grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Sunday Letter: 04.05.2020

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sunday Letter

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

I hope everyone is doing okay on this Palm Sunday. For me, this last week went by quickly. But March lasted a freakin’ EON. Probably because we are now living in the Twilight Zone.

Yesterday, winter returned to northwest Arkansas. Mid-30s with a cold rain. Um, no thank you. Really, it was like winter said, “You know, you ought to stay inside, grab the Lemon Pledge and give your tabletops a swipe. Maybe do some laundry?”

So I did.

“No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized.” The Twilight ZoneContinue Reading

Sunday Letter: 03.22.2020

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Sunday Letter

Greetings to my Sunday Letter friends who are social-distancing and sheltering-at-home,

Already we have several new buzz words attributed solely to COVID-19. Already they annoy me a bit. But I hear myself saying them (and writing them). I suppose my Sunday Letters are changing along with everything.

E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.

Don’t despair. We will navigate the craziness and come out on the other end. In fact, I have no problem being your Sunday morning cheerleader. This whole situation of hunkering down may be a little easier for me than for some because I’m a homebody by nature. Plus, I’m an introvert. A Cancer. (We Cancers like our alone time.) Compared to many, my routine isn’t drastically different. As long as I can garden, write, and read, I’ll be okay.

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How to Hibernate

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Hibernation Mode

This time of year all I want to do is hibernate. I wish I could disappear underneath a cozy quilt and read book after book after book with breaks to snooze along to Christmas movies, old ones like White Christmas, and maybe drink steaming hot soup from a coffee mug. Even though I LOVE winter and wouldn’t dare want to miss it, I’m a little envious of the animals who burrow inside toasty dens and wake to spring.

True animal hibernation is about conservation of energy, not sleep. My version of hibernation is about self care—sleeping and resting and escaping. It’s a time-out away from the busy-ness of life, especially during the holidays when invitations and commitments seem to align one after another.

Last weekend I hibernated on Saturday. And I plan to do it again whenever I can, an afternoon here or a snow day there. I would love to have an entire WEEK of hibernation, preferably in a well-stocked cabin in the woods (with high thread count sheets and a fireplace). Hibernation is not about roughing it. Not in my world.Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!