grace grits and gardening - ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Adventures in Moving #2

August 14, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Oh my goodness. Last weekend was crazy. It all started with a realtor who brought clients to see our house not during her scheduled appointment time. (Background: house showings are scheduled in one hour increments through a centralized showing company. This allows us time to prepare, leave the house with the dogs during that one hour, and come home hopefully to a contract? Yeah, not yet.)

Saturday, this particular showing went down like this: we received an appointment notice, cleaned like crazed people, vacuumed, turned on all the lights so the house looked its best, removed the third floor barricade (dogs aren’t allowed up there since I shampooed the carpet), left the house at our appointed time and walked the dogs in 100 degree temperatures finally crashing at neighbor Harry’s house. Thank you, Harry!

pool with fountains on

At the end of our scheduled hour, we went home, turned off the lights, barricaded the third floor, turned off the pool fountains, armed the house alarm and left for lunch. It was 2:00. Fish tacos were calling my name.

Thirty minutes later, the realtor showed up well past her appointment. She set off the alarm and the dogs who went nuts (rightfully so). The showing company called to let us know our alarm was going off. No joke. That’s how it works. We rushed home. The realtor and her clients seemed unfazed by the fiasco but of course the house was dark, the third floor was barricaded, the dogs were crazy, the whole thing ridiculous.

Not an ideal house touring scenario.

Oh well.

The next day at our open house, someone took my prescription medication right out of the zippered case inside my bathroom cabinet.

Yeah. Wild.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Talking Heads, Wild, Wild Life

Our crepe myrtle show.

August 12, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

The first year we lived in our house, we planted a crepe myrtle in our front yard. To make an impact right away, we bought a decent sized tree, large enough that we couldn’t carry it home in our car. The guys from the nursery delivered and planted it on Thanksgiving Day which we thought was strange timing. Of course because of that, we never forgot the day it joined our yard.

Unfortunately, our crepe myrtle was always a poor performer. She never bloomed very well.

Until this summer.

Of course this summer, the summer we decided to move, our crepe myrtle is putting on a gorgeous show with heavy hot pink blossoms visible from both our downstairs and upstairs porches.

Maybe she’s happy because of this summer’s below normal temperatures (and by below normal I mean 95 degrees instead of 105 degrees).

Or perhaps our above average rainfall is responsible for her enthusiasm.

Maybe she’s doing her part to improve curbside appearance, trying to help us sell the house?

Or maybe she’s just saying goodbye as we prepare to walk away.

the view of our crepe myrtle from the upstairs porch

view from upstairs porch

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Zac Brown Band, As She’s Walking Away

a new twist on flower frogs

August 9, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

This is a frog in a flower.

via Chamomile @ morgueFile

These are flower frogs.

Note the differences. ◕‿◕

I’ve begun collecting flower frogs. (My mother, on the other hand, collects the amphibian sort in her bathroom on the farm—a whole other story.)

Vintage flower frogs are made of metal or pottery. They were originally used for flower arranging (very Ikebana). The frog holds the stems of flowers upright. Placed inside a shallow bowl filled with water (like a frog?), the flowers stay fresh and stand at attention. I put mine in a little creamer for demo purposes. Pretty cute I think, even though the picture didn’t turn out so great.

Flower frogs have become quite collectible (pricey), so if I can find an inexpensive one, I snag it. But instead of using them for flower arranging, I prefer to use them for displaying photographs.

The last few weeks I’ve been decluttering our house, preparing to sell it, preparing to move. The last thing I should be doing is buying something else to tote to our new house. Right?

Right.

Yet I was the highest (only) Ebay bidder on two new frogs. Less than five dollars, I couldn’t resist. They needed a new home, and luckily they will be easy to pack.