Porch Season Is Coming (Even If It’s Still 97 Degrees Outside)

There comes a point every August when summer starts to feel like a guest who has stayed just a little too long.

We appreciate the long days. We really do. But after weeks of heat, humidity, thunderstorms, soggy yards, and watching the sky turn dark yet again, we’re more than ready for one of those evenings when you walk outside and realize…

Wait a minute. It actually feels good out here.

We aren’t there quite yet.

But porch season is coming.

Summer Hasn’t Gotten the Memo

Late August in East Tennessee has a sense of humor.

The stores are putting out pumpkins. Fall decorations are appearing. Football is returning. Someone you know is probably already drinking something with pumpkin spice in it.

Meanwhile, you step outside and the temperature is hovering somewhere around 97 degrees, the humidity wraps around you like a wet blanket, and a thunderstorm may or may not be forming over the next ridge.

Not exactly sweater weather.

After all the rain we’ve had lately, the grass seems determined to grow faster than anyone can mow it. Porch cushions have spent entirely too much time being brought inside before a storm and carried back outside afterward. Yards are soggy. Limbs and trees have come down in some areas. And the mosquitoes appear to have no intention of surrendering the porch without a fight.

Fall may be showing up on store shelves, but summer clearly hasn’t gotten the memo.

Still, every now and then, there’s a hint.

You Know the Morning

It usually sneaks up on us.

You step outside early one morning expecting the same heavy air you’ve been breathing for weeks.

And something is different.

It’s not exactly cold. It might not even qualify as cool.

But there’s a little less humidity. A slight breeze. Just enough crispness in the air to make you stop for a second.

And that’s all it takes.

Suddenly someone says, “It feels like fall.”

Never mind that it could be 90 degrees again by lunchtime.

For those few minutes, we’re believers.

The windows might even get opened—although we all know there’s a good chance the air conditioner will be back on before noon.

Not yet.

But it’s coming.

Suddenly, Outside Sounds Good Again

There is a point during an East Tennessee summer when sitting outside stops sounding relaxing.

The porch may look inviting from the air-conditioned side of the window, but once you add heat, humidity, and mosquitoes, that comfortable chair loses some of its appeal.

Then the weather begins to turn.

The porch swing gets another chance. Dinner can move outside. Morning coffee lasts longer because you’re not racing back through the door. A deck or patio that hasn’t seen much activity during the hottest part of summer starts feeling like part of the house again.

And then there are the evenings.

Those are the ones we’re waiting for.

The ones when you sit down after dinner and don’t immediately start thinking about going back inside. Maybe there’s a football game playing somewhere in the background. Maybe somebody lights the fire pit even though it isn’t technically cold enough to need one.

Eventually somebody brings out a blanket.

Not necessarily because they need it.

Because it’s fall, and that’s what we’re doing now.

The Little Things We’ve Been Waiting For

Maybe that’s one reason fall has such a loyal following. It isn’t just about colorful leaves.

It’s all the little things that come with it.

The first sweatshirt of the season.

The first evening cool enough for a fire.

Opening the windows.

Chili simmering on the stove.

Soup that has been cooking all afternoon.

Football weekends.

A blanket tossed over the back of the porch chair.

The smell of wood smoke somewhere in the distance.

And, of course, the annual debate over when fall officially begins.

Some people are perfectly willing to wait for the calendar.

Others see September approaching and consider that sufficient authorization to decorate every available surface with pumpkins.

Neither side is likely to convince the other.

Perhaps that’s part of the fun.

Fall Doesn’t Arrive All at Once

One of the funny things about fall in East Tennessee is that it rarely makes a grand entrance.

It teases us.

We get one cool morning and immediately start talking about sweaters, fires, and changing leaves.

Then summer comes marching back in by afternoon as if to say, “I’m not finished yet.”

So we wait.

The mornings gradually become cooler. The evenings get more comfortable. The days grow a little shorter. Before long, sitting outside isn’t something we endure—it’s something we look forward to again.

And somewhere along the way, without any official announcement, porch season arrives.

Maybe that’s the real beginning of fall.

Not a date on the calendar.

Just that first evening when nobody is quite ready to go inside.

Fireside Reflection

Seasons have a way of changing quietly.

One day we’re complaining about the heat, the humidity, and another afternoon thunderstorm. Then an evening comes along when the air feels different, the chair is comfortable, and there’s nowhere else we particularly need to be.

Maybe that’s part of what makes the beginning of fall so enjoyable. Nothing particularly important has to happen.

Sometimes it’s enough to pull a chair a little closer to the fire, settle in, and stay outside just a little longer.

Vivid Land Realty (865) 244-2865

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