say goodnight to the day. And the night woke in its vevelty blackness, heavy with clouds.

There are so many beautiful quotes about sunrise and sunset. I think this quote is one of my most favorite. “A sunset is the sun’s fiery kiss to the night,” Crystal Woods. Such a short but accurate description of the glorious end of each day. Some days the horizon will light up like a blazing wildfire and it’s wondrous to watch the flame colors blaze across the horizon and pale as they burn out. I like this one, too, and I’ve seen the layers of clouds at sunset that do look like Neapolitan ice cream. “If I could lick the sunset, I bet it would taste like Neapolitan ice cream,” Jarod Kintz. Tonight’s lick of the sunset would have tasted like a three layer blueberry dessert.

Sunrises and sunsets are predictable things that happen each day. We don’t worry about the sun not rising tomorrow. Even when the sun is hidden by clouds on the darkest of days, the sun is still shining down on us. God is always faithfully shining his love and light on us on our darkest days, too. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” John 8:12.

We know tomorrow will come with a glorious sunrise announcing a brand new day. Another day for us to give thanks to God for our gift of life, thanks for a day of new hope and new wishes. Psalm 65:8 reads, “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.”

God is faithful like the sun. We can always count on him. We can always have joy in our hearts when we have faith in our Lord. He can light the darkness and put a rainbow in the heavens of our hearts.

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” — Victor Hugh