Farmhouse Porch In Autumn...

The colors of fall...something to be savored just like it's brand new, each and every year!


How is it that twelve months going by makes us forget just how fall looks, smells, tastes, and feels?


Does Summer have a part in getting us ready to welcome Autumn?


I think so.


Good old summertime, she just wears us out.


Then, and only then, can we be ready for the season of ripened harvest, falling leaves, and dying vegetation--and golden light in the afternoons.

Leaves rain down, skipping and twirling on their way to earth.  

Once a lady stopped in here while I was having a garage sale and told me that she didn't really stop for the goodies, she just wanted to see the house.  


I let her look.  She got a kick out of it, and I enjoyed watching her look.  People love this old place.  Anytime I have a garage sale, she has admirers stop in.  


(I really love people that love old houses.)


She also said that she made her husband drive by each time the seasons changed so she could see what I had on the porch this time.


She said it was a treat for her and she wanted to thank me.


How sweet was that?


She's gone now, she died several years back but I have always remembered that, and it makes me smile to remember her whenever I change the porch out. 

There's just something about the fall....for me anyway that makes this old house even sweeter to me!


I know why...too.

Autumn happens to be the season I fell in love with this old girl.

We first saw the "FOR SALE" sign on Labor Day Weekend twenty years ago this year.

I came back to look on a still, blue-sky sunny, golden September afternoon.


The crops were fully grown and waiting to dry up.


The house looked wonderful and the big tree next to it swallowed me up in a huge hug to welcome me ... home.
.

By the time we ended up buying it, we had come back to visit several more times.  That's how it goes when you by "FROM OWNER"....it's personable--more direct.  


I was introduced to all the neighbors.  I learned the story of this old house from a girl who was now a beautiful elderly lady and wanted me to know her twin stillborn brothers were buried under the lilac bush--would I please not disturb that bush?  


The expanses of field beyond the yard invited me, warmed me, touched me.  Everything seemed big, beautiful and more open, the sky was larger.


I watched the four children that were born here in the years previous to our buying it, run and play on the emerald green lawn, saw their photos on the wall, and knew which corner of the living room their lullaby rocking chair sat in.  


I knew that the previous owner had a hard, hard time letting go of the home where she had rocked all her babies.

The months flew by until November.


We moved in during a steely gray, breezy and dark week.


I still loved it.

We soon celebrated our first Thanksgiving in her old dining room with the wainscoted walls.

It was a magical day.  As soon as Thanksgiving dinner ended, it started to snow.  It snowed and snowed until there was a perfect amount on the ground for playing in.  It was beautiful!


Then we got up from dinner, bundled up and went outside and built a snowman, just the four of us and our beagle, Lady.

I have now rocked one of my own babies here, and celebrated many, many special days and holidays with our family.


I love this old place more than I ever knew or expected I would.

Now, I welcome grandchildren home to visit, live it up with them for their time here, then wave goodbye from her porch with tears in my eyes as they drive away to go back home....

I have come to love this old place, and for more than just her looks.

I have lived one of the very best parts of my life here....raising a family.

And if it ever comes to me saying goodbye to this old girl...

I have to believe that it would break my heart, and that we would not part easily.  

How could I ever hug her back the way she has hugged me?

So much about my life here has been heartfelt and heartwarming:  the best neighbors in the world live out here and the change of seasons is one of the best things about it; the excitement of the change is palpable, each and every time.  


Farmers are good people.

Is it possible to LOVE YOUR HOME? 

For I truly think that I DO.