It was raining this morning when my husband, Chris, brought in the Sunday Mercury News and New York Times, made coffee and built a fire on our screened porch. This was a rare leisurely Sunday for our family. Since we celebrated a friend's First Communion Saturday night, there was no need to scramble to the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass. That meant no quick breakfast, shower and half-clean-up before we raced out the door. No half-cups of coffee left behind. No unread newspapers.

When my brother, Geordie, came over at about 9:30 to drop off his two kids to play for the day, he said he smelled that rich, comforting fireplace smoke. But when he walked in, there was no fire in the living room fireplace. He found me here on the porch, reading my favorite column in the Sunday Times, "Modern Love." The fire crackled. Cassandra Wilson's soulful jazz played through the outdoor speakers.

I spent Saturday at the Willow Glen Home Tour here in San Jose and fell in love with the back courtyard of a Spanish bungalow. Just off the master bedroom, the space beckoned visitors out to the fireplace and fountains and trellises. It was a magical space (which Lookiloos will be featuring soon!) Homes tours always make me wish for things I don't have. There was a time during the dot-com boom that we considered a big addition that would have encroached on this screened porch, adding a classic family room to our kitchen. But the plans went up in smoke with the dot-com bust. And, you know what? I'm glad we didn't do it. I would have lost this space — a 1950s addition to our 1939 house — that I cherish now more than ever.

The kids have been running through all day from the kitchen to the backyard, dropping baseballs and mitts and muddy shoes on the porch's tiled floor. I only asked that they don't change my music to Taylor Swift, that they let me read — and now write this story — with Cassandra Wilson and the crackling of the fire. The boys have been bringing in firewood from the stack out back to keep it burning for me. Bless their hearts.

To watch a video of me on my screened porch from last summer, click here:

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Julia, Julia's Mud Room, The Mud Room. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.