The Front Porch 2025

I love sitting on our front porch!  Morning coffee and checking emails, afternoon iced tea and looking at a book. How about finding shade on a hot day, just sitting on the porch in your wet bathing suit.

This coming season we intend to work a lot on the exterior of the cottage and the different outdoor spaces.  I think a little paint and a lot of love will make this area so much better.  I’m not talking about changing the chairs or even the door - which has its own issues. Just a little facelift, and making it a little more cozy. 

Consider these before pics and please check back in a couple months for some “after photos”. 😉

Fall on the Porch

I wanted to take these pictures because of the fantastic light that streams into the porch. I love to sit in this chair and read, have a cup of tea and just relax.

Jasper has his special place on the porch too.

Our Fall Bedroom

Welcome to our Bedroom in the Fall. Here is what our bedroom is looking like this year.

We have family pics on the wall, my fall quilt and pillow shams on the bed.

The window looks out onto the screen porch.. 

Here is my side of the bed. The 3 pics on the wall are some of Bob’s nature Photography. 

The small dresser was in left in the cottage when we took possession. I love the round mirror and the dresser is the perfect size to fit between the closet wall and the open door.
My kids each stained a wooden candle sticks for me 25 years ago for my birthday. There is a .Battery powered candle , fall floral in a vase I got when we were first married. 

Last is that little copper bowl has a few pinecones and a red fleece heart ❤️ my 10 year old grand daughter sewed just for me when she was at the cottage this past August!

Planting Joy

Planting Joy on the front porch

I have been to several sessions by a fun Life Coach named Deb Dunn at a local fitness center. I got a lot out of her sessions and had fun at the same time.

Deb had a great idea ..

By focusing on the people, places and activities that bring you joy, you will create a lighter and more joyful attitude, family, community and life!

She provided this cute flower and you are supposed to take pictures of it bringing joy.

Our cottage is somewhere that I feel relaxed and creative and happy and plain old joyful so that had to be the first place I took it for a picture!

Alicia got in on the "Joy" too.

Please visit Deb's website to learn more. Get it Dunn

Trimming Branches

We have been cleaning up the yard and we have needed to trim a bunch of branches off trees and clean up some dead-fall. It has been accumulating in a couple of different piles around the property. I took a couple of days to trim up lots of branches into smaller pieces to use in our fireplace and the junkiest bits will be used for a bonfire sometime soon. As fall is approaching we are already seeing the nights turning cooler. It is always amazing to me that so much work, collecting up wood and trimming it, can burn so quickly in our fireplace!

This job is satisfying to me, but not easy. I find it hard to be bending down over and over to pick up the branches and kindling and it makes me quite dizzy. I can only carry a little bit at a time, so there are a whole lot of trips carrying branches and twigs to make piles and sort them out. My physiotherapist calls it "functional exercise". At any rate I was pretty stiff the next day.

I was also collecting pine cones to use in a craft for this Christmas. I was going to leave them out on the porch, but Bob pointed out that they won't be there when we came back next time. The little squirrel that lives in the pine tree will think I made life very convenient for him.

Apples

Apples on the Porch



A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible. ~Welsh Proverb