grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Come Away With Me

By

Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs
My space at Dairy Hollow has a generous bathroom with a huge sunken tub. I prefer showers. As Kramer (Seinfeld) aptly explained, if I don’t have a good shower, I’m not myself. I feel weak and ineffectual…Showers are quick and efficient – in and out. Get on with the day. Waiting and waiting and waiting for the tub to fill with water makes me antsy. Baths are disgusting – sitting there in my own tepid pool of filth (again, Kramer greatness). 

But somehow at Dairy Hollow a bathtub is fitting. I have no agenda. After a writing session and an invigorating hike through the chilly Ozarks, a steamy bath is relaxing.
As I soak, I stare at a photo over the tub. A framed photo from Where the Wild Things Are, a favorite children’s picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak. Years ago my son and I read this book together each night, over and over. He memorized the words and recited it along with me. My son who is now in college…I wonder if he still remembers the words to the story?

Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs, Ar

 

Initially I thought it to be strange artwork for the bathroom, but as my mind cleared I realized the illustration is perfect.
The story is about imagination and magical travel and wild flights of fancy. It’s about playing and being creative. It’s about escaping to another place, another land, a world with a wild rumpus!
Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs

 

Even Max’s wolf costume is befitting for Halloween in Eureka Springs where zombies are soon to stagger down Spring Street.
Dairy Hollow, Eureka Springs, Ar
Sometimes I think I could stay here forever, in the woods at my writing desk overlooking the turning leaves. But at the end of the week home will beckon. And I will sail back over a year and in and out of weeks and through a day and into the night of my very own home where supper will be waiting for me (maybe?)…

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

Come Away With Me, Norah Jones

“There should be a place where only the things you want to happen, happen.” 
― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are 

THE lost art of filing

By

I once knew a lady whose sole purpose at the bank was filing. She was short, loud and knew nothing of the alphabet. A trip into her lair to root out a particular customer’s file became an often repeated game of hide and seek. She was known as Ms. Betty. (not really but similar)


When the bank moved into the twentieth century and converted to an imaging system, Ms. Betty became the point person in charge of scanning every single customer’s file into the computer system to be preserved for all eternity. And in what order.

At this point a file search became virtual. Much time was wasted trying to envision how Ms. Betty would scan a document. Could it be found according to the guarantor’s name, and if so his first name, last name, middle name, nickname? Or maybe it was located under the company name according to the largest word in the company title… If the company name began with “A” or “The” or “In” it was sure to be filed under the first word. Unless it wasn’t.

What would Ms. Betty do?

Last week a friend and I discussed this over dinner. He once had an assistant with the same confusing filing talents. Half of the filing cabinets in his office were devoted to the “T’s” for companies beginning with The. The United Way, The Dallas Morning News, The Whatever. 

Is filing a lost art?

 I remember learning how to alphabetize in elementary school. Do kids have too much to learn now to be bothered with filing? We had consumed just enough wine to call up my son at the University of Arkansas to quiz him.

Question to Son: If you were to file “The United Way” how would you file it? Under what letter?
Response: Mom, under “U”. Everyone knows you don’t file anything according to the article!
Wow. Proud Mom Moment. My friend and I were duly impressed that my son knew not only how to file, but he knew what an article was, and he used it in a sentence. I’m not sure I remembered that…

His private school education is soooo paying off.

Then he added…They don’t alphabetize according to articles on iTunes. 

Well, of course they don’t.

talya

Musical Pairing:

ABCs, Elmo Rap

Drive, Pray, Love

By

drive pray love

Once upon a time I stumbled out of bed, drove the kids to school super early, and made it to work on the opposite end of the city by 8:00 a.m. For several years, Kelsey and Tate attended school at two different campuses making the drive even crazier. On lunchroom duty days, or when there was a school meeting, I spent more time in the car than at home. All I seemed to do was drive, pray, and love.

Many mornings I walked into the bank not remembering the drive, in a dream state.  I wished for a fairy godmother.

Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!