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Adventures in Moving #2

August 14, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Oh my goodness. Last weekend was crazy. It all started with a realtor who brought clients to see our house not during her scheduled appointment time. (Background: house showings are scheduled in one hour increments through a centralized showing company. This allows us time to prepare, leave the house with the dogs during that one hour, and come home hopefully to a contract? Yeah, not yet.)

Saturday, this particular showing went down like this: we received an appointment notice, cleaned like crazed people, vacuumed, turned on all the lights so the house looked its best, removed the third floor barricade (dogs aren’t allowed up there since I shampooed the carpet), left the house at our appointed time and walked the dogs in 100 degree temperatures finally crashing at neighbor Harry’s house. Thank you, Harry!

5119 Worth Street pool with fountains

pool with fountains on

At the end of our scheduled hour, we went home, turned off the lights, barricaded the third floor, turned off the pool fountains, armed the house alarm and left for lunch. It was 2:00. Fish tacos were calling my name.

Thirty minutes later, the realtor showed up well past her appointment. She set off the alarm and the dogs who went nuts (rightfully so). The showing company called to let us know our alarm was going off. No joke. That’s how it works. We rushed home. The realtor and her clients seemed unfazed by the fiasco but of course the house was dark, the third floor was barricaded, the dogs were crazy, the whole thing ridiculous.

Not an ideal house touring scenario.

Oh well.

The next day at our open house, someone took my prescription medication right out of the zippered case inside my bathroom cabinet.

Yeah. Wild.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Talking Heads, Wild, Wild Life

 

Does a place have feelings?

August 4, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

I wonder if a place has feelings.

Does she know we are leaving soon?

Someone new will walk her creaky floors,

sleep beneath her protective eaves.

Her wood moldings gleam.

Sunlight streams through her stained glass.

She is planted all around with flowers and shrubs,

years of devoted tending. Inside and out.

I hope she is excited.

A new family brings

renewed enthusiasm. Energy.

I wonder if a place has feelings.

Will she remember us when we are gone?

 

stained glass 5119 Worth Street

5119 Worth Street, beautiful stained glass

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.”
― Joan Didion

Musical Pairing:

Taking You With Me, Daniel Tashian & Mindy Smith

Leaving the Lake. Leaving Munger Place…

July 26, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Lake Norfork morning

This is our last morning at the lake. The early sun breaks pink through the fog, and the entire view from our porch is ethereal. We’ve enjoyed a great week with family in one of our favorite places. Lots of laughter. Too much food and drink, but that’s part of the fun. I’m ready to be home.

Home.

The word has a different meaning to us right now. Worth Street, our beautiful historic home in Munger Place, won’t be ours much longer. John and I have decided the time is right to sell. Our plan has always been to move home to Arkansas, and this will get us one step closer.

I am excited about this change, yet I will miss Worth Street and Munger Place. The house, neighborhood, friends, the convenience of fabulous grocery stores and Tex-Mex around the corner, my Promise of Peace garden.

More on this later…

For now, we are ready to be home at Worth Street.

Worth Street. For Sale.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.”
― Danny Kaye

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Hi! I'm Talya Tate Boerner. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (2022)

THE THIRD ACT OF THEO GRUENE (coming 2025)

Recent Ramblings:

  • Sunday Letter: 11.23.25
  • Maggie and Miss Ladybug: My New Children’s Nature Book
  • Sunday Letter: November 9, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 26, 2025
  • Sunday Letter: Oct 5, 2025

Novels:

Coloring Books:

Fiction-Themed Coloring Books

Backyard Phenology:

Children’s Nature Book:

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