grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

  • Home
  • About
  • Media
  • Crafts
  • Farm
  • Food
  • Garden
  • Reading & Books
  • Sunday Letter
  • SHOP!
  • Privacy Policy

It’s The Great Pumpkin!

October 30, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner 17 Comments

wordless wednesday (almost)

Munger Place Great Pumpkin!
“Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He’s gotta pick this one. He’s got to. I don’t see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one.” –  Charles M. Schulz, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
 
Sam and Andrew’s house! (across the street from us)
Happy Halloween Eve,
talya
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
 Musical Pairing:
It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Hello Autumn!

October 15, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner 18 Comments

Autumn is the time we begin to wind down the year, rebalancing our bodies and minds as the days begin to shorten and cool. We breathe a sigh of relief at having survived another hot southern summer.
Into storage go those summer decorations, the bowl of seashells collected during annual treks to Destin, the sunflower door wreath. Into the back of the closet go the white linen pants and summer sundresses. Bring on cowboy boots and sweater weather!

Thoughts turn to family and football, chili and pumpkin spice lattes. Fall is a time for thanksgiving.
Surprise lilies bloom where none stood the night before. The air is filled with defoliant and the smell of cotton.
 
I wait for the Great Pumpkin.
The roadsides and ditch banks around our farm are tangled with tiny wild flowers and colorful foliage perfect for gathering into fall decorations. What better way to honor nature’s blessings than with vegetation growing wild near the fields? These fields which provide for us all spring…every spring, year after year.
 

ditchbank decor

ditchbank decor

Our rice field is peaceful now, resting, and nearly bare after harvest. The remaining dry stalks, interesting only to dove and duck, are in sharp contrast to the brilliant colors along the turn row and ditches. Cockleburs hang in clumps on scarlet stems. Peeking through the weeds, purple morning glories creep along the dark soil like ground cover. Silvery Johnson grass waves in the breeze. Growing wild, pink spiky flowers are unfamiliar to me, similar to salvia.
decorating with Autumn's offerings

decorating with Autumn’s offerings

 
You can easily transform your home at no cost with only a pair of scissors. A rusty bucket or tarnished silver bowl provides the ideal container. Any found object will do.
 
As poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox observed, a weed is but an unloved flower.
The beauty is all around.
decorate with cotton and wildflowers

decorate with cotton and wildflowers

 
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
 
This post is Day 1 of the BLOGtober Fest at Arkansas Women Bloggers…

 


Lighting the Way to Autumn

August 24, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner 10 Comments

Lighting the way to autumnSeemingly out of nowhere, spider lilies bloom in Munger Place. Yesterday the bulbs were hidden underneath matted ground cover and thirsty summer grass. Suddenly they make an early morning appearance, randomly scattered, tall and sincere on leafless stems, blooming the instant late summer sunlight sends its subtle message. Surprise lilies are a sure sign that autumn is on the way.

Had I known the time was at hand, I would have watched them grow through the night.

Mother Nature’s nonchalant, often unrecognized message is bittersweet. The end of carefree summer days, lake trips, lightning bugs.

First day of kindergarten. First day of college. Change.

Hatch chile peppers and sweet corn pack the produce aisles. Fresh and fragrant. Watermelons and raspberries are priced to move, tired.
Soon the trees will be on fire. Orange, Red, Yellow. Hiding summer. Lighting the way to winter.
I dream of The Great Pumpkin.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Musical Pairing:

The Great Pumpkin Waltz – Vince Guaraldi

Oh Great Pumpkin, where are you? – Linus

Talya Tate Boerner


Hi! I'm Talya. Writer, Reader, Arkansas Master Naturalist / Master Gardener, Author of

THE ACCIDENTAL SALVATION OF GRACIE LEE (2016)

GENE, EVERYWHERE: a life-changing visit from my father-in-law (2020)

BERNICE RUNS AWAY (Now Available!)

Click to BUY NOW!

Talya Tate Boerner books
Gene, Everywhere

Never miss a blog post! Subscribe via email:

Receive my Monthly Newsletter?

Most Popular Posts…

  • Chicken Tortilla Soup
  • SHOP!
  • Yum Yum Cake - old southern recipe!
  • Nana's Strawberry Cake (the real one)
  • Sunday Letter: 01.29.23

Most Recent

  • Chicken Tortilla Soup
  • Sunday Letter: 01.29.23
  • Sunday Letter: 01.15.23
  • Sunday Letter: 01.08.23
  • Sunday Letter: 12.18.22

Prior Posts

Search Categories

Tags

A to Z April Blog Challenge Autumn BAT Book Reviews childhood Christmas creative writing prompt Dallas Desserts Eureka Springs Fall Fayetteville Food Gracie Lee Halloween Hemingway-Pfeiffer home humor Johnson Family Keiser Lake Norfork Lucy and Annabelle Mississippi County Mississippi Delta moving Munger Place Nana nature Northeast Arkansas Northwest Arkansas Osceola poem Reading Schnauzer simple living simple things spring spring gardening Summer sunday letter Talya Tate Boerner novel The Accidental Salvation of Gracie Lee Thomas Tate Winter Wordless Wednesday
Follow on Bloglovin

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!

All content and photos Copyright Grace, Grits and Gardening © 2023 · Web Hosting By StrataByte