Fayetteville - grace grits and gardening

the Colors of Easter

April 3, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

iris

I recently told my friend Laurie that my dream job would have been working for Crayola, specifically naming the crayon colors. Since I was a kid, everything about crayons fascinated me from the fresh smell of the wax to the way something so simple could transform a plain piece of paper into a refrigerator-worthy work of art. A new box of Crayons with the colors lined up sharp and perfect, or an old coffee can filled with broken stubs and unraveled wrappers—I’ve always loved them all.

Since my Crayola dream job has long been taken (I checked their website) and the crayons have already been christened, I decided to match up crayon names with the soft colors of Easter. It’s something I automatically do while walking the dogs. Those daffodils popping up everywhere? They come in various Crayola shades including canary, unmellow yellow and sunglow.

During this Easter season, Fayetteville is bursting with blooms. Pastels as soft as spun sugar. Tufts of fresh green grass begging to hide a dyed egg. The color of someone buying me an ice cream cone for no reason at all (Lemony Snicket). Happy, happy colors.

Easter is such a gift. A gift I don’t deserve.

Outrageous Orange

Banana Mania

Spring Green

Goldenrod

Inch Worm

Cotton Candy

Carnation Pink mixed with Wild Strawberry

Razzle Dazzle Rose

Blue Violet

White

If you are a Crayon nut like me, here are a few fun facts from ColourLovers.com:

Crayola crayons currently come in 120 colors;
An average of 12 million crayons are made daily;
The average child in the U.S. will wear down 730 crayons by her/his 10th birthday;
The first box of Crayola crayons was sold in 1903 for a nickel and included the same colors available in the eight-count box today—red, blue, yellow, green, violet, orange, black and brown.

There’s nostalgic goodness in every box of Crayons. Sometimes that’s just what this world needs. Especially at Easter.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Discovery – Swing Tree

Little Free Library: because I’m all about the books! (and seeds)

February 4, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Woo-hoo! I’ve been looking forward to this day since we moved into our house. We are the proud stewards of a Little Free Library. Purchased as a housewarming/Christmas gift to ourselves, our library has been stored in the coat closet since Thanksgiving. Yesterday, it was installed. (We waited until our landscaping was in progress, so that we could incorporate it into the front yard.)

Do you know about the Little Free Library? It’s all about the books…and in our case, the seeds. Seeds? Keep reading.

“Take a book, return a book”—that’s the Little Free Library motto.

The first Little Free Library was built in 2009 by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin. He built a one room schoolhouse design as a tribute to his mother who was a teacher. His idea caught on quickly. As of January 2014, over 15,000 Little Free Libraries have been built and installed across the world. What a great way to promote literacy and reading. Plus, they are so freakin’ cute.

There are several in our neighborhood. There can’t be too many—(another motto).

Now about the seeds. Ours is not only a book library, but a seed library. There is a drawer (see the picture below) that will serve as a seed and recipe exchange—a way to share vegetable and flower seeds with neighbors as well as favorite recipes. Neighbors can place seed packets to share or take seeds that have been donated. Our library came with 20 seed packages to start. There will be little plastic bags for dividing seeds, because who needs fifty spinach plants?

The library will be open for business soon. Maybe today. I’ll be putting a few books in it (some garden related, but not all), and seeds will go into the drawer when it’s a bit warmer. Neighbors are invited to participate, hint, hint…

I think a spring porch party might be a great way to officially kick off our Little Free Library and Seed Exchange. It will be a BYOB affair—Bring Your Own Book. Stay tuned and happy reading.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Because I’m all about the books. And seeds! @LtlFreeLibrary #TakeABookLeaveABook #GrowSomething @WildflowerCtr [/tweetthis]

Click HERE for information on building your own Little Free Library.

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow.”- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (Austin)

Musical Pairing:

All About Those Books – MDIHS Library

I should have been an archeologist?

January 29, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

I should have been an archeologist or geologist. I may have missed my calling.

I took several geology classes at Baylor—as many as I could and still graduate on time with a business degree. Daddy wouldn’t hear of any major other than business even though history and rocks and things buried beneath the earth’s crust always held a special interest for me. Who knows why certain people are drawn to certain things, but as I think back, there is a common thread in many of my memories.

I grew up living on the New Madrid Fault where earthquakes were a way of life. My best summer days were spent exploring the streams and trails in the Ozark Mountains and jumping from the rocky cliffs around Lake Norfork. Our delta fields often presented treasures such as arrowheads and other Indian artifacts.

And there are related snippets too, like buying a jar of rocks in Hot Springs and digging up pearly shells and pieces of rusty tin on the banks of Little River.

Obviously the Earth was filled with mystery. Literally.

Today as we install a sprinkler system and churn up dirt in our new backyard, I’ve been finding shards of creamware and pottery and chunks of heavy glass. Much like the sugary Florida beaches where a fresh batch of seashells wash up each morning, pieces of old stoneware and glass work themselves up from the ground daily. Okay, I’m sure most people prefer seashells to broken glass, but this sort of thing fascinates me.

I found this collection (below) during a five minute stroll through the backyard.

To most, this may only look like trash, and back in the early 1900s, it probably was. Without city trash pickup, garbage was often tossed out the back yard to the pigs or dumped in low spots near streams. Paper and food items disintegrated but glass and pottery waits to be discovered.

To me, these broken pieces are treasures. Bits of history left behind. I enjoy these shards not only because of the unique craftsmanship represented, but I like to imagine the family who used the dinner plates etched with faint blue flowers. What were the people like who lived in these hills at the turn of the century?

This next piece was completely covered in mud. I didn’t realize there was a design until I rinsed it off.

And what a thrill to find a piece with preserved words. A few keystrokes later, I discovered this stamp was the mark of china manufacturer Edwin M. Knowles China Company. The three numbers indicate the date of this piece as 1918.