grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Dear November,

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Dear November,

Dear November,

Welcome, welcome, welcome. From Halloween until Christmas, you remind me to take time to be thankful for my blessings. Yes, I should always be thankful no matter the season, and I try to be. Even so, as the year winds down, I need this reminder.

I’m guessing we all do.

November, you are pure and easy, asking for nothing other than gratitude during autumn’s final hurrah. From sea to shining sea, we gather and eat and eat and eat as though we need the extra calories to face the frantic holiday month ahead. Brrrrr! Baby, it’s getting colder outside.Continue Reading

Fall Foraged Decor

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Fall Foraged Decor - Tonka Truck makes fun decoration!I like to decorate with natural elements. Plants growing in the fields or along the ditch bank. Flowers from my garden. Pumpkins and gourds and apples from the farmer’s market.

Take a look at a few of my fall foraged decorating ideas. Yes, I use the term foraged loosely (creative writing, y’all). Foraged from the closet or flea markets or while on neighborhood walks with Lucy and Annabelle.

Use rusty old toys, wheelbarrows, farm implements, whatever, to display fall’s bounty inside or outside. In the picture above, my sister’s original Tonka Truck moves gourds around in the backyard. Yes, I still play in the dirt.

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Pictured: Delta Cotton

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P i c t u r e d: Delta Cotton

Cotton-picking time in the Delta is my favorite. This week when I haven’t been holed up working on my book edits (yay!), I’ve been driving from the bootheel of Missouri and along the Great River Road searching out magazine and blog post stories. The highways and byways of the Delta are roaring with trucks hauling soybeans and grain. The gins are ginning at capacity. I can often be found poking around in fields or parked on the side of the road taking pictures. So far, the farmers work around me. ? ??

A few Delta cotton pics. (The smoke in the first two pictures is from the adjacent soybean field—burning stalks after harvest.)

cotton picker

 

round bale cotton

 

Adams Cotton Gin

 

old cotton picking sack

 

in the cotton field

 

1910 cotton picking basket

 

Delta cotton!

  1. John Deere picker, Mississippi County, Ar.
  2. Round bale, Mississippi County, Ar.
  3. Adams Cotton Gin, Leachville, Ar.
  4. Old cotton picking sack, Mississippi County Museum, Osceola, Ar.
  5. Momma, my sister and me.
  6. 1910 cotton picking basket, Mississippi County Museum, Osceola, Ar.
  7. Beautiful boll, Dunklin County, Mo.

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]In them old cotton fields back home… @ArFB @JohnDeere #farming #Delta #Arkansas[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cotton Fields Back Home

Youtube video

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!