Autumn - grace grits and gardening

August

August 4, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

August is stifling, a string of one hundred plus degree days.

Plants wilt and scream to be cut back or yanked from the soil.

I open the kitchen door and heat billows. Before sunrise.

The dogs stop and sniff and stare, refusing to move from the back step. They wonder what’s going on in this place we live?

Yes, they wonder, I can tell by their cocked heads and sincere eyes.

I enjoy August, even with her sultry days bringing frizzy hair and skin damp enough to sprout seeds.

August marks the bittersweet end of summer.

Maybe sneak in one last vacation?

I anticipate fall and cotton harvest.

School supplies fill store shelves.

Number two pencils.

Clean white notebook paper.

I wait for college football and pumpkin lattes.

I wait for that first brilliant leaf.

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

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. ~Sam Keen

autumn fade

November 30, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

Autumn disappears.

While I sit at my desk writing and thinking,

brilliant fades to brown.

Russet leaves, once aflame,

float to the sidewalks one by one

like words on the page.

Dry, piled underfoot, leaves crunch as I walk.

Bare branches reveal giant squirrel nests

and clumps of mistletoe—hidden there the whole time.

Frosty mornings and cold nights.

Another Arkansas full moon.

Soon it will be Christmas.

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

Remember those church songs from childhood— Jesus Loves Me and Jesus Loves the Little Children? We sang them in Vacation Bible School and church camp. They were the first lyrics we memorized, words we couldn’t forget if we tried.

red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight…

Spring Street, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Yesterday, I thought about those songs while walking along Spring Street. It was a glorious autumn day with summer’s sidewalks buried under layers of leaves.

I searched for that perfect yellow leaf, brighter than all the rest, golden among scarlet and orange.

Unable to pick just one, they were all beautiful. Each different.

Precious in His sight—absolutely.

talya

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