Hiya, Sunday Letter friends!
Mother Nature has been giving us a rude little scare the past couple of mornings by flirting with freezing temperatures here in northwest Arkansas. This isn’t surprising; she does this every spring around this time. And because of this, we hold off on planting certain flowers and seedlings outside (no matter how tempting it might be).
This last cold snap is called blackberry winter because it typically coincides with the blooming of blackberries. I’ve never grown blackberries, but I do have blossoms on my strawberries. Strawberries, blackberries—I bet they bloom at the same time.
Continuing on with last week’s exciting news…
We Have Monarch Caterpillars!
Oh you know it, during the past week I have been inspecting my milkweed daily for signs of monarch caterpillars. Eggs typically hatch within 7-10 days. And sure enough, it happened right on schedule.
I saw three early signs of activity before I ever saw a caterpillar:
- Disappearing eggs. Most of those eggs I photographed last week were suddenly gone from the milkweed sprouts. This means one thing—the eggs hatched but the caterpillars were still too teeny tiny for me to see.
- Next, when the tips of my milkweed began to look holey and munched on, I knew we were in monarch business.
- Finally, I began to see specs of frass on the leaves. Frass is the official word for monarch caterpillar poop. When the monarchs are tiny, the frass is smaller than specks of black pepper. As the monarchs grow, the frass becomes more like whole peppercorns.
This larva stage of the monarch life will last 10-14 days. Within this stage the caterpillars go through 5 instar phases, meaning their skin will molt and new skin will grow. This time next week, these monarchs will be much larger.
I’ll keep you posted, of course.
My Thoughts on Publishing
You may not care one iota about what I’m about to say, but I suspect a few of you might be interested. The fact is I am frequently asked about publishing. Friends, acquaintances, maybe a reader I met at an event, even folks I’ve never met ask to ‘pick my brain’ about the process of publishing.
How do I go about it?
What should I do?
What did you do to get published?
Y’all, these are HUGE questions without quick answers.
I can’t always devote one-on-one time to those seeking my advice. But because I do want to help those who ask, I compiled my thoughts in one special place on my blog. I’ve included my favorite go-to sources from the people and businesses I consider to be experts. And I hope this information proves useful to those seeking publication.
Click HERE to ‘pick my brain’ and feel free to share with anyone who may be looking for guidance in publishing.
😊
Cornbread on the Stove
Certain foods, like a pot of beans or homemade vegetable soup, would be woefully incomplete without a wedge of freshly baked cornbread. Don’t you agree?
I made a pan of cornbread the other day, John and I ate some, and I wrapped it in foil and left it on the stove. Then, every time I walked through the kitchen that day I thought about being back home on the farm. Why? Because there is nothing like cornbread in a foil-covered iron skillet left out on the stove to remind me of my childhood.
Cornbread was Daddy’s favorite meal accompaniment, no matter what was on the plate for supper. Because of this, Momma made cornbread every day or two, always leaving it out on the stove until time to make another batch. A pan of cornbread on the stove served another purpose Momma probably deemed essential to her sanity. It slowed my sister and me down as we ran through the house. We couldn’t race past that iron skillet without skidding to a stop, reaching underneath the foil, and pinching off a bite.
Cornbread was the best sort of sustenance, especially while building Barbie houses in the living room or plotting the construction of a makeshift roller coaster in our backyard. (Don’t ask.)
Is there something simple like a pan of cornbread that instantly takes you back to your childhood?
By the way, my mother makes the very best cornbread, AND the iron skillet above was my Nana’s.
What’s Growing + Blooming?
It’s such a fun time to be a gardener and nature lover. Every day there’s something new to see, a just opened blossom or a tender shoot pushing up from the soil. Our schip laurels still look pretty awful, although green is sprouting from branches. I’m sure our neighbors are shaking their heads and wondering about our decision to leave them for now.
We still have faith they will make a comeback. In the meantime, these other lovelies provide a nice distraction.
Things Momma Says:
Me: I need a quote for my Sunday Letter.
Momma: I’ve not nothing.
Some weeks are like that…
***
I hope you enjoyed today’s Sunday Letter. Now, go whip up a pan of cornbread and enjoy this blackberry winter day.
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
Thanks for another monarch reporting! I enjoy seeing your garden progress. Mine is much slower of course here in southern Iowa. My Virginia Bluebells and Bluebird eggs are my excitement for this past week.
I would be very excited over bluebells and bluebird eggs too!!
We have Bluebird eggs in the Bluebird Box!!!
Oh this is wonderful!!
I made cornbread this week in a cast iron skillet on top of the stove. You know, I have an “iffy” oven here on the farm. It remained on the stove all week. Lol. All I have blooming here is soybeans, acres of them. YAY!!
Should that be “are” soybeans? Sorry.
Yay for that!
2023 came in like a slow moving iceberg when I walked down the hall into huge puddle of water. We called our precious plumber Joe who found that our dishwasher had been leaking for quite some time below the laminate floor installed 2 years prior. He took pictures and initiated the process with insurance to fix the mess. It is done and while it was not painless, it was a fabulous experience as the insurance company found us the most amazing contractors who could not have been any more wonderful in every way. The new dishwasher is the one unfinished part, but Joe will be here tomorrow morning to complete the project. The painter is coming Tuesday to claim the old one. All it needs is a new hose. While unpacking treasures from emptied cabinets I am able to use my granny’s bowls and cast iron cookware. While unpacking, I severely sprained my hamstring and spend a week unable to do much at all. Good Dr. Kristen gave me a thumbs up and I spent the rest of the day shopping, having lunch out with hubby for our weekly Friday lunch date and more which I am still paying for. My lesson is that we can always plant next week. I taught myself how to get up and down stairs so this is going to be a fun week. The man is coming to give us an estimate on new railings for front and back steps. Thank you God for this gorgeous weekend. Spring is here! Oh and the Pella installation man is also coming tomorrow to install the 2 windows that we ordered on October 27th of 2022. Don’t ask. You really do not want to know!
Goodness, you have a lot going on!
Many breakfasts growing up were broken up cornbread and milk in tall plastic Tupperware glasses. (Is that an oxymoron)? lol.
Best cornbread memories for me are those my Mom baked to dry out on the counter for sage dressing for Thanksgiving. Yum! Thank you Talya for your Sunday letters.
Thanks for reading and sharing your memory too, Carol!
I ordered milkweed seed. It’s in and I need to do some reading now. I guess I could have checked around to see if I could get some from a friend to transplant…..but didn’t. Love the butterflies.
My peonies are trying to bloom. We are under a freeze tonight!!! 😞
Enjoyed your Sunday news.
Thanks Cathy! Good luck with your milkweed seeds. I’ve never grown milkweed from seed but my plants are spreading like crazy!
My family loves cornbread! I well remember cornbread and warm milk for supper
many times.
News of the week is a new birdhouse being used by a couple of little nuthatches,
three feet from our window, they are beautiful ! Prayers being said tonight for the garden as we are being advised of a frost warning!
Thanks for the letter,
We dipped into the 30s here too but all seems well this morning. I hope the same for you! We have a house finch busy making a nest in the mailbox beside our guest quarters. So cute!
Thanks, Talya, for your info on publishing. However, as the author of two cozy mysteries with a third to be published this year, I’ve found the more difficult problem is how to market effectively. There’s so much competition out there. Any thoughts on strategies to sell books?
Oh gosh, I absolutely agree with you Patsy! I’ve had lots of luck with book clubs and Arkansas libraries, and I believe most of that was via word-of-mouth recommendations from readers (which I know doesn’t help you that much). I concentrate on trying to get reviews because I believe reviews drive Amazon sales. I’ve done a bit of everything with respect to marketing; some very hit or miss ideas – LOL. Being consistent on social media has helped me build an audience. And when I attend book club talks, I remind readers to write reviews. In general, I don’t think readers understand the importance.
We were 89° here yesterday :-), summer has arrived far too soon.
The thing that can immediately take me back to my childhood is cold fried chicken, especially if there is buttermilk, left from making the cornbread, in the fridge. Heaven is a rocker on you grandmother’s porch, with a piece of cold fried chicken and a glass of cold buttermilk. I can still see the snowball bushes.
Oh I love this! Summer will be here soon enough.
My daddy loved cornbread, too, so it was staple at our house. I still love it and Terry has become a fan.
Blackberry Winter got my attention, too. I was especially concerned about our peonies, which were budding at the time. I’m happy to report they have been absolutely glorious this year.
Your publishing tips post was a great idea! If I ever ….