Life - grace grits and gardening

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?

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

Things I Don’t Need More Of (even if I live to be 104)

July 30, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Lately my writing has taken a back seat to cleaning. Let’s face it, a potential buyer doesn’t want to open a closet and be hit in the head with a box of wrapping paper. Although I consider myself to be a tidy, organized person, over time closets become cluttered. Drawers will barely close. The whole purging process is cathartic to me. I’ve found items I thought were lost forever. Mainly I’ve discovered there are things I don’t need more of EVER. Things I didn’t realize was hoarding. Such as…

Napkins.

Paper or cloth. All occasion. I can fully outfit a baby shower with boy or girl napkins. Thanksgiving, Halloween, New Year’s Eve. Book club. Football party. And Christmas? Oh my! I love to buy Christmas napkins at after Christmas sales. Three or four or five packages, at only $1.50 who can resist? I stick them in a drawer, and the next Christmas when our small family gathers, we use maybe six napkins. Maybe. You see the problem.

Here’s a sampling.

Apparently, I also hoard cheap sunglasses. I found a drawer full.

And gloves. Leather. Cashmere. Polka dot. Ski. Fingerless. Mittens. Razorback. Hand-knitted. Every color in the crayon box. (Gardening gloves don’t count. You can’t have too many.)

Now, back to cleaning. Our house officially goes on MLS tomorrow!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“Don’t own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire.”
― Wendell Berry

Musical Pairing:

ZZ Top – Cheap Sunglasses

Leaving the Lake. Leaving Munger Place…

July 26, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

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.

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.