Painting the Porch

Yesterday I painted the porch that we built in 2005 and that was beginning to look a little seedy.  Porch-painting gives you a lot of time to sit and think, and I thought a lot about one of the men who helped us build it and so, though he's been gone now for just over six years, remains a part of this house.

He built a lot of things in his lifetime -- stage sets, a beautiful old pine table that sits in our dining room, an amazing collection of jazz and blues music, and a pretty swell family.

He was an English prof:

An actor, and an inspiration to a generation of actors from Newfoundland.

An editor:

He loved animals, and they loved him:

And he was a devoted dad, right from the get-go. They used to read the Canterbury Tales at bedtime, and he taught her how to sew buttons.

He was my father-in-law, and today would have been his 78th birthday. 

It would have been a day for steak and lemon meringue pie.