The weather continues to be spectacular. The day is gorgeous, warm and sunny. The air is still. It will reach the low 70’s today. I’m thinking to grab some deck time with a book and some ice tea.

It is time to buy my Halloween Peeps. They need to harden. I’m a traditionalist. The orange pumpkins are my favorites. I’ll open the packages and let the air harden them. They have to get hard enough so if you tap them they make a thud sound and the marshmallow doesn’t move.

The bird feeders needed filling so the dogs and I went out to the deck. Nala did her zoomies running the perimeter of the yard, up and down the deck stairs them around the yard again. Henry just stood around wagging his tail then the two dogs ate each others’ faces. I filled four of the feeders then waited for the birds, and they didn’t disappoint me. The Tufted Tit Mouse was the first followed by the Chickadees, the state birds of Massachusetts.

The houses around the project where I lived had their own back yards. The house across the street from us had a grape arbor and a bird house on a tree. I never saw any birds. My grandparents had a bird house at the top of a pole in their backyard. They never had birds either. When I moved into my house, my brother made me a bird feeder. It was a flat piece of wood with edges. The blue jays, the pig birds, sat on the feeder and filled their mouths with seeds. The little birds stayed away. The feeder emptied within a day. I bought feeders to hang in the front yard as I didn’t have a deck yet. I watched the birds from the living room windows as did my cats, one cat in each window.

When I was a kid, life was good. My only responsibility was school. No big deal there as I liked school. I was a Girl Scout. I was in the drill team. I played CYO basketball. I was a guard. Those were the days when guards had to stay on half court, couldn’t shoot, only the forwards could, and had to defend our basket. Girls were too delicate for full court basketball. When I was in the sixth grade, I asked for girls to get to use one of the baskets in the schoolyard during recess. My teacher took me aside and explained that girls couldn’t use the basket. Only boys could play basketball, and she started talking about my friend. That’s when she lost me.

My dance card this week is uke heavy, as usual. I have practice tonight, a lesson and a concert tomorrow and a concert on Thursday. On Friday I rest!