Hi Lestie, and welcome to my Front Porch -- I love visitors and everyone is most welcome to come and sit a spell.
If you go to the very first post in this thread, you will find a brief description of what the Front Porch is all about. You have prompted me, though, to expound a little on the reason for this thread.
The Front Porch in my Appalachia forum and the Back Porch in my Folklore and Mythology forum belong to the same cabin on a mountain side above the village of Creativity in the state of Imagination. It is a great place to relax, have fun using the old imagination we had as children, a creative imagination which may have been lost along the way of daily stress from work and other mundane tasks.
Of course each porch has different views. The Back Porch is shady and looks out over the back yard, the chicken coop, the pig pen, the gardens (herbs and vegetables), the old Outhouse that Granpappy insists on still using even though I had a modern bathroom installed in the cabin years ago, and over near the chicken coop, one can see a partially hidden trail that leads up the mountain a ways to an old shed in the hills where Granpappy brews up the best whiskey in the state of Imagination. Beyond the hills is the mountain range. One can sit on the back porch with their morning coffee or tea and watch the sunrise.
Now, the Front Porch has a different view. This porch grows with each visitor that comes along, depending on what that person wants to imagine. It started out as a sleepy, quiet little porch with a few rockers and the hound dogs lying around. It is now huge, big enough to set up a Bluegrass band for a real old fashioned Hootenanny. There is a platform out front of the porch for dancers to kick up their heels, and some quiet places to lounge in, near the jasmine growing on lattice work at one end of the porch, or a rambling rose growing on lattice work at the other end.
The view from here looks out over a massive yard. Little flower gardens here and there, a duck pond, a place for the hounds to relax and a trail down to the Paw-Paw Patch. Beyond the Paw-Paw Patch and further down the hill is the old swimming hole where we have lots of fun on lazy summer days.
The cabin is above the hollow and across the hollow are other cabins scattered about. We do not have phones here, so we hoot and holler across the hollow when a potluck or hootenanny is stirring up and folks from all around come. Rosie lives not far and is usually the first one to get here and bring some pies or ice cream. She makes the best pies!!!!
Beyond the hills across the hollow is the prairie where the deer and the antelope play and the buffalo still roam, and beyond that is another mountain range -- one can sit on the Front Porch and watch the sunset while relaxing and quietly chatting, as Burt is want to do.
The kitchen inside is an open kitchen and huge. Since all visitors here love good down-home fixin's to eat, Debbie usually helps with the cooking -- yet anyone is welcome to go in and stir up their favorite foods or snoop in the pantry for home-baked goodies. Just do not touch anything on the shelf labeled "Granpappy's Treats", for we do not care to have the ol' guy stirrin' up a fuss.
Geese, ducks, chickens, hounds and other critters scurry all over the place.
Over off to the side of the property are several out buildings created by the imagination of one or all. The barn is out there. Nearby, Granpappy and a few of his cronies built a landing pad for when Beetle flies in with his helicopter. Beetle used to have to land way out in the cow pasture and stomp through all kinds of muck to get to the cabin. We got tired of hearing him mumble about that, thus the landing pad now exists.
On the other side of the property are the orchards and corn fields, where hide and seek is great fun!
Sometimes folks like to sneak over here and relax quietly in a corner on the Front Porch or doze off on the Back Porch. This is what Jilly likes to often do. Yet there are times when folks get pretty wild, like the balloon fight war we had not long ago. Beetle brought out his military operations and reconnaissance skills and him and Granpappy nearly annihilated us gals. Then Jilly ran up the hill to the hot air balloon and we then had a real war on our hands. I am not sure how it would have all ended if Granpappy had not fallen in a pit us gals dug and found some gold. Beetle rescued him and things settled down a little after that.
Oh, yes -- Granpappy is a character I created, he is my imaginary father. All the visitors here, although wary of Granpappy's tricks, flirting with the gals, and sometimes causing havoc, dearly love him and would lay down their life for him if need be (well, that, too, is imagination). Beetle is usually around to make sure Granpappy does not get in too deep with his mischief and shenanigans -- but, then we gotta keep an eye on Beetle also at times for him and Granpappy are like two peas in a pod.
Sometimes Debbie and I sit and chat about our real life and daily happenings -- but, usually it is just fun and imagination around here where we can act like kids or plain ol' folks without any fear of looking foolish.
We may even share recipes now and again.
Sunshine, flowers, butterflies, buzzing bees, lazy hound dogs, good eatin' and a lot of love abounds here.
I hope that gives you some clarification of what the Front Porch and the Back Porch are all about. You are most welcome to come back anytime for tea and a chat or just downright fun.
PS: You may at times see one or all of us lapse into "hillbilly language" once in awhile. For instance: we often drop the 'g' on a word ending in 'ing' and replace it with ' -- such as fixin's for fixings, which we usually use for vittles (food). If'n you ever do not understand a hillbilly word, just ask and someone will explain what it is all 'bout.
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