We told the realtor: “the porch swing is included in the deal, or no deal.” The house had a big white wraparound porch. How could the sale not include the porch swing?
It would have been a porch sitting day too, but only after that scorching ball of heat went to bed. It was mid-August, 1996. And it was 103 degrees. Normally my favorite season, August moving into September, I was distracted by the heatwave and imagining myself on the porch swing watching the leaves change color. I was imagining “Home.”
After the papers were signed and the deal was closed, we didn’t move that swing. We couldn’t have improved on the spot. It hangs where I can watch the sun go down in between big leaf maples, vine maples, and lots of floppy head hydrangeas in the bluest blue I can coax my soil into producing. (They weren’t there when we moved in, but as you can see, someone has gone a little nuts.)
(A clue to the color: it’s the acidity or alkalinity of your soil that has a lot to do with the color of your hydrangeas. I have alkaline soil, but I use plenty of Aluminum Sulfate during the growing season to create an acid soil and to move my typically pink hydrangeas into the blue range.
How to describe the best blue ever? Is it cerulean? Cobalt, indigo, Lapis Lazuli? Blue porcelain from Holland or bits from the right side of sky in Vermeer’s “View of Delft?” Heaven knows I’ve stared at that painting long enough. I’ve spent equally long hours with my blue hydrangeas, knowing that they will change in autumn to dusky hues in tints of purple and wine. I’ve put in a lot of shade loving plants in the border, but I can’t seem to get enough hydrangeas. Hydrangeas have a way of making me happy every year; outdoors and in big vases of blue inside. They can be a mess, but I don’t really care.
Deep blue hydrangeas are one thing that I live for.
At 7:00 p.m. or so in mid-summer, the sun is so strong that tiny squares of light hit the pillows through an old straw hat. The wraparound porch faces north, so if I face west in the swing, I can have a peachy glow show until after 10:00 p.m. Many times I’ve left the swing to go to bed only when the last ray of light was gone.
The swing is not very big, or fancy at all. Just long enough for one body lengthwise with size ten and a half feet–is it possible?–propped on pillows or up against the rusty chain in perfect position for a push. It is covered with pillows in Indian summer colors. I’ve fallen asleep on that swing with one leg flopped over the side, wearing dirty green canvas shorts; a trowel in the side pocket.
These days I don’t stay in the garden nearly so long to be that tired. But I’ll bring my dinner out and eat on the porch and after I’m through, I’ll invite Fly up on the swing. It’s a close fit and her fur is too warm but it’s okay. We watch the hummingbirds dive at each other near their hummingbird feeders; bearing witness to the territorial instincts of their fearless little bodies.
Hummingbirds at my feeder are another thing I live for.
We’ve become so used to our hummers that we can’t bear the thought of them not getting to the nectar soon enough on a freezing winter morning. Patrick and I take the feeders in when it’s completely dark and set the alarm clock for 6:30 to put them outside before the first ray of light brings the birds out to eat. Sometimes they beat us to their spot and fly like mad inches from our heads waiting for the feeders to be hung up. There is no question it’s life or death when it is that cold.
I live for those little rascals daring to stick around when they should be migrating.
From the beginning of making this house my own, things changed for me. Fifty six seasons in a Portland garden has done it. I’m not the same person who moved here. I don’t think it matters where you put down your roots, home is where you commit to loving the rituals of the season and whoever shares them with you.
When I see red leaves blown across the patch of orange pumpkins, I know autumn is coming. The first time I help the tendrils of a sweet pea find the trellis, I say: this is a Portland spring: a softer bite in the wind, racing clouds in the sky, and an unreliable sun. When there are baskets of red raspberries and blueberries, I feel the hot sun on my back and say: this is summer, fruit and sunflowers, basil and sweet corn. When I cover the dirt with blankets of clover, I say this is winter. The branches are hard and bare and the chickadees need extra suet and black-oiled sunflower seed.
These tender duties to a small patch of ground; to the people, animals, and plants who live here have changed everything.
It is what I live for.
Notice to my wonderful readers: Life-Change-Compost is looking for guest contributors: your voice, your ideas….your writing about what YOU live for. Please send your short essays (between 400-800 words) to susie@troccolo.com for review. Send photos too if you want. (Please, no huge files!) If you have questions, send me an email with your questions.
I’ll be prevailing on a few of my writer friends to help me read and judge the pieces. If much editing is required, I’ll contact you for your permission. Our subscriber list is growing; your work will be read and appreciated. And you will have the fun of comments on your piece—something all bloggers love. Just you wait and see. Also please note that I am linking in with Michelle at Ramblingwoods.com for her Nature Notes meme which shows examples of nature all over the world. Check it out!
If this goes well, we will try a contest next spring called Wordseeds: Writers in the Garden with a giveaway that I just purchased: a beautiful seed starting kit with a high-quality heating mat. Your part is to help me grow my blog by simple, ordinary means: one person sharing what they like with a friend who might like it too.
Hey, it’s what makes the world go ‘round…
Happy August Everybody!
Lovely post Susan and I can’t wait to read your guest posts….. Michelle
Thank you Michelle. I’m happy to report that a regular reader has already contributed a terrific piece that will be put up on the site in two weeks. I’m so pleased about that! At the same time, I am working to freshen up the look and feel of the site on the anniversary of my first year. New pictures on the slideshow too. Suggestions welcome in all areas. We’ve covered a lot of interesting subjects in a year, what did you like?
