THE VIEW FROM UP HERE: My Front Porch!

I've been home from our lakeside retreat all week.  I had a doctor's appointment and then, tomorrow night, my wife Julie and I are having dinner at an 1835 coach house east of Canton, Ohio with our dining group.  I enjoy being home for a lot of reasons, sitting on my front porch not being the least of them.  Julie makes our front porch a floral delight.

OUR FRONT PORCH: From the sidewalk.

Whether it is from the sidewalk as seen above or up close, the flowers are quite lovely and the porch welcoming.  The closer you get, the prettier it is as seen below.

Julie always buys her hibiscus, above, when Sam's Club comes out with them in the early spring.  At that time it is way too cold for these tender plants so we keep both of them in our dining room.  Then we take them out on warm spring days, bringing them in at night.  The blooms only last one day but they are worth all the effort.

WHAT A BEAUTY!

The entrance to our home is guarded by a giant coleus as well as a giant schnauzer.

Actually, this beauty is from last year but we have one just like it there again this year.



Of course my throne is also on the front porch and it is seen below.  I love sitting outside late at night, or in the wee hours if I cannot sleep.  I really love sitting on the porch when it is raining and there is nothing more exciting than being right in a thunder-boomer at night on the porch.

WALT'S THRONE

Julie and I went out for a Chinese dinner tonight and took our housekeeper, Donna, with us.  Julie drove and when we got home she said she and Donna were going to K-Mart, she knew I wouldn't go as it was time for the 6:00PM news on Fox.  An hour later I was sitting on the porch when they got home.  What did they buy?  New curtains for Donna's kitchen and plants.  Yes, plants!  Three of them.  Just what we needed.

 

DONNA  AND JULIE AND PLANTS

Donna is the redhead with the long legs.  She has been with us for going on three years.  I'm not sure what we did before we had her.  And, if she is that important now, think how important she will be as we get older.


I refer to her as our housekeeper but she does everything from hoeing my garden to caring for me when I was bed fast with my hip replacement.  She knows whats in my house far better than I do.  She just has one bad habit that is hard on an old man!

DONNA WEARING HER "PEEK-A-BOO" SHORTS 

THE SADDEST THING I SEE FROM MY FRONT PORCH IS KIDS SMOKING POT, MORE THAN I HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!

I do not know why but I daily see teenagers going by sharing a marijuana joint, more so than ever before!  I watched a well dressed mom drop her 15-16- year-old son off at a neighbor's house.  He was as well dressed as his mom, none of the low crotch stuff, nice haircut too.  His mother was hardly out of sight until her son and two others were in the alley passing their pot around.

I wanted to give a quote on the percentage of pot users who go on to hard drugs but when I tried to google up the answer all I got was pages of how harmless pot really is.  THEREIN MY FRIENDS LIES THE DANGER.

JOIN ME ON THE PORCH SOMETIME, WE'LL SPIT AND CHEW AND TELL SOME TALL ONES.  UN HUH!
God bless you and yours.  God bless the USA.