grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

H is for Hot Flash

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If you see me around the neighborhood appearing flushed or faint, don’t worry, don’t judge. I’m having a hot flash. 
Several times during the night, I wake drenched in tangled, saturated sheets with wringing wet hair. The fan blows full blast over my damp body doing little to cool me. John is frozen and motionless, wrapped in an extra blanket like a burrito.
Before the next hellish Dallas summer descends (in fifty-three days based on my estimation), I am determined to find a natural, healthy way to alleviate night sweats. Desperate for relief, John researched my affliction and discovered sage tea helps.

After an hour at the gym (exercise also helps…), I ran to my local grocery store in search of sage tea.

“How can I help you?” 

“Do you sell sage tea?” 

“Yes.” The young grocery employee handed me a canister of tea. “This brand is mixed with blackberries. Personally, I don’t like the taste of sage, but I like this tea because the blackberries make it fruity.” He flashed a wide smile. Was he flirting with me?

“Do you think the blackberries dilute the health benefits?”

“Not at all. You’re buying it for hot flashes, right?”

EXCUSE ME? Okay, I realized I had just left the gym, and I was working a nice endorphin glow, but…  “No, actually I love the taste of sage….,” I lied. “Okay yes, I’m buying it for hot flashes. Is it that obvious?”

“No, no I buy it for my mother, so I thought that might be the case,” His mother? I was NOT his mother’s age! Was I? He laughed and laughed and laughed...”It really helped her with hot flashes,” he continued, blah, blah, blah.

“Okay I’ll try it.” So you’ll stop your loud yammering… “Hey look,” I noticed pointing to the tea label, “apparently sage tea is also for wisdom. Something for both of us…” 

“Yes, ma’am!” He beamed.

talya
Musical Pairing:
Smooth, Santana featuring Rob Thomas

G is for Give

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Give generously.
Recognize life’s blessings and
Abundant gifts.
Create a peaceful, loving
Enviroment.

Give with spirit
Remembering what is real and
Important. Tell the
Tale, no matter how difficult.
Someone, somewhere needs to hear.

Give thanks to Mother Earth, live in
Awe of her
Remarkable splendor.
Dream and keep the faith
Even when twisty vines
Never produce fruit.
It is in the
Natural, selfless
Giving that we receive.

talya

Musical Pairing:
Mercy, Mercy Me – Marvin Gaye

I am participating in A to Z April Blog Challenge. G is for Give…

F is for Farm

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There are four distinct farm seasons. Planting, Growing, Harvest and WaitingRestlesslyToPlant. Today we are at the tail end of WaitingRestlesslyToPlant season. 
During the long cold season of WaitingRestlesslyToPlant, farmers drive along muddy turn rows, staring at black furrows laid out like fans, willing the weather to warm. They wait and plan and watch the sky counting down to the first day of Planting season when collectively all the farmers exhale, along with their wives and children.
Nurturing crops day and night during Growing season, farmers pray for sunshiny days, then pray for rain, then pray for no rain. So do their wives and children.
Finally, the smell of defoliant fills the southern air. Harvest Season. The most wonderful time of the year. The fields are saturated in white, a sea of snowy cotton.  Golden wheat bends and bows to the earth. Rice hang heavy and dry. Dust flies. Combines roar. Blackbirds watch from a safe distance. The end of another year, another cycle.

At the end of Harvest, farmers are content to have a bit of money left over to plow back into the soil next year.

Farmers toil from sunup to sundown, from can to can’t. They do it because they love it. They do it because they can’t not do it.

talya

The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat…” 

Musical Pairing:
Big Green Tractor, Jason Aldean

Be sure to watch this video above of our farmers from home!
Never A Dull Moment…Fishing for Cotton…
(Senter Farms, Holthouse Farms, Mississippi County, Arkansas)

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!