grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

G is for Give

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Give generously.
Recognize life’s blessings and
Abundant gifts.
Create a peaceful, loving
Enviroment.

Give with spirit
Remembering what is real and
Important. Tell the
Tale, no matter how difficult.
Someone, somewhere needs to hear.

Give thanks to Mother Earth, live in
Awe of her
Remarkable splendor.
Dream and keep the faith
Even when twisty vines
Never produce fruit.
It is in the
Natural, selfless
Giving that we receive.

talya

Musical Pairing:
Mercy, Mercy Me – Marvin Gaye

I am participating in A to Z April Blog Challenge. G is for Give…

F is for Farm

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There are four distinct farm seasons. Planting, Growing, Harvest and WaitingRestlesslyToPlant. Today we are at the tail end of WaitingRestlesslyToPlant season. 
During the long cold season of WaitingRestlesslyToPlant, farmers drive along muddy turn rows, staring at black furrows laid out like fans, willing the weather to warm. They wait and plan and watch the sky counting down to the first day of Planting season when collectively all the farmers exhale, along with their wives and children.
Nurturing crops day and night during Growing season, farmers pray for sunshiny days, then pray for rain, then pray for no rain. So do their wives and children.
Finally, the smell of defoliant fills the southern air. Harvest Season. The most wonderful time of the year. The fields are saturated in white, a sea of snowy cotton.  Golden wheat bends and bows to the earth. Rice hang heavy and dry. Dust flies. Combines roar. Blackbirds watch from a safe distance. The end of another year, another cycle.

At the end of Harvest, farmers are content to have a bit of money left over to plow back into the soil next year.

Farmers toil from sunup to sundown, from can to can’t. They do it because they love it. They do it because they can’t not do it.

talya

The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat…” 

Musical Pairing:
Big Green Tractor, Jason Aldean

Be sure to watch this video above of our farmers from home!
Never A Dull Moment…Fishing for Cotton…
(Senter Farms, Holthouse Farms, Mississippi County, Arkansas)

E is for Elvis! Elvis! Elvis!

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Elvis's Graceland

I grew up just across the river from Memphis, a magical city with Goldsmith’s for back-to-school shopping, Libertyland for roller coaster riding, Mid-South Fair for corn dog eating, and Graceland for possible Elvis-sightings.

Elvis's Graceland

 

The King was sometimes spotted at the hallowed gates outside Graceland chatting with rabid fans and handing out diamond rings like sticks of Juicy Fruit. Elvis sightings always made the front page of The Commercial Appeal. 
When Elvis was sick, which was often, the Baptist Memorial Hospital became his hotel.  This too made the news which prompted a family road trip across the river to keep watch over Elvis. Momma circled the hospital around and around and around, as Nana, my sister and I strained our necks to see his window.

We prayed not for Elvis’ health, but to see him stroll across the parklike grounds. Elvis’ room was easy to spot. He was always on the top floor and his windows were completely covered with aluminum foil.  

The mere sight of his aluminum foil-covered window was thrilling.
A Memphis cop directed traffic on the street. We were not the only crazy fans.
Graceland
talya

Grace Grits and Gardening

Musical Pairing:

Paul Simon, Graceland

“Before Elvis there was nothing.” 
― John Lennon

p.s. According to the newspaper, the aluminum foil was to keep out sunlight. We know it was to keep fans (us) from scaling the building and peeping inside…

 

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!