Good morning Sunday Letter readers! I’m home after ten days away. It always takes me some time to get back in the swing of things after traveling. Like Dorothy Gale said, there’s no place like home. I’m lucky to have two homes that I love—two homes that love me back. I spent much of my time at the farm working on my next book (yay!), and I connected with lots of readers at the Delta Arts Festival (yay again!). I returned re-inspired and re-invigorated about my writing.
A change of perspective is a powerful thing, especially after going nowhere for so long.
According to the calendar, spring isn’t over yet, but summer showed up early here in northwest Arkansas. Boy-hidey, she packed a truckload of humidity. If the past few days provide any indication of our summer ahead, we best prepare for high air conditioning and water bills! On Thursday, the plants in my containers looked so thirsty, I watered them twice in one day.
The happy part of summer has arrived too—lightning bugs and lots of butterflies.
Nest Update
A few weeks ago, I showed you the finch nest in our asparagus fern.
5/23/21: 
The day before I went out of town, the babies hatched! I was able to sneak a peek.
5/26/21:
Only a few hours old, they looked like milkweed fluff. I couldn’t tell the cowbird from the others.
See? This is why it’s hard for me to be away from home, especially during spring. There’s so much to miss in the spring garden.
By the time I returned, the babies had fledged (although two died in the nest for reasons I couldn’t determine). Nature will break your heart on occasion, but oh my goodness, the joy outweighs the trauma.
Now we have a cardinal nest to monitor outside our kitchen window. This is the third or fourth cardinal nest in our viburnum in as many years. Since cardinals tend to mate for life and return to the same nesting site, I assume these are the same cardinals I’ve watched before. Momma cardinal built her nest high enough that I can’t peep inside, but I can see her patiently sitting on her eggs at all hours of the day and night. Such devotion.
In a Nutshell
This is me in a nutshell.
I bought this cute t-shirt in Blytheville at Me and My Sister.
There are several other words I might wear to describe myself—gardener, schnauzer mom, reader—but homebody is pretty spot on.
What would your t-shirt word be?
Mystery Date
When I heard that our local Fayetteville Barnes & Noble was doing mystery dates with a book, I had to run right down and get in on the fun. 
Have you heard of this idea? Books are wrapped in paper so that the book cover is hidden. A description is included on the front, along with the genre identification. Based on those on the table, I selected Fiction. My sister selected Contemporary Fiction.
Here’s a quick video I did describing the concept:
Tada!
I have to hand it to Barnes & Noble for doing such a great match-matching job. It seems we both were paired up with ideal mystery dates. And, we will probably even share our dates.
I don’t imagine there are any wrong choices when it comes to David Austin roses, but I think we chose well with this variety. Lark Ascending is named after the music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, which I’ve included as my musical pairing.
Things Momma Says:
Well, you just can’t depend on the weather anymore.
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Thanks for reading yet another Sunday Letter. I hope your week is fabulous, filled with all good things. And shout-out to the Arkansas Razorback Baseball team. Number 1 in the country, y’all!
Now I’m off to clean and fill the bird feeders and change the sugar water for the hummingbirds.
Woo Pig Sooie,
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
Great Sunday letter!
Is it “boy hidey” in Arkansas? It is “boy howdy” in Kansas…at least in my family. My t-shirt word would be CURIOUS. My nature is curious, and I am constantly looking things up because something tweaked my curiosity. Often that research ends up in a blog!
It’s boy hidey in my family. That’s all I know LOL.
I did read and enjoyed this on Sunday and I wrote a fairly long comment but just as I hit post we lost the internet. 🙄
My shirt might say ‘Hermit’.
I think the cowbird hogged the food and starved the other finches.
Momma is certainly right about the weather.
Good news on making progress with your next book. Any hints as to what it is about?
You are probably right about the cowbird but I want to pretend the others were fine:)
I am sorry you didn’t get to see the fledglings. That seems so quick. I was eager to see the cowbird. Im eager to hear about your current book project. We must visit before too long. We have cardinals that nest in our largest hydrangea bush but I haven’t been able to see their nest. Wish I could. Ditto on the heat and humidity. It feels like summer for sure. Love love the new roses!
I don’t know, maybe none of the baby birds survived. I like to think they did though. Yes, we need to get together.
I love these letters!