I didn’t know about your blog until a few months ago, but think it is lovely. Your passion comes through beautifully as you write so well.. and you have linked up for Nature Notes! … Michelle
I live for my garden too and those hydrangeas keep me staring long hours at that blue….wonderful to hear you are already getting contributions….your fab words will keep your wonderful blog growing Susie.
You are a sweetheart Donna–I thank you for all this great support. Susie
I am just discovering your blog through nature notes. I will certainly be back to visit. I think that one of the best ways to reach out to other bloggers is through commenting. I always return comments made to me and comment on as many of the linked posts as I can.
Hello Spirit, Thanks for checking in. I will certainly re-pay the compliment. I am a fairly new blogger, but I have many sites that I love and visit regularly, leaving word about their post. So, you’ll see me around. Writing about life is my first love. Because of Michelle’s passion for life, I found her Nature Notes. She has taught me a lot, and I’m very grateful to her.
I’m bringing a huge jug of iced tea, and I’ll sit with you and enjoy the sunset, the maple trees and that beautiful blue you’ve created!!! Wow.
I don’t know you, but based on your name…you could be a bluegrass player. Would you bring a mando? Banjo? Harmonica? I’ll provide the guitar. Come on over! There is an extra Adirondack chair…..
Wonderful post! I do love the swing and the wrap around porch! Your flowers are lovely. I am sure the birds love it there too. Beautiful photos, enjoy your week ahead!
Thank you Eileen–I appreciate your coming by. The wraparound porch is one of my favorite things. I can be feeling lousy, and there is always the porch!
Hope you’ll check back–we are going to explore themes of those deeply quiet and personal things that make our lives rich and worth living.
Hi Susan – I just found your blog through Nature Notes, and I’m so pleased to meet you! Your porch swing sounds like heaven… as does your garden. This is my second year in a row trying to grow pumpkins with no luck. The corn is thriving, however… happy late summer!
Pumpkins can be really fussy I’ve learned–you wouldn’t think so, but they are. As with so many things, it’s the variety and the weather we’ve had that year. Since we have some things in common, I hope you’ll subscribe. The garden can provide peace that few other endeavors can and I suspect you know that too.
I beat you to it – subscribed while I was perusing your blog! 🙂
Cynthia, that is a crack-up. I was subscribing to yours at the same time. Ah synchronicity, one of life’s best things.
Some of the more peaceful moments I spent at your home were in that swing, Susie. Such a quiet place perfect for contemplation.
Joel, I love it when you visit. I think that the next time you come up to Portland with your family, I’ll have to cook an Italian dinner, talk you into your famous biscotti for dessert and we’ll spend some quality time on the porch with espressos. That would be wonderful. Thanks so much for stopping by.
so beautiful…it is certainly a porch sitting day here too today… lovely breezes and blossoms still full.
Laura, thanks so much for visiting! Where is *your* porch sittin’ day? I love to know where people are from. Many from Michelle’s Nature Notes are on the East Coast.
Thanks for the blog about your porch swing. I feel the same way about my hammock. Also, I appreciated your story of how you enjoyed creating the garden you now have. It inspired me as I’m about to move into a new place, and will need to create a space for my hammock. In the process, I can put in new plants. At my last house, I planted a garden specifically for hummingbirds and could see them, as I hid in my grape arbor in my hammock. As the years went by, I added a simple fountain and by the time I left last fall, the hummingbirds were boldly bathing in the spout of the fountain. I’m looking forward to creating something similar at my new place. In the meantime, I got the vicarious pleasure of enjoying your front porch swing. Blessings.
I love your story Mary. I’ll send you all my best wishes for a beautiful spot for your hammock in the new place. Love, Susie
I have so many nice memories of lounging on that porch swing. It really is perfect.
This summer we visited the Olympic Peninsula and at Lake Quinault we discovered wild blue hydrangeas. I spent a fair amount of time trying to capture that blue in words or pictures but never did. Truly wild and gorgeous.
I am thinking of you today!
Karen, I love seeing you here! Thanks for checking in. Let’s get together and compare notes on the Olympic Peninsula and Lake Quinault…I don’t recall seeing wild blue hydrangeas, but it was October when we went and already getting cold. You had the same conundrum I did–how to describe those shades of blue.
Greetings Cerrajero, Thank you for visiting my blog and for your kind comments. New subscribers are welcome–I post about once or twice a month as a platform for my second book and there is a place to subscribe to get posts in your inbox on the Home page. Take care, Susie
Thank you for giving me the link to this post – blue hydrangeas, a wrap around porch and hummingbirds – it sounds so beautiful. Our gardens share many features – I have a wrap around terrace with hydrangeas in pots (pink at the moment but I am now aiming for blue next year), corn & pumpkins growing in my Kitchen Garden, raspberries and blueberries ready to pick, sweet peas in the Cutting Garden. What I am missing is the heat that allows you to sit out until dusk every night and those hummingbirds. I am so pleased to have found your blog – your writing is beautiful and I am looking forward to learning more about you and your garden.
You are welcome Julie. It sure seemed like we had a lot in common with our gardens. I hope you do click on the link about changing color for hydrangeas–the author is very helpful and very specific about how to do it. Of course, often nature wins out, which is how it ought to be-:) I bet your place is beautiful–I LOVED your blog.