Front porch
Aug. 20th, 2003 09:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrThings have been not so nice lately, but I'm not going to go into that, dum de dum. Instead, I'll tell you about one of my favorite coping mechanisms: hanging around on my front porch.
I live in a big ol' South Minneapolis home (built in 1916? 1918?) with a front porch, and lord, I love it. There were screens, a number of years ago, but they blew out in a windstorm and we've never gotten them replaced. I don't miss them too much. There's a huge overgrown evergreen bush-type thing, which stands at the southwestern corner of the house, and it provides a most satisfactory screening of shade until the very late afternoon. I clean off the furniture in April, right after we finish our taxes, and that, for me, is the marker of the real beginning of spring. All summer long, I eat my breakfast out on the porch most mornings and read the paper there, at the glass-topped table. We live in the sort of neighborhood that has sidewalks, unlike the suburbs, and so I can keep an eye out for kids playing in the yard and neighbors walking by. There's an overhead light so I can read out there at night if I like. I love summer night thunderstorms out on the front porch: I turn the light out for those and just sit, listening to the hiss of drops on the porch roof overhead, and the gurgle of rainwater pouring down the gutters. When people come over, it's the place I like best to have them sit when we visit.
What's your favorite sanctuary in your home?
I live in a big ol' South Minneapolis home (built in 1916? 1918?) with a front porch, and lord, I love it. There were screens, a number of years ago, but they blew out in a windstorm and we've never gotten them replaced. I don't miss them too much. There's a huge overgrown evergreen bush-type thing, which stands at the southwestern corner of the house, and it provides a most satisfactory screening of shade until the very late afternoon. I clean off the furniture in April, right after we finish our taxes, and that, for me, is the marker of the real beginning of spring. All summer long, I eat my breakfast out on the porch most mornings and read the paper there, at the glass-topped table. We live in the sort of neighborhood that has sidewalks, unlike the suburbs, and so I can keep an eye out for kids playing in the yard and neighbors walking by. There's an overhead light so I can read out there at night if I like. I love summer night thunderstorms out on the front porch: I turn the light out for those and just sit, listening to the hiss of drops on the porch roof overhead, and the gurgle of rainwater pouring down the gutters. When people come over, it's the place I like best to have them sit when we visit.
What's your favorite sanctuary in your home?
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(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-20 07:32 pm (UTC)I'm not sure I really have a sanctuary in this house. I spend most of my time in the living room, and some time in the bedrooms and kitchen, but no place that's really a true refuge except ... hmmm ... my bed. But that's true no matter where we live. I love my bed - this mattress, this frame, our bedding. I love it even more when I'm curled up with Will in it. Best place in the whole world.
I've had places in the past, though. My mom made a cloth "house" that exactly fit over our kitchen table when I was very young. All the way down to the floor, with a door and windowshade and everything. It was fun to play in when I was little, but then it also served as a great place for me to study for exams for my first two years of high school (then I got too tall to sit under the table). It was just my own little place. I had her send it to me - my nieces love it too, and hopefully my daughter will as well.
I hope the hard things in your life get better.