An Evening on the Front Porch...

Creak...




Creak...




Creak...




'Creak' softly groans the swinging bench on the front porch, spurred on by the touch of my toe on the porch floor. The sun is stretching its last fingers of light around the branches of trees as it sinks into the wood-line behind the westward ravine, marking the end of another day. The birds mix their sweet chirping and chattering with the gurgle of the creeks as they flutter and fill their wings with the sun's last rays.

The warm, soft wind gently lifts the hair from my face and causes the clothes on the line behind me to ripple with life. The chickens are meandering slowly back toward their house, clucking and pecking happily to themselves. A brightly colored rooster suddenly lifts his wings and takes chase after a hen for a moment or two, but gives up when she takes cover beneath the rabbit hutches. 

The sheep are laying contentedly in the hay, chewing their cud with happy, carefree, little sheepy smiles. One notices me watching and pauses in her cud chewing to bleat in my direction, but when all I offer is a smile in return, she sighs and turns her head back to the rays of the setting sun, her jaws going back to work on her chewing. 

My flower beds along the front porch smell of freshly worked soil, mulched generously with black compost, teaming with earthworms.

Susan, one of our three milk cows, lifts her head from the water tank, leaving a stream of water pouring back from her chin into the tank. Her tongue begins to flap around, as is her strange habit, for awhile as she stares almost absentmindedly across the barnyard.

After a moment, she notices me watching and the tongue pauses. She gives me a slightly embarrassed look as she turns away, dipping her head back down for another drink. My ears are filled with the song of the night peepers partying down in the creek. Yet another sure sign of spring. Even as my eyes and ears take in these gentle, beautiful little sights and sounds, my mind is preoccupied and full, picturing all the flower starts that I had planted in the greenhouse just that morning in full bloom and wondering where they would all best display their showy colors and scents.

Should the Marigolds go behind the mailbox and the Cosmos alongside the garden fence? Or would the Marigolds appreciate the abundance of sunshine in front of the garden fence better than the Cosmos?

Creak...



Creak...



A kitty, noticing how distracted I look, hops up into my lap and immediately begins a rhythmic purr as he settles down to be pet. All at once, I realize I am terribly relaxed as the peaceful little scenes begin to work themselves into my thoughtful mind. From somewhere deep within I am releasing a sigh as a wonderful realization slowly sets in: home sweet home.

And how very blessed I am...