The view from the Muskoka chair

Writers at the Summit relax in Muskoka chairs, composing sentences as they gaze over sunny lawns at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.

In the garden of my first house, a chair like this was abandoned. A minor repair and a coat of white paint made it usable. Drink on armrest, I spent many happy hours in that chair.

Torontonians call these Muskoka chairs, for the Ontario hinterland. They're also known as Cape Cod chairs and Adirondack chairs, for similar reasons. Once exclusively wood, they now come in plastic and in kid sizes.