Frog and Toad Together - grace grits and gardening

Sunday Letter: 07.19.2020

July 19, 2020 By Talya Tate Boerner 13 Comments

Thanks for being here. I skipped my letter last week because I didn’t have anything to say. When the days and nights blur together into one block of humidity, inspiration tends to take a back seat for me. A vinyl, stuck-to-my-bare-legs back seat. You know that feeling?

But I’m here today, once again with only a meager bit of Sunday Letter news to share. But maybe as I write, something entertaining will come to mind. Ideas sometimes reveal themselves unexpectedly, even at the bottom of a dry well.Continue Reading

Sunday Letter: 01.26.20

January 26, 2020 By Talya Tate Boerner 5 Comments

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

This Sunday Letter has a bit of a reptilian theme. Yes, the topics are a little out there. Where else can you read about Frog and Toad, Godzilla, and Chicken Piccata in the same place? Nowhere. I googled it.

This, of course, begs the question, “What do Godzilla and Frog and Toad eat? Chicken Piccata?” Ha. Not to my knowledge. There’s some talk on the interwebs that Godzilla once ate a Fiat, but the truth is, he spit it out. Godzilla feeds off radiation. Not Italian cars or Italian food.

And Frog and Toad? Well, any true fan knows these friends eat cookies.

Here we go.

I had a Frog and Toad moment.

April 8, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner 3 Comments

It seems like only yesterday when my sister, cousin Lesa, and I entertained ourselves for hours on end acting out stories from Frog and Toad. If you don’t know what on earth I’m talking about, well I’m sorry. Frog and Toad Together was Newbery Honor book two in a four part series written by Arnold Lobel.

Greatness.

What can I say, we were farm girls with fantastic imaginations and oh so much talent.

Trust me.

There’s a particular story in Frog and Toad Together that goes something like this…

Toad bakes cookies. Frog, knowing they have no will power, places the cookies in a box, ties up the box with string, and puts the box on a high shelf. Toad, being the realist, points out how easy it would be to climb the ladder and get the box and eat the cookies. Frog and Toad ended up giving their cookies to the birds. As a kid I remember thinking just eat the cookies if you want them. Today I think all that sugar and chocolate probably killed the poor little birds…

I can’t tell you how many times we acted out that story in our bedroom. We had high bookcases that worked perfectly for hiding the cookies. Lesa, the best actress in our threesome, played Frog.

A few days ago, I had my own Frog and Toad moment. Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.