BOOTS AND A PUMPKIN

KIM SHIPPEY, SENTINEL STAFF

I have little doubt the people who use this porch in southern Vermont are keen gardeners. Just look at the boots and shoes! They know the smell of crunchy red leaves, wood smoke, and mud, especially at this time of year. Leaning against the porch, just out of shot, is a shed crammed with enough newly cut logs to last the five months of what's always a severe winter in this neck of the woods.

I can't speak for the people who live here, because I didn't meet them. The front gate had a handwritten sign on it inviting passersby to come in and try the cider, apples, jams, and corn. The porch door was open to the fall sunlight. Nothing was locked, not even the box into which you put your money for what you've bought.

You don't need people to complete this cozy scene. Every colorful object, every soft shadow, says home—what Mary Baker Eddy called "the dearest spot on earth."

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