It's Porch Season!

Dear Diary,

As soon as I opened the car door when I returned on Monday I smelled it.  Lilacs!  They are in full bloom now and their aroma surrounds my house.  When I first bought my house back in 1995 the house was literal engulfed in lilacs.  Some had to be removed for house repairs and some succumbed to a terrible ice storm.  Those, at the end of the house, made way for my screen porch.

I love porch season, when Emerson and I can enjoy the breezes and birdsong on lazy afternoons. I am writing a poem along the top of the walls.  This is the opening line.  The table is decorated with my mother's Blue Willow tea set and her favorite blue vase holds the freshly picked lilacs.  Grandma Tillie's crochet doily is under the vase and Grammie Creed's crochet table cloth finishes things off.  My cousin gave me the chairs from her old cottage and I recovered them.  Two of the blue plates hanging on the wall were gifts from friends who know my passion for china.

Yes, the porch is hard to beat for a restful retreat and where I can enjoy all the people who are or have been a part of my life. They may not be physically with me on that porch but through these objects they remain close to me.  The last line of the poem reads:

A porch restores one's sense of place,
Shows how all fits together,
Revealing ties that ease the heart
In any kind of weather.
- Chuck Toll