Thomas Tate - grace grits and gardening

Sunday Letter: 01.31.2021

January 31, 2021 By Talya Tate Boerner 15 Comments

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

Well, well, well, here we are at the end of another fast-as-a-freight-train month. Spring really will be here before we know it. I look for it every day.

Yesterday I checked to see if our crocus was blooming, but saw no sign yet. I did notice our tulips are beginning to pop through the soil. Seems early but with February greeting us, I guess it isn’t.

I organized my seed drawer and discovered I collect seeds the way I collect books. Maybe this year I’ll get more of them in the ground.

Lessons from Daddy

June 19, 2016 By Talya Tate Boerner 17 Comments

For Father’s Day…lessons from Daddy.

But first. How cute is this picture of Momma and Daddy? They are newly married—look at the sparkle on his wedding band. He’s making homemade ice cream, probably vanilla, and she’s wearing an adorable dress, with perfect lipstick and eyebrows! Love it.

Now, lessons from Daddy… (not in order of importance or anything brilliant like that)Continue Reading

Riding with a Farmer

June 8, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner 16 Comments

We were driving to church for my cousin’s wedding when Daddy pulled off the highway and stopped the truck. “What are you doing?” Momma asked, even though she knew the answer. Riding anywhere with a farmer meant factoring in lots of extra time. Daddy drove slow enough to watch cotton bolls open from the highway.

“We’re gonna be late,” I moaned and applied another coat of strawberry lip gloss. I hated to be late for anything, plus I was in charge of the guest book.

Daddy grabbed his hoe from the back of the truck, ambled across the shallow ditch, and waded through rows of knee-high cotton. He wacked down the annoying weed wearing his new sport coat from Westbrook’s.

Momma sighed.

All the Tate girls had been trained to scan the horizon for johnsongrass. Teasing and waving in the breeze, the offensive plants were easy to spot, a different shade of green standing taller than the crop.

Daddy had some of the cleanest fields in Mississippi County. Everyone agreed.