Dear Sunday Letter friends,
Summer begins this week! Spring? I hardly knew you. Spring flew by fast as lightning. Don’t you agree? I’m a summer girl, born in July. I love the goodness summertime brings.
Lightning Bugs
Is it my imagination, or do we have more lightning bugs this year? One night last week, I sat in the backyard just after sunset and tried to count lightning bugs. So many! More than we’ve had the last couple of years, I’m sure. I wonder if it has anything to do with our yard?
This spring, we’ve been letting our grass grow longer and a little more natural. We are converting to a clover lawn to help the pollinators. Longer grass provides places for insects to thrive.
Whatever the reason, I love seeing all the lightning bugs flicker. Yay for our nighttime butterflies!
photo credit: creative commons share alike 2.01 / art farmer
Gone Fishing?
You know how kids sell lemonade in their front yards? I’m thinking about setting up a bait stand to sell earthworms. I bet I could make enough money to support my coffee habit. Okay, not really, but I have the inventory for some good fishin’.
My compost is FILLED with fat, juicy worms, as long as garter snakes. Sometimes I turn the material just to see them wiggling around.
Time and Temperature
Summer is arriving on a heat wave. When I was a kid, the steamier the better. Hot days meant a longer time spent at the swimming pool because what else was there to do?
Remember calling Time and Temperature? I’m guessing most every small town had his valuable service available with the quick dial of the rotary phone.
No, we didn’t do it to learn the time. We had a clock in nearly every room of our house. We did it to know the all-important temperature. Hearing the temperature announced in the deep voice of the official Time and Temperature Man lent credence to the sweltering heat.
First National Bank time, ten-eleven a.m. Downtown temperature, ninety-one degrees.
Swallowtails
During the past week, I’ve been checking on my swallowtail caterpillars in the early morning. (Okay, really, I check on them several times a day.) And every time I look in on them, they’ve grown fatter. If you follow me across social media, you probably think I’m obsessed. I’ve plastered caterpillar pictures everywhere.
Yes, I’m a little obsessed, but I haven’t named them, so there’s that. Really, I’m trying to give credit where credit is due. Butterflies get all the garden attention, but these caterpillars are quietly doing the work.
And they are sooooo cool!
School Kitchen Tip
(The School Kitchen Textbook, Mary J. Lincoln, 1915, Chapter V, Dish Washing)
Bye for now, Sunday Letter friends.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads!
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
P.S. Shout out to the Fayetteville Literary Society who invited me to discuss The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee this past week. Such a fun group! (humidity = glowing southern readers)
[tweetthis]Sunday Letter – bait stand, lightning bugs, and more #SundayMorning[/tweetthis]
What I do not like about your caterpillars is that when they get on my tomato vines they don’t know when to stop eating! Ha!
I can see that would be a problem, but I have designated my garden for butterflies.
Oh my! I had completely forgotten about calling for the time and temperature. That just remembered calling the Ritz to get the movie listings to see what was playing and the playing times. I always got the same voice and quite frequently I saw that lady walking on the sidewalk on her way to and from work. I can still hear her voice saying “Rituz Theeayter” What a patient soul she was.
I forgot about the theatre recording!
I’m reading your Sunday letter on Monday. That’s okay, right? It’s just as enjoyable. I’m fascinated by your yard and how you have developed it into a haven for caterpillars and butterflies. I know what you mean about the lightening bugs. It is so dark here at night without street lights or city lights. It looks like millions of fireflies live around our place and yes we have long grass and lots of clover. Many years ago my brother in law and my mother in law sold night crawlers they found in their yard. They had a lot of fun doing it but it wasn’t too lucrative. Haha. Our children loved getting involved with that when they were just little tykes. They wrapped a piece of red cellphone over the end of their flashlight, supposedly to keep from scaring the slimy worms away. Happy gardening!
Of course! Read it any time. LOL.