grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

It’s The Great Pumpkin!

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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!

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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

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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

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!