We’ve spent a very lazy 3 day weekend mostly hanging on the porch. Our porch is tiny. It seats 4 fairly comfortably or 5 good friends knee to knee.

The porch overlooks our tiny pond. One of our main diversions this weekend has been to watch our 3 fish (George, Cynthia and Sheba) swim aimlessly around the pond.

A 20 year old Persian ironwood tree (Parrotia persica) has grown up and around the area - giving the illusion that the porch is nestled in the tree’s branches. The parrotia is a fine specimen in which to nestle. It was a gift from the late J. C. Raulston and is said to be Parrotia persica ‘Pendula” which means that it is supposed to be a weeping form.

Our Perdian ironwood is not really a weeping tree. Michael Dirr describes it in his Manual of Woody Landscape Plants in a somewhat derogatory fashion. Dirr believes that instead of weeping, the ‘Pendula’ form is “nothing more than a side shoot, i.e. plagiotropic growth with a more or less horizontal nature”. In other words, it was grown from a cutting taken off a side branch and tends to list in the same direction as its parental unit. Personally, I think it is more beautiful than any weeping tree I have ever seen.

The anole lizards love it. They scamper around the parrotia and over into the black bamboo grove. From there, they enjoy sunning on a wonderful ceramic head (sometimes known as The Optician), that was given to us by Marc Pastorek.

There’s lots to see on the porch if you just slow down long enough to look.

The irony of this situation is that I’m sitting here at the computer blogging instead of hanging on the porch.