grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

A Spring Day during Winter. Another School Shooting.

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Yesterday, Mother Nature blessed us with a spring day during winter. A brief respite. The chance to shed sweaters and coats and feel warm sunshine on bare arms.

Northwest Arkansas enjoyed temperatures in the mid-seventies.

John grilled steaks wrapped in bacon.

I searched for signs of spring. New life hides beneath dry leaves.

This all happened after I spoke at the University of Arkansas OLLI luncheon held at Bordino’s. OLLI invites an author to speak monthly. Lunch with an author, they call it. It was an honor for me. I’m always a little amazed when anyone shows up to hear me talk about my book.

So overall, it was an A+ sort of day for me. Even so, throughout all of it I couldn’t help but think about the parents who lost sons and daughters in another school shooting. This one in Florida.

Those families don’t care one iota about their tulips coming up from the soil. They don’t give a rat’s ass about reading my book or any book. They probably didn’t eat lunch yesterday. If they did, they certainly didn’t taste the food.Continue Reading

Sunday Letter: 02.11.18

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Sunday Letter

Sunday Letter?

Remember when letter writing was a thing? You may be too young to remember, but I do. I religiously wrote letters to my penpal in Australia. When I was away at camp, I wrote letters to Staci and Momma even though I got home before my news. Back home, I wrote letters to the new friends I’d made at camp (friends I would likely never see again). On occasion, my best friends and I even wrote letters. I could look from my bedroom window and see the water tower and stand of trees marking the town where many of them lived. During summer, we may as well have lived in different states.

On this icy Sunday morning in Northwest Arkansas (19 degree as I write), I’m writing a Sunday Letter to you. And if I can stick with it (no promises), this will be a regular Sunday thing each week as a way to recap my writing, my travels, whatever happens to be going on (or not going on). Sort of a “Dear Diary” entry.Continue Reading

these clouds in Texas…

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These clouds in TexasHey everyone! I’m dropping in to show you these clouds in Texas, AND telling you I haven’t been kidnapped or worse. I’ve been traveling. For the most part, traveling has kept me unplugged. (A good thing sometimes, right?)

I take lots and lots of pictures every day. This morning, when I looked back through some of my recent photos, I thought this one, in particular, was worth sharing.

Last week, these clouds in Texas greeted me as I drove south beyond the Red River.

When I was a kid, I spent lots of time staring at the clouds, naming the shapes, watching them sail over our house light as goose feathers. Now, as an adult, I don’t spend nearly enough time looking up.

I suspect none of us do.

Well, farmers might.

When I first moved to Waco for college, I remember telling Daddy about the clouds. I told him they were different in Waco. He stared at me like I was crazy and said nothing. At the time, I thought the land and the clouds spread wider than at home which seems impossible (and yes, crazy) when home is pancake flat delta farmland. Now, looking back, the trees probably played a part in my perspective. The trees in Waco were shrubbier and squattier than those at home. The trees made the sky above more expansive.

Under those clouds, I felt smaller.Continue Reading

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