Talya Tate Boerner's Blog, page 9

Sunday Letter: 06.19.22

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

It’s Father’s Day, and I’m thinking about all the strong men who influenced my life, helping to make me the crazy person I am – haha!

But seriously, today I would like to honor these men who were important in my world during my growing up years: my Daddy, Thomas Tate; both my grandfathers, Reven Creecy and Homer Tate; and three of my favorite uncles, Woodrow “Woody” Johnson, Ted Parnell, and Rex Creecy.

(I could devote several posts to other fathers who in some way i...

Sunday Letter: 06.12.22

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

This is a real picture of our front porch.

Hahaha, not really, but seriously with all the rain we’ve been having, our world is flourishing into a jungle. Nature could easily swallow everything. And HUMID! Oh my goodness, this morning’s air is wrapped in a damp flannel blanket. The sort you get at an army surplus store.

But with only nine days until summer, I’m trying to appreciate every drop of rain. When the clouds dry up and the temperatures soar (which is already ...

Book Reviews: April / May 2022

For the first time in a long time, so many things have kept me from reading. I credit the same things for my lack of blog postings. Sooooo, today I am finally bringing a few recommendations to you, combining my book reviews for April and May. Let’s be honest—this is a little pitiful—we are midway into June, and here I am talking about April and May.

Nevertheless, here are my book reviews for the past couple of months.

There are a few real gems here, so I didn’t want to not tell you about them.

...

Sunday Letter: 05.29.22

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

What a sad week we’ve had. The latest school shooting in Uvalde, Texas—number 27 this year —has been extra-heartbreaking to me.  Hopeless. Helpless. That’s how the situation seems to me. Like we are living in a Shirley Jackson short story, waiting every day to see which unsuspecting school in which American town will draw the black spot and be number 28.

I see those sweet baby faces every time I close my eyes.

I’ve tried to stay off social media. Some of the comments...

Notes from a Garden Tour

Well, friends, after months of anticipation and preparation, the Arkansas Master Gardener garden tour has come and gone. Whew! Now that I’ve had a minute to sit back and think about it, I scribbled down a few random notes about the whole fabulous experience.

Start Early.

Gardening is one of our favorite hobbies, so in a way, we’ve been preparing to be on this garden tour since we bought our property in 2014. But, as soon as we officially agreed to participate in this year’s state garden tour, w...

Sunday Letter: 05.22.22

Dear Sunday Letter friends,

Hello and good morning! I hope all is well in your corner of the world. After all the anticipation and preparation, the Arkansas Master Gardener garden tour is over. We had a fabulous time meeting all the gardeners from across the state who came to tour our little space. I promise to do a recap post soon. I have LOTS of blogging to catch up on in the coming weeks. Lots of catching up in general…

Since April 15

Don’t you hate it when people go on and on about how busy...

Diary of a Spicebush Swallowtail Caterpillar

Pour yourself a cup of coffee and prepare to fall in love again. I’ve been sooooo excited to share my diary of a certain cute spicebush swallowtail caterpillar. If you followed my butterfly stories last summer, you might remember that I was a bit obsessed with raising butterflies on the back porch. I successfully released 50 butterflies—44 monarchs and 6 eastern black swallowtails.

And, at the end of the season, after the last monarch had headed to Mexico where they hibernate for winter, two sp...

Sunday Letter: 05.01.22

May Day greetings! So much has happened since my last Sunday Letter, I’m not sure where to begin. I suppose I’ll just write whatever pops into my head.

First of all—I’m just gonna say it—how is it May already?? Yikes. Time is slipping away.

May is the month of flowers, right? You know, April showers bring May flowers? Based on the steady April showers we’ve been getting, I’m expecting an overabundance of blooms.

May is the month we celebrate mothers more than normal. It’s my son’s birthday mont...

Sunday Letter: Easter 2022

Happy Easter, Sunday Letter readers!

Easter really sneaked up on me this year. I don’t know if I’ve not been paying attention to the calendar or what, but the truth is this too-big-for-its-britches year needs to slow itself down. I’m not kidding. I can barely keep my head above water.

Today is also my sister’s birthday. Yay for sisters and yay for birthdays! Some people don’t recognize how special both are.

 

So Much Has Happened In the Garden

In the past two weeks, our garden has really awak...

Book Reviews: March 2022

It’s book review time! There are some real treasures in these March 2022 Book Reviews. A couple of these novels were published several years ago. Others are fairly new to the world. Two were written by Irish authors (McCann and Grissom)—appropriate for March, I think.

I didn’t read as much as I expected because I had several false starts at the beginning of the month. And by false starts I mean I began three different books that I gave up on midway through. I’ve learned it’s perfectly okay to q...