late fall - grace grits and gardening

Sunday Letter: 11.23.25

November 23, 2025 By Talya Tate Boerner 4 Comments

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

This is a super short Sunday Letter. Various distractions, website issues, and general busyness sent me veering off track. You may even wonder why I interrupted your serene Sunday morning for so little content. To this I say—Happy Thanksgiving! The truth is I couldn’t let one of the best weeks of the year to pass without at least a nod and a wave. A reminder that sometimes less really is more. That even if your mashed potatoes are lumpy and you forget the cranberry sauce altogether, it will be okay.

Thanksgiving season reminds me to look around, take stock, and say thank you—for the people at my table, the memories tucked into old recipe cards, and the simple grace woven into ordinary days.

Tis the Season for Finding Frost Flowers!

December 10, 2021 By Talya Tate Boerner

Oh happy day!

I Finally Saw a Frost Flower.

Do you have a garden bucket list? I have one loosely formed in my mind, and a few days ago I checked off ‘see frost flowers‘ from my list.

Sometimes the best things happen when you aren’t expecting much from the day. (That’s a quote from The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, y’all.) It was early and I was driving the pups for their much needed beauty shop appointments at Bark Avenue Pet Lodge (which is located a few miles outside of Fayetteville). Just when I began wondering if conditions were right to see frost flowers, I spotted a few along the roadside! (That’s what I thought they might be anyway. It’s hard to know for sure from the car.)

Oh, I was excited by the possibility. And, I hoped they would still be there after I dropped the girls at the lodge. In the few minutes it would take me to get back on the road, frost flowers could vanish. Like winter’s first snowflakes or a double rainbow, they are elusive and ephemeral. Continue Reading

Sunday Letter: 11.17.19

November 17, 2019 By Talya Tate Boerner

Dear Sunday Letter readers,

I didn’t write a Sunday Letter last weekend because I was in Eureka Springs. The significant thing about this isn’t that I was too busy to do it. The bigger deal for me is that I left my computer at home. Since I started writing, I always take my MacBook with me when I go out of town. We are tight that way. (Only one other time have I left him behind—Kelsey’s wedding weekend.)

I’ll admit I felt a little anxiety over leaving Mac home alone.

But if I’m being honest, after the panic subsided, it felt freeing.

We both survived. And today I’m back, writing from the Bat Cave—aka the farm in northeast Arkansas. Mac would really be upset if I didn’t take him to the farm.

And by the way, the smoke detector in my bedroom began shrieking at 1 a.m. this morning. WHY do they only do this in the wee hours?Continue Reading