There’s a really great Bob Dylan song “My Back Pages”. My favorite version is from his 30th anniversary concert at Madison Square Gardens, with so many notables playing on it- Neil Young, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Roger McGuinn, George Harrison. So many greats, and a couple of them no longer with us.

But that’s not what’s on my mind too much at the moment. At the moment, I’m sitting on my back porch. It’s a screened-in porch, and if you’ve never lived in a house with a screened-in porch, well, you just don’t know what you’re missing.

My two cats, Tig and Bub, are out here with me, watching birds and squirrels and the occasional chipmunk. The wind chimes sound whenever a breeze wanders by. There’s a couple of birdfeeders, a tray style which the mourning doves like, and I add their milo and millet to the sunflower seed mix enjoyed by the cardinals, sparrows, and blue jays. In addition to the tray, there’s a tube feeder with sunflower seeds, mostly visited by sparrows and chickadees.

The two feeders hang from hooks atop a pole, guarded by a squirrel baffle. We got the set-up about five years ago, and still joke about the name, “The Advanced Pole System” (APS for short- the manufacturer’s idea, not ours). But the baffle really does work! And I still laugh when I see squirrels go up the pole into the baffle, and then peer out at us from underneath, clearly saying “What the hell?” But we don’t worry about the squirrels. The birds kick enough “bird chow” out to more than satisfy the squirrels’ needs.

The squirrels are a bit territorial, and the chipmunks have to sneak up, freezing when a squirrel looks their way, trying to imitate a leaf and being chased off when they notice.

Ah, the chipmunks. They live under our porch, and for a while, we paid someone to set a trap, and charge us $50 for each one they trapped. It got expensive, and it also kind of broke our hearts. So, we are currently in the “live and let live” mode. We had almost decided to “do something” (no real plan, but talking about it), when we noticed three babies sticking their heads out of the hole. And neither of us have the heart to do them in, so we coexist. I almost wish they weren’t so cute.

We also have a hummingbird feeder, and currently one denizen. Last year, we had three that came to visit, and it’s possible that the mama is nesting, and we’ll have more as the summer moves on.

And the summer is moving on. Technically it’s still spring, but the grandkids are out of school, and Memorial Day is past, so, yes, it’s summer. And, moving on this summer is, a day at a time, a minute at a time. I’ve spent about two hours on the back porch, sitting on the cushioned glider, reading, writing, and listening and watching. It’s sunny, beyond the shade, 74 degrees and there is no more perfect temperature. I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend time sitting and relaxing, and I hope your day is sweet as well.