"Two members of the International Space Station’s Expedition 48 crew stepped outside the orbital complex to install a new “front porch”. The nearly six-hour long spacewalk started at 7:04 a.m. CDT (12:04 GMT) Aug. 19 with a goal to install International Docking Adapter-2 (IDA-2) to the forward end of the station.
I was observing the front entrances of the 1950's and 1960's houses in my neighbourhood. Some of the front doors have steps the width of the door so one can just 'step in'. There seems to be an absence of a front porch - that structure that was at the entrance of the house to keep one free of the elements. A century ago, it was large enough to be an outdoor room.
"Nobody thought much about the front porch when most Americans had them and used them. The great American front porch was just there, open and sociable, an unassigned part of the house that belonged to everyone and no one, a place for family and friends to pass the time."
--Rochlin, The Front Porch, in Home, Sweet Home
So I find out that the decline of the front porch happened with the automobile after the second world war. Car noise and exhaust fumes ruined the street as a place of relaxation. Air conditioning furthered the decline. Finally, the television inside the house was the source of entertainment.
Our pictures today show the bright yellows of August in the garden.
