grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Razorback Conversation…

By

Walking along Spring Street on a beautiful fall morning, everyone scrambles to do yard work—weeding, raking (a lost cause…), even painting porch railings before winter settles into the mountains.
Spring Street, Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Spring Street, Eureka Springs, Ar
From yard to yard, I overhear the same chat after chat between husbands, wives, yard workers, painters, partners, neighbors, each blending into the next. Same topic, each with a slightly different color or feel or tone. Bits of these conversations floated from porch to sidewalk where I pieced them together like a home-sewn quilt.

One cohesive narration about…

RAZORBACK FOOTBALL, or lack thereof…
the quarterback is ok I guess
terrible season
coach is awful
be glad when this season is over
we had such high hopes
haven’t even been to a game
and so on and so on
From house to house, I heard streaming Razorback commentary. 
Spring Street, Eureka Springs, Arkansas

As I walked by the last home before the curve toward Dairy Hollow, a man nodded hello to me as he hauled stones for his crumbling rock wall.

“You know, this morning your neighbors all the way back to the library are having one long conversation about the Razorbacks.”
“Guess we should all get together over coffee…” he laughed.
“It’s interesting. One street-long conversation about the Razorbacks.”
“Well, there’s only one topic worse than the Hogs.”
“What’s that?”

“Politics.”

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


Come Away With Me

By

Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs
My space at Dairy Hollow has a generous bathroom with a huge sunken tub. I prefer showers. As Kramer (Seinfeld) aptly explained, if I don’t have a good shower, I’m not myself. I feel weak and ineffectual…Showers are quick and efficient – in and out. Get on with the day. Waiting and waiting and waiting for the tub to fill with water makes me antsy. Baths are disgusting – sitting there in my own tepid pool of filth (again, Kramer greatness). 

But somehow at Dairy Hollow a bathtub is fitting. I have no agenda. After a writing session and an invigorating hike through the chilly Ozarks, a steamy bath is relaxing.
As I soak, I stare at a photo over the tub. A framed photo from Where the Wild Things Are, a favorite children’s picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak. Years ago my son and I read this book together each night, over and over. He memorized the words and recited it along with me. My son who is now in college…I wonder if he still remembers the words to the story?

Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs, Ar

 

Initially I thought it to be strange artwork for the bathroom, but as my mind cleared I realized the illustration is perfect.
The story is about imagination and magical travel and wild flights of fancy. It’s about playing and being creative. It’s about escaping to another place, another land, a world with a wild rumpus!
Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs

 

Even Max’s wolf costume is befitting for Halloween in Eureka Springs where zombies are soon to stagger down Spring Street.
Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs, Ar
Sometimes I think I could stay here forever, in the woods at my writing desk overlooking the turning leaves. But at the end of the week home will beckon. And I will sail back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of my very own home where supper will be waiting for me (maybe?)…

talya

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

Musical Pairing:

Come Away With Me, Norah Jones

“There should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen.” 
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are 

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!