Today was a beautiful spring day. The sun was shining. Temperatures were in the sixties with promises of even warmer days to come as the week progresses. What this all means, of course, is that it’s time to get ready for Porch Season.

As the title of this blog probably indicates, our front porch is an important place for us. It’s where we can sit and rock for hours, enjoying the warm days and nights. Often we will have a book to read, a guitar to play, or a camera to play with. A cool drink is often nearby. We may have the record player going in the living room and its sounds spilling out through the open windows. Neighbors will wave as they walk their dogs past the house. Kids headed to the basketball court will dribble past the house and some will even nod their heads at us and acknowledge our presence.

It feels like it’s been a long, cold winter and our porch and porch furniture were more than ready for a little spring cleaning. We scrubbed the porch. Or I should actually confess that it was Doug that was on his hands and knees doing the scrubbing. We hosed down the floors, front siding, and the door. We cleaned the front steps. We scrubbed the porch furniture. We brought out the chair pads from their winter storage space (under our bed) and declared the porch open for business.

So with a freshly mowed lawn, a clean porch, a brand-new bag of charcoal, and Bell’s Oberons in hand, we grilled for the first time this season — steaks from the local butcher shop. There’s just no better way to kick off porch season.