Nature & Seasons - grace grits and gardening

Dear July,

July 10, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

My friend Sarah Shotts, who blogs at A Love Letter to Adventure, inspired me to write this post Dear July. During the month of July, Sarah is video journaling in a series called Letters to July. I encourage you to check out her blog today. She is doing innovative, creative work not only with her July letters, but also in Project Stir (her global recipe project). Since I haven’t yet mastered the nuances of videoing (aren’t you glad? ha!), I decided to write a letter to July the old-fashioned way with pen to paper (then reproduced here, of course).

So, corny or not, here we go…

Dear July,

It seems as though I saw you only two or three months ago, yet here you are again. Somehow another entire year has passed. I have a confession. Did you know I love and hate you all at the same time? It’s true. I’ve thought about it for a long, long time.

July, you’ve always shown up bringing a bundle of my favorite things…family vacations, juicy watermelon, and a blue sky filled with lofty clouds. Even with all these wonderful gifts, the truth is that sometimes, most times, you are steamy and unbearable and I want you to disappear into a cool autumn breeze. But not this year, not so far, at least. This year I wouldn’t recognize you at all if not for the flicker of lightning bugs outside my kitchen window.

In case you’ve forgotten, today is my birthday. Today I turn fifty-three years old. That’s another reason I’m quite fond of you. Doesn’t everyone love their birthday month?

I’m not sure how I blinked and became fifty-three, but I did. And I’m not complaining. It’s a privilege, really, this aging thing. For whatever reason, many folks don’t get the luxury. Anyway, I thought you should know, I’m grateful for the memories so far—I hold them close and revisit them often like an old favorite book.

If you think about it, we have quite a history—fifty-three trips around the sun together is an impressive distance for someone who doesn’t like to travel all that much. Happy birthday to you and me and cheers to our next journey around the globe. Let’s try to enjoy more of the moments and remember they aren’t infinite. You order up the yellow sunshine (not too terribly hot, please), and I’ll bring the sunscreen.

And wine. There should be wine.

Your friend,

Me.

My 9th birthday. 9 candles with 1 to grow on!

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

[tweetthis]Dear July, Happy Birthday to us! You bring the sun, I’ll bring the wine. @sarahshotts #LetterstoJuly[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Todd Rundgren, Hello It’s Me

another 4th of July

July 6, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

We celebrated another 4th of July with good food, family and friends, and a mixture of pleasant, not-too-hot weather. Of course, I must post a few pics for posterity…

We made a trip to the Confederate Cemetery in Fayetteville which is only a few blocks from our house. I was in search of a particular tree (for an article I’m writing elsewhere). The cemetery is beautiful and peaceful and parklike and being there on the 4th of July seemed right—different battles yet integral American history no matter what you think about the Confederate flag.

Saturday in Fayetteville means the Farmer’s Market. Yes, we went. Yes, we conquered by buying local Arkansas peaches and blackberries.

And we bought Pedal Pops which are all natural, low-cal, made with simple ingredients, and sort of perfect for the 4th of July. I got banana-orange-strawberry. John got honeydew-peach. Delicious!

Our Sunday included a trip to the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks. Oh my, what a wonderful place. The botanical garden is only a few minutes from our house and SO EASY! (Parking, admissions, everything.)

Let me just say this about living in Fayetteville—everything is easy, every day’s the 4th of July.

This week I’ll be showing you what I made with those peaches and blackberries—yum! And, I’ll be talking more about my garden (specifically about butterflies), plus Lucy and Annabelle have a post coming up. I may even do my first periscope broadcast. We’ll see. In other words, for once I’m not blogging by the seat of my pants. Crazytown.

Here’s to a great week!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Another fab #4thofJuly! @BGOzarks @PedalPopsIce #Fayetteville #buylocal[/tweetthis]

Musical Pairing:

Chicago – Saturday in the Park

20 ways to rediscover the LOST ART of SUMMER

June 22, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Three cheers for summer! This year, I say we take time to rediscover the lost art of summer. Slow down. Stop trying to orchestrate the picture perfect summer and instead enjoy some hot fun in the summertime “old school style”. Waaaaay back when I was a kid, summer meant hours of bicycle riding and exploring ditch banks and guzzling cherry Kool-aid in the shade of a mimosa tree. Now mimosas are drinks, the tree variety is considered trash by many, and summer is pre-planned to stave off kids’ idle brain drain. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

Work a few of these simple simon activities into each week from now until Labor Day, and you’ll have a more relaxing summer. Promise.

1. Play in the water hose. Drink from it too.

2. Go on a picnic. Grill hot dogs. Who cares about calories or the gritty sand that somehow made its way onto the bun?

3. Lay on a quilt and watch the clouds float by. A quilt hand-stitched by your grandmother.

4. Lose yourself in a trashy summer read. It’s allowed in summer.

5. Eat ice cream in the sun. Nothing fancy. Neapolitan scooped into a plain cone. Or, support your neighborhood ice cream truck. Or, both.

6. Go for lots of walks and always carry change. You never know when you’ll find a neighborhood lemonade stand. If you have little ones at home, man your own lemonade stand in the front yard and donate the proceeds to a good cause.

7. Catch lightning bugs in a mason jar or at least sit outside and watch them light up the yard. They are extra amazing this year! (Release them before bedtime, though.)

8. Swim in a swimming hole.

9. Eat watermelon. Plant the seeds even though they probably won’t come up.