I was listening to Tipper Pressley on one of her Celebrating Appalachia videos on YouTube yesterday while I worked on this quilt. She was talking about her front porch and how important porches are to people…not only to those in Appalachia, but to people all over the world who have them. They expand our living space and bring us into the outdoors during the warmer months of the year. They offer safe places to relax and read or visit with friends, family, and neighbors. 

Porches facilitate community or solitude. They offer a cool place to get out of a hot kitchen during canning season. They’re a resting place when you’re too old to chase the young’uns around the yard but you still want to be a part of things. You can watch for the mailman or the newspaper or the school bus. You can wave goodbye to your loved ones as they back out of the driveway and head on home.

I’ve had some really great porches in my lifetime. One of my favorites was the farm style house I had built after a divorce. I needed my house to be as Appalachian as I could get living in the Rocky Mountains. I had dreams of living in my home state of West Virginia, but I still had a young child to raise and those dreams had to rest on the back burner. It wasn’t a huge porch, but I had plenty of sitting room and flowers and, white wicker furniture, a barn wood bench, and an old chippy-green rush-seat chair. 

My country-style porch in Colorado.

When Daughter #1 was little, we lived in an old brick bungalow that had a great front porch on it with swings. It was nice to sit out there and watch the world go by…and the traffic. It was a very busy street in Denver. I have had decks and patios that served as porches. And I’ve lived in tiny apartments with no porch at all. When I lived in my camper, the whole outdoors was my porch.

But, my favorite porch of all times was Grandma’s front porch out at the farm. We still sit out there and have a cold drink whenever we go out to mow. When I’m there for my R&R breaks, I sit out there and knit and listen to the birds. I have so much history…so many memories that include that porch. I remember sitting out there with my grandma, stringing and snapping beans to can. I still have the old roaster pan lid that Grandma used to sit in her lap and peel potatoes or shell peas into. 

This sound takes me back to the long summer days of my childhood and Grandma yelling at us kids to quit slamming that screen door!

One of my friends has the greatest porch. He designed it and had it built onto his historic red brick home and let me tell you…it is stunning. One of these days, I’ll ask him if I can come over and photograph it for you because it is truly magazine worthy.

Here at our house, we have the pool deck with the pergola on it for shade and a nice table and chairs, but that’s not really a porch, per se. There is a porch on what is officially the front of the house, but it’s just not very conducive to sitting and relaxing. It’s on the busy road side of the house so there’s a lot of traffic noise. And there is a gravel road along the side of the house so it’s really dusty out there. Maybe someday we’ll have a covered porch we can sit on and watch the rain. But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy whatever porch I might get to sit on at any given time.

We’re almost at the end of porch sitting season. I hope you’ll share a picture of your cozy porch in the comments below and tell us what makes it your special place. Give us all something to dream on.

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“My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.”

Isaiah 32:18 ESV