Talya Tate Boerner - grace grits and gardening

Simple Pleasures #1

September 28, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Our first official week in our new (old) home was busy and often overwhelming, yet filled with happy-to-be-back-in-Arkansas simple pleasures. Simple pleasures worth recapping now to remember later…

Cool, fall weather. Chilly mornings, perfect afternoons. Sleeping with the windows open. What can I say, fall is my favorite season! I bought my first pumpkin:)

Lots of long walks. Lucy and Annabelle are dog tired by day’s end. John and I enjoyed walking to the square and farmer’s market, Dickson Street for lunch, and Razorback Stadium. Living in a walkable town is such a bonus.

Farmer’s Market, Fayetteville, Arkansas

I am thankful for the luxury of time. Time to unpack boxes and arrange things we’ve collected through the years. Even with all the chaos, there was time to think and talk about planning our yard and garden.

Beans and Cornbread. Cooking my first meal in the house felt good and right. Brown beans and skillet cornbread – yum!

Television. After two visits from AT&T UVerse (never fun), we had television just in time to watch college football. The Razorbacks didn’t fare so well, but my Baylor Bears looked strong! Supporting multiple teams is a good thing.

Ice Cream. Last summer thanks to Yarnell’s and Arkansas Women Bloggers, I won a free half-gallon of ice cream. I finally collected it. I chose Ozark Black Walnut. Yummy! Yarnell’s is an Arkansas tradition.

What simple pleasures did you enjoy last week?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Nana’s Cactus

September 27, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

My short memoir, Nana’s Cactus, was recently published in Arkansas Review. Arkansas Review, an Arkansas State University literary journal, is more difficult to find than a regular magazine so you likely haven’t read it. My story is about a cactus and Nana and Elvis and life and death. Although I’m not going to re-print it here, I will give you the back story on the plant itself.

As long as I can remember, Nana’s cactus thrived in a dusty glass terrarium on her carport at the home place. In the mid-1970s when Nana and Papa moved to Keiser, that cactus moved to their new carport in Keiser. Each time we visited Nana and Papa (daily?), we walked by her cactus to get to her back porch. Hundreds of times.

The cactus was a tangle of a plant that lived outside no matter the weather. During fall, the blades were often buried in layers of leaves. It spent many winters beneath two or three inches of snow yet always bloomed bright yellow in May.

I took a cutting with me to college. It traveled with me to several apartments in Waco, my first house in Dallas and my last home on Worth Street in Munger Place. Several years ago when it outgrew its largest pot (it’s not the easiest to transplant as you might imagine – see those needles in the picture below!), John planted it in the hottest corner of our Dallas flower bed.

Last week I started over with Nana’s Cactus. I took another small cutting, repotted it and moved it with me to Fayetteville. I think it’s happy to be back in Arkansas.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

P.S. My sister and Momma have cuttings of Nana’s cactus. Other family members do too.

Nana – Frances Johnson Creecy

Musical Pairing:

Bobby Goldsboro, Honey

a good sort of chaos

September 25, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Today marks one week since we officially moved to Fayetteville. Even though we’ve only been here one week and things are chaotic, it’s a fun chaos. Stuff is spread everywhere. The whole process is a jigsaw puzzle. What fits where? This house is a bit smaller than Worth Street. Smaller is good.

Yes, that’s a cornucopia in the middle of my table…

We should have been caterers. Seriously. We have every style and type platter, serving piece, decanter, pitcher, crystal, china, candlestick, mercy… and for every season. Luckily, we have a fantastic pantry. This is my first official pantry ever. There’s great storage for all that china we never use, because in reality we aren’t caterers and probably never will be.

With each unpacked box, the house feels more like home. Especially the book boxes. And even though I was the person who packed the books in Dallas, there are more than I realized. Today I hope to finish the library. Yes, we have an entire room devoted to books. You know I love love love that. (Reveal coming up.)

We’ve carved out time for fun too. Saturday afternoon, we walked to the Razorback game. Being able to walk to the stadium is a huge bonus. No parking worries!

In fact, we’ve walked to the grocery store, lunch on Dickson Street, post office, farmer’s market, etc. The early fall weather is perfect. Trees are beginning to turn with splotches of bright orange in uppermost branches.

We sleep with the windows open and the attic fan roaring overhead. The sky is painted with stars, yet our neighborhood is dark. Much darker than Dallas. We go to bed exhausted, sleep all night (including Lucy and Annabelle who are typically up and down and up and down) and awake to a chilly forty-nine degrees. Love it!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

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