I have written about porches before...they hold a special importance in my most favorite places.

Some porches look out onto the sidewalk and street, some give a wide vista of mountains or towns down below...others offer a retreat from the deadening sounds of TVs and radios from within the house. Some Porches are no more than a few extended boards from the front door and others wrap completely around the house. Today, they are for contemplation and relaxing but yesterday they were used as a place of relief to escape to on those August days before air-conditioning. You could sit on the porch unblocked by the walls and feel the breeze...although often a hot breeze...better than the hot stale unconditioned air inside.

This particular porch is my friend in the Smokies. I have spent days on the swing or rocker with aching legs after a day's hiking...aching but so relaxed and content. My favorite times on the porch are early morning where I can sit and anticipate the day while the sun rises...starting a new day with new adventures. Also at the end of the day where I can sit and think of the wonderful vistas and smells of the cold clear bubbling streams that I crossed earlier. Whether in anticipation or reflection...this porch has served me well over the years...a place I always look forward to returning again...no matter the season.

Looking directly out from the swing or the rocker is the blue haze covered multiple ridges of the Smokies stacked up in unending layers all the way to the distant horizon. I have seen the ridges clothed in the lime greens of summer, the green/blacks of mid Summer and the rainbow colors of Autumn...but never snow covered...that is still on my bucket list...waiting to be checked off.