Front Porch Musings | The Road Home

Posts from the ‘Front Porch Musings’ category

a new view

I bought some new chairs for the kitchen table. To call the table in the kitchen, a kitchen table is stretching things a bit. The table that I use in the kitchen and occasionnally eat off of is really a little side table made for holding a lamp in a hallway… But it is what I have and it fit in a corner of the kitchen and I have been hemming and hawing over what to do in the kitchen and not really having the budget to do much of anything.

I had this little table in the corner and one ladderback chair pulled to one end so I could sit there and eat. Most often, though, I take my plate to my desk in the sunroom, the front porch or to the living room in front of the tv or the fire.

Chairs

I had seen these chairs before and thought about getting one for my entry area – I have a corner that it would be nice to sit and put on or take off shoes or boots. Saw them again a week or so ago and decided they would work. Sara had moved the kitchen table at an angle to the corner and I thought – perfect – those chairs would make a bit of a nook and they are a bit larger than a regular ladderback, but still the same style…

Well, things did not fit or look right as I originally thought to arrange them and so I ended up like this:

Chairs

…and the thing is, I really like it…and I had breakfast AT THE TABLE! And I noticed that with the new arrangement, instead of looking at the corner, I have an entirely different view out the windows from both chairs and it is comfortable and serene and I really like it!

Chairs

The rest of the kitchen from the chair I’ll sit in.

Chairs

From the other side of the table looking out the sunroom window…

A small change and a new view.

The chairs are from Sturbridge Yankee. They came completely assembled (YEAH!), packed well in very large boxes, delivered to my door by UPS.

Some different mountain views

At times, the views in the mountains change from moment to moment…

Living here – in Montana, in the shadow of the Continentel Divide has been my choice for fourteen years. I was thrilled yesterday when I discovered that Mountain Jobs had discovered From the Front Porch. Further, that the summary was so how I hope the writing and the photography is perceived as well as an accurate vision of how I hope I am living my life here. The Mountain Jobs Blog Post titled “Big Sky Country: simple pleasures living in Montana” made my day!

For those readers who hope to someday live in the mountains, Mountain Jobs is an employment network. The company and the site work to bring employers together with people looking for the mountain lifestyle. While the company is based in Jackson, Wyoming, it serves employers and job seekers from the entire mountain west.

From Wednesday through last evening as I write this post that will appear Saturday morning – the mountain views have changed from moment to moment.

Driving home Wednesday afternoon, clouds were starting to build up along the mountains surrounding the valley while all the while the sky was a brilliant blue…

Flathead Lake Sky

The sky and mountain views glowed with the colors of the rainbow that evening… a scene I captured in yesterday morning’s post: Mountain Sunset Alpinglow

Yesterday (Friday) morning the mountain views were VERY different…

Cloudy Mtn

The views in the mountains change from moment to moment…

Montana Sunset Alpinglow

Wednesday evening with thunderstorms forecast – 9:00 p.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time (sunset is close to 9:30 now)…the sky to the east looked interesting, the wind was kicking up and sounding fabulous in the pines. I called to Karl, grabbed my camera (and pepper spray!) and off I went. Karl did not follow – he hates thunder and seems to have a sixth sense about it -…I whistled and called and watched him head from the driveway back to the house…Rats!! – I hate to walk without him – it is our thing!! But the sky called and so I went…. but halfway along as I was looking at the vista which was beautiful beyond words, my good dog appeared – panting, wagging tail – …. I love the following photos, but more than those, I love that my dear dog put aside his fear and followed…

Oh, there was no thunder that night – and more important, no lightning …often the clouds pile up and it rains or snows in the mountains but not in the valley. We never even heard rumblings in the night…

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

You can just barely see above what you can see below with more intensity…the setting sun, once again casting the tops of the trees in gold, bronze, deep red – the colors of Fall in the height of Spring. I stood – in awe – with my mouth open in amazement at the color feast spread out before me. I have seen the setting sun turn the tree tops in my woods gold but I had never seen the array of colors that I did this evening. I took a lot of photos and as I took each I knew that there was no way I was capturing the feast of color spread out at the foot of the mountains. With each photo, I hoped I could capture what I saw – from where I stood there was a wide expanse of glowing trees, snow covered mountains and building thunderheads – magnificent! For a long while I just stood and watched the color and the light.

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

And below…looking the opposite direction – West – as we headed for the house…the sunset through the trees…

Sunset Sky Watch Montana

My property sits in the woods on a plateau of foothills before the land gives way to the Swan Range – Continentel Divide – to the east and the floor of the Flathead Valley to the east.

Cinderellie, Cinderellie

The Calypso orchid or Fairyslipper (Calypso bulbosa)….

A very small foot to fit in this “slipper” – these are less than an inch. They are easy to miss in the woods as they are often bent downward so that only the purple “underside” is visible and looking very much like the back of a wood violet. They are my favorite thing to find. Montucky at Montana Outdoors has much better capture of these beauties: Calypso

A correction on yesterday’s post…those are Gardenia – which I’m very happy about. I love gardenia – my father gave my mother and I gardenia corsages for Easter. The scent of the gardenia in the refrigerator…waiting for Sunday – to put on my very special Easter dress – a vivid and beautiful memory. The scent always transports me.

Almost home….looking back

Where Karl and the last trees are – before things open up – is the eastern edge of my property. I’m taking these photos about a third of the way from that edge – towards where my house sits.