ramblings from an arkansas farm girl
It takes me forever to drive anywhere in Arkansas because I have to take the scenic route. And when I come upon an old cemetery, I pull over and take pictures. There are so many angels in the fields of the Arkansas Delta.
Just outside the city of Wilson, this small cemetery has always drawn my eye toward the cotton field. Finally, I stopped, walked through the field, and took a closer look.
P i c t u r e d: Delta Cotton
Cotton-picking time in the Delta is my favorite. This week when I haven’t been holed up working on my book edits (yay!), I’ve been driving from the bootheel of Missouri and along the Great River Road searching out magazine and blog post stories. The highways and byways of the Delta are roaring with trucks hauling soybeans and grain. The gins are ginning at capacity. I can often be found poking around in fields or parked on the side of the road taking pictures. So far, the farmers work around me. ? ??
A few Delta cotton pics. (The smoke in the first two pictures is from the adjacent soybean field—burning stalks after harvest.)
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
[tweetthis]In them old cotton fields back home… @ArFB @JohnDeere #farming #Delta #Arkansas[/tweetthis]
Musical Pairing:
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cotton Fields Back Home
Hey y’all. I’m excited that my first article as a regular contributor for Delta Crossroads is included in the Fall 2015 issue. It’s an opinion piece on saving the Osceola Courthouse, a gorgeous Classic Revival masterpiece that deserves at a minimum a discussion about its value to the city beyond dollars.
A snippet from the article:
Antique bricks and mortar, a shimmering copper dome high above the oak trees—the Osceola Courthouse is so much more than the structure itself. The courthouse marks the centerpiece of the square, the town’s greatest landmark.
Osceola, named for Chief Osceola of the Seminole tribe, became the county seat of Mississippi County (located in Northeast Arkansas) near the end of the nineteenth century. In 1900, Osceola was a boomtown, a stop on the main line of the St. Louis-San Francisco “Frisco” Railway. The downtown area bustled with two ice plants, two bottling works, a wagon factory, and electric and water utilities. The town even boasted an opera house. Fancy.
To read the entire article online, click HERE. (Be sure to read all the articles—this month’s issue is dedicated to fall and harvest. The Save the Osceola Courthouse article can be found on pages 27-30.)
AND, for those of you interested in my soon-to-be published book, Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee, there’s a surprise on page 32.
Baked tile floor, Osceola Arkansas historic courthouse.
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
P.S. If you are a tweeter, please tweet to get the word out and share using the hashtag #DomeSweetDome.
[tweetthis]Save our #historic courthouse! @SavingARPlaces @Artourism @Arkansasgov @historicark #domesweetdome #OsceolaAr #Delta[/tweetthis]
Musical Pairing:
Bobbie Gentry, Mississippi Delta
