I like to remember the fun of a farmhouse type front porch like my Gram had. Always laughter and fun times ringing out in the early evening after a beautiful summer supper. Gram always had a beautiful garden and she had fresh vegetables from her garden. My aunt was a cook at a private school and she always baked home made pies in the summer from the raspberry patch that they had. Plus she was always baking cookies that she put in a Piggy cookie jar. My younger brother and I could never get a cookie out of that jar without her saying, “I hear that little piggy squeeling”. But we always managed to run off like bandits with scrcumptious home-made cookies.

The minute we got to the farm, we would get into our play clothes and Grandpa would let us ride horses. Actually he would just lead the horses around with us proud as anything on those horses.

Then they had a croquet set that we would set up and have fun playing.

My Grandpa was tall and lanky and wore coveralls. He was always up at 4:00 AM to start chores. He was a kind, gentleman and a hard worker . Whenever they went to town, he wore a 3 piece suit. My 2 older brothers used to stay at the farm for a few weeks in the summer to help with haying. They always got money for working, too. And being teenagers they loved to have money to spend.

I loved how my Gram planted all kinds of flowers around the porch. She was always working in her gardens.

We always liked to visit that place in the summer when my Dad got 2 weeks vacation. We always stayed with our grandparents at least a week. Then we would sometimes stay a week on a lake near there in a rented cottage. I can remember my Mom making corn chowder on a rainy day and my brother and I along with several friends enjoyed the chowder on a screened in porch overlooking the lake with the soft rain falling.

Those really were kinder, gentler times.

I can remember visiting there when my son was about 3 years old. Gram was up working in her garden and came running down to greet us. She adored my little son. She had some corn on the cob from the garden with lunch and she laughed at how my little toddler son asked to have special picks that hold the corncobs on each end. I really miss my grandparents. It brings tears to my eyes sometimes to remember how precious they were.

They had almost 100 acres of farmland. My aunt’s husband sold it to a bunch of hippies. Now the place is more or less very different. But we will always have beautiful memories.

I was talking with the people that own the place now and I suggested that they were a bunch of hippies. They said most people call them rednecks. Whatever. They destroyed the place in my opinion. It will never be the same.

But God bless them. They love the place as much as we always did. I’m sure they love the place as much as my Grandparents did. But it broke my heart to see graffiti on the posts of the porch and junk in the yard. But they are logging the timber and they are college educated I guess and are making money from the rich soil they call black gold.

In their later years, my grandparents rented a piece of the land to a person that used if for gardens and he sold the produce to a place in Nathanial Hall in Boston.

I guess families are a thing of the past. Communes and free living are where it’s at. I will never be comfortable with it. Not ever. I’m just glad that I have memories of different time.

To honor my grandparents, the above is what I would have built. I totally love the style and it reminds me of times gone by. I totally love it. The farmstyle porch and the landscaping.

Martha Stewart’s Seal Harbor kitchen from the Home Depot would be the new touch with the farmstyle kitchen sink being a nod to sweet memories.

A double oven to bake all kinds of home made pies and cookies just to honor Aunt Mavis. Plus be able to have family gatherings like old times with all my precious grandchildren.

A greenhouse to start early plants for all kinds of gardens is a new touch. The above is a greenhouse that my brother built for his house. A greenhouse similar to it would be the perfect new touch.

A kitchen garden that is like a living salad bowl to honor my Gram who loved to garden.

And then Peonies abandonally placed here and there like I remember.

All kinds of old fashioned flowers here and there.

Spring bulbs that are planted in the Fall and they come up every year in the Spring. Daffodils are so sunny and beautiful.

A secret garden for tea. My Gram’s heritage was from England and she loved tea.

Lots of land for gardens galore.

I love embroidered pillowcases and the above remind me of the pillowcases that Gram always had.

The above is the diningroom that is a new version of my Gram’s diningroom. It’s everything she loved.

And that is a start on a way to bring back memories and to honor people that are no longer with us, but who must never be forgotten.