grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig.

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The view from our sleeping porch

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig. I’m back home after spending five days with Momma and my sister, Staci, at home-home in Mississippi County, Arkansas. (I’ve said this before, but home-home is where I’m from, and home [singular] is where I live now.)

When we were kids, Momma always said, “Home again, home again, jiggety jig,” every time we pulling into the carport. After a trip to the lake. After a trip to Big Star. After a trip anywhere.

You remember that nursery rhyme, don’t you? There are lots of versions. The jingle has been quoted in many television shows, movies, and books. (Stephen King, I’m looking at you and It.)

The version I know:

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hog,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.
To market, to market, to buy a plum bun,
Home again, home again, market is done.
(Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes)

Now I say it. Not always, but sometimes. Because I’ve turned into Momma.Continue Reading

Our House at Halloween

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I realized something this week. Decorating for Halloween is rather easy when I typically surround myself with antique, tattered, old things. Our house at Halloween is, well, not a far stretch from normal.

I’m not sure what that says about John and me.

Yes, we’re having a party on Saturday. I thought I’d give you a sneak peek inside our house at Halloween. I like to mix specific decorations I’ve picked up through the years with my usual decor. This plays right along into the spooky theme when “usual decor” includes vintage curiosities and antique furniture.

Entryway:

Halloween entry

I already had Nancy Drew books under this glass cloche in the entryway. I substituted a few to add Poe and Faulkner to the mix. A vintage postcard and a raven perched on a rusty bedspring adds to the overall moody vignette.Continue Reading

the Halloween Garden

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The Halloween Garden

Halloween is one of my favorite times of year. I love the nostalgia of it and dressing in a costume. Halloween provides the perfect excuse to eat a handful of sugary candy I don’t otherwise eat. My silver service on the sideboard looks appropriately dark and moody in its currently tarnished state. Even the yard gets in on the spirit of the season, which brings me to the Halloween garden. Maybe it’s simply my perspective come October, but flowers and plants take on a heavy, sleepy, Halloween-ish air to me. And it all happens naturally. Without the gardener doing anything.

Other than noticing.

I snapped a few pictures to show you the raw beauty of the Halloween garden.Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

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