PORCHES ARE PLEASING

When I was a little girl, my family lived in a (rented) house with a large front porch.  Oh, how I loved that porch!  It was a sort of sanctuary for me…a place to daydream, a place to sit and talk with friends, a place to catch a cool breeze on a hot summer’s day.  

And, of course, that porch (like so many other southern porches) had a swing.  I wonder how many times I pushed myself in that swing, sometimes going so high I thought my feet could almost touch the ceiling.  One of my childhood dreams was to one day own my own home with a large front porch and there would definitely be a swing and….that dream came true.

This is my swing….

And here are some others I really like…(pictures found here & there online)

This one is made from an old headboard

Love the blue color

And this one was made from a door…very creative

Surely this is the kind of swing God has in heaven😊

But there’s more to a porch than a swing…wicker furniture, flowers, hanging ferns, pillows, candles, an American flag hanging from a column, or whatever else you might fancy.  I don’t like for a porch to look cluttered but I do like it to have lots of character.

               #1

There is just something about a porch that screams SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY!  Pull up a rocking chair or glide to and fro in the swing drinking a glass of sweet iced tea, add to that a funeral fan to keep away the gnats or to create a cool breeze, and you can solve the world’s problems (well, maybe a few of them). 

                    #2

Porches can be a place for entertaining, a place for quiet reflection, the perfect place for devouring the latest best seller, or another opportunity for creating seasonal décor. 

                     #3

A porch is a place for daydreaming, for sharing secrets with a friend, for shelling peas fresh from the garden, or just a place to sit and wave at neighbors as they ride by. 

                      #4

                                #5

In the South a front porch is sometimes referred to as a veranda.  I love that word…has a romantic ring to it.  Through the years many Southern mansions (see Charleston and Savannah) have sported a veranda filled with columns and even gingerbread trim, but historians tell us that actually porches can be traced back to overhanging rocks of prehistoric times.  Doubt cavemen and women sipped on some sweet iced tea though as they relaxed on their rock porch!

                       #6

Generations ago in the deep South (my beloved home), people would often paint the ceilings of their porches/verandas a particular blue/green color referred to as Haint Blue.  Tradition said that it kept the “haints” (demons, evil spirits, etc.) away.  My porch ceiling isn't blue, but we don't have any haints (at least I haven't seen any.)  Today some people believe that a blue ceiling keeps wasps and other insects away…not sure about that.

                    #7

             #8

My children and grandchildren have always loved our porch about as much as I do.  Just the other day my granddaughter was out there in the swing reading her latest HARRY POTTER novel.  Just the sight of her brought back memories of my childhood when I would swing back & forth, back & forth, dreaming of the day I would grow up, have a family, and see my children & grandchildren swinging on my front porch, back & forth, back & forth, dreaming dreams of their own.

Front Porch on our Farmhouse style home

And Side Porch (where everybody comes)

Which of these (#) is your favorite porch?

When out of sorts with life or self,
A porch is hard to beat.
As long as you've a comfy chair
And space to stretch your feet.
---Chuck Toll