GRAVETTE — We had a little cooler weather this week so the garden is growing slowly. Cucumbers, radishes and onions are coming up thick so we have visions of tasty salads in the future. The grass in nearby pastures is getting taller and the field just north of our house is dotted with blooms of purple vetch. Several yards in the neighborhood display beautiful iris, tulips and azaleas and snowy white blossoms have appeared on the blackberry vines in the fencerow. Our peonies and several varieties of iris show clusters of fat buds, promising a lovely show in the next few weeks.

We’ve had a busy week. Jim was mowing the yard when I came home for lunch on Monday and that evening we had an appointment with a salesman demonstrating air cleaners.

I took the apple raisin crisp and went to the Senior Center for our monthly J.G.T. Club meeting Wednesday morning. We had a good meeting with a couple of visitors present and voted to donate some money to the Gravette Historical Museum. We enjoyed an interesting program and a delicious potluck meal. We added a can of diced tomatoes and some chicken broth to our leftover gumbo for supper and sister Nancy rode up on the bike after we ate to bring some corn and squash seeds for Mama’s physical therapist.

Lois, the physical therapist, came on Thursday and led Mama in several exercises. When she left I went to the store to purchase bread, milk, sugar and a few other groceries. I walked the fencerows in early afternoon and found a few stalks of poke so I cooked a pot of greens for supper.

I worked at the office a few hours Friday and rain began falling about the time I came home in early afternoon. We had a short power outage, a large black cloud hung in the sky northof town and the news was reporting storms around the state. When Jim came in from work I went to take his check to the bank. I discovered high winds had broken the top out of a tall tree and blown it onto the house at the corner.

I went out early Saturday morning to take our recyclable items to the collection trailer. After breakfast Jim loaded the wheelbarrow and some concrete tools and we took them up when we went to visit the kids and grandkids. Joe was planning to extend his front porch and add some new posts and railing. They were getting ready to leave for a doctor’s appointment so we had only a brief visit and then drove to a home southwest of town where Jim did some repairs on the roof. We returned to town and spent the afternoon in our new patio enclosurewatching coverage of the 136th Kentucky Derby.

We took a friend with us to Southwest City Sunday morning and enjoyed a late breakfast when we returned. Jim did a short wiring job that afternoon, then we visited Aunt Leta and picked up grandson A. J. and his friend who had just finished mowing her yard. Joe was working on his porch project so we soon returned home where Jim watched a golf tournament and I clipped coupons from the Sunday paper and wrote my column.

On May 5, 1862, against overwhelming odds, a small Mexican army defeated a much larger force to win the Battle of Guadalupe. Today we celebrate Cinco de Mayo to remember that victory. Why not prepare a delicious Mexican meal tonight? And don’t forget Sunday is Mother’s Day. Honor Mom with flowers, a card, a special meal (breakfast in bed or dinner out) or gift (you know what she’ll treasure).

---

Susan Holland, who works for The News Herald, is a lifelong Benton County resident.

Opinion, