Sunday Letter: 05.20.18

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

I’ve heard from lots of you over the past week. Thank you for all the messages and emails saying you look forward to reading my Sunday Letter. Routine can be a good thing. Right? Something to anticipate and anchor the week ahead. I know I’m sort of putting words in your mouth now. ?

Sometimes the unexpected provides a welcomed change, too.

Unexpected Rain

Twice this week, we had unexpected rain showers. I’ve been watching the weather forecast since I was a little girl. Farm girl DNA and all. Getting rain without expecting it felt like quite the pleasant surprise. I thought about our ancestors and how they didn’t have the handheld luxury of an hour by hour forecast ten days in advance.

They would scoff at us.

I imagine they were adept at predicting storms and temperature changes by watching the behavior of their livestock, changes in the wind, the birds who provided warning.

Regardless, my plants and I enjoyed the week’s pop-up showers. I even walked in the rain. Maybe I sang a little. A dose of fresh rainwater and my hostas grew a foot.

I hope the farmers are getting what they need before summer sets in.

Watermelon Girl

Hope springs eternal every single time I cut into a watermelon. Do you feel the same way? There’s that fleeting moment of anticipation just before I crack it open. Will this one be the sweetest ever?

It’s not only the flavor I love. Each is packed with the promise of summer. Lake trips with Nana and Aunt Lavern. No one cares if the juice runs down your elbows and between the slats of the dock. Jump in the water to rinse off.

One time, we picnicked on the cement roof of Nana’s storm cellar, saved our watermelon seeds, and promptly planted them at the edge of Nana’s back yard, just behind her clothesline. Of course watermelon seeds planted in August had little chance of coming up, but like I said, hope springs eternal.

Royal Wedding

I didn’t watch one second of the Royal Wedding. It’s not that I was boycotting or anything. Honestly, it barely crossed my mind. Just after sunrise, I planted milkweed while my butterfly garden was still shady. I drank a bunch of Arsaga’s coffee (beans I ground myself), pulled a bucket of weeds, and added new seed to the bird feeders.

Did you watch? Did you bake a cake, get gussied up, throw a party?

I’m curious if there were any rain showers in London yesterday? According to tradition, rain is good luck on your wedding day.

All those years ago, I did watch Charles & Diana’s wedding from my dorm room at Baylor. I was attending summer school, and I woke up super early to watch. I hope Princess Di was watching her son’s wedding. I bet she was.

Lucky Me

While pulling weeds and not watching the Royal Wedding, I found a ginormous four-leaf clover. Opportunity cost, y’all.

I put it inside the pages of a book to press it flat. A little rain truly brings lush results. I’m taking this garden beauty as a sign of a great week ahead for all of us, Sunday Letter readers and the royal newlyweds.???

Will anyone care if I don’t include a School Kitchen tip?

Yours truly,
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

P.S. Did you notice? There’s now a Sunday Letter category on my blog menu. Click on it and you’ll find all prior Sunday Letters together.

[tweetthis]Today’s Sunday Letter is about luck watermelon royalty rain #SundayMorning [/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:
GLEE – Singing in the Rain / Umbrella