Favorite Place

 Dust off those dashboards and flex the fingers! It's a blog challenge! Of course you can write about anything you want, but some of us are choosing to start with our favorite place. As someone who aspires to travel often, this is a daunting task. I could try to write about London, or wax poetic about Westminster Abbey, a place I could sit and observe for a full day and still feel I was missing something critical. I cannot always travel, so it's important to have an easy-access space where one can still capture the sense of relaxation or delight or soul searching that one tends to do in their favorite place. So far my favorite near-at-hand place is my back porch. It's my first mid-western three-season porch, and it's not perfect yet as my favorite space, but it will be.

In Fargo where wind and mosquitoes can drive a person indoors early in the evening, three season porches are almost a necessity! Our 1916 home located on a busy street so the covered front porch doesn't offer a lot of privacy, though it is nice enough on lazy summer evenings when traffic dies down for the day. The back yard is over-run with weeds and cluttered with a hot tub, a swingset, a sandbox. I will only mention in passing the dogs and the dirty little bombs they drop to further the point that this is not where I want to spend my time reading a book. Considering I can't leave the house at 8 pm for a casual stroll or a relaxing drive, the   back porch has often been my escape. It's three sides have nine windows (two next to the door, four on the long wall and three opposite the door). I love the feeling the pulley/weight mechanisms in the old windows, the sturdy sight of the framed screens snapped in to place, and the way the brittle glass rattles when I have to shut them. Unfortunately, they aren't energy efficient by any stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn't change them for anything.

When we bought the house, the porch had a grey painted floor and mint green walls. It was rather hideous. A few years ago, I enlisted some help from the family and we painted that sucker a dark brick red. I love it! It's a pop of color when we drive up at night and the porch light is on. It's a bit unexpected especially contrasted to the grey, white, and black outside. I love the way the red contrasts all the white trim inside, though, and I really don't care if it's keeping in character with the 1916s design or not.

In the past, I had an armchair out there that I picked up at a rummage sale. It was a faux distressed shabby chic sorta thing with a springy seat and wood arms. I'd sit out on the porch, open all the windows, and let the summer night sooth me. It was, however, not very comfortable for reading and it didn't take long for pets to ruin it. Another problem was once I was sitting in the chair, I could not see outside well. It was just too low.
I had candle stands out there, a bookshelf, and other decor to make it more cozy. McKenna had a table and chair where she could do her art work and use PlayDoh. It was a decent place to get out of the house but not be subjected to all the annoyances already mentioned. After she went to sleep, I often slipped out there to decompress from the day. I'd listen to the elm trees and the wind and catch the buzz of the baseball game two blocks away, the fireworks from the FargoDome, and, my favorite, the music from SideStreet Bar & Grill wafting upriver on the hot dark night.

The porch has fallen into a state of chaos this year. The Shih-Tzus have peed and pooped on the floor, strewn garbage through out it more than once, and their muddy paw prints are all over. It contains our recycling bins, a catch all cabinet for junk, and piles of crap to sell at a garage sale or to donate at Savers.
My chair has been tossed out and a plastic outdoor storage bench is in its place. The trees have all been cut down by the city and I have only one scraggly looking pine to judge the wind speeds.

I think one of the first priorities of spring now will be to restore my get-away into a serene paradise again. I don't know if I want to wait to find cool pieces at garage sales again, though. It might take an investment to find furnishings that allow me to see out, are dog-proof, and kid friendly. No white linen couches, in other words, though doesn't that sound relaxing?