It’s not quite yet 9:00 AM on this Wednesday morning, my first Wednesday to not teach online class, and I am savoring this gorgeous morning that is all decked out with growing green grass, a brilliant blue sky, leaf-filled branches gently dancing in the breeze, four dogs lounging around the deck, blooming wisteria climbing around the deck’s rail and up the tree that actually grows through the rails.

Today is my Friday and I am eager to delve into three solid days of writing and researching. Sometimes, the research is cumbersome, interfering with the actual writing process; however, I do love researching and discovering, or rediscovering. My current project joins me with my great-great grandparents, Joel Monroe Jones and Anna Greenlee Jones of Boone Township, Madison County, Indiana. They were both gone by 1946 and 1950 so I never met them. I am grateful for the stories told to me by Mother, Grandma Donna, and Aunt Joyce.

I am listening to four sets of wind chimes, a number of birds that seem to accompany one of my cardinals and an audio book, MRS. LINCOLN’S SISTERS: A Novel, by Jennifer Chiaverini. I’ve played it in the background since Saturday and am rather enjoying it. It’s a fictional account, yet I am not permitting my historian-researcher cap to settle on my head so I can simply enjoy it. And, I am.

One of the four sets of wind chimes is somewhat new. The recent winds of a few weeks back brought down two branches containing wind chimes; their frames were broken beyond repair. Yesterday, I restrung all nine tubes of varying sizes and created a larger structure. This morning, I am getting to hear their premiere song as they occasionally clang in the breeze.

It’s now 9:10 AM and I am ready to get busy exploring and making it a great day in 1904, Madison County, Indiana, and in 2021 as I reach down to pet a nudging snout requesting attention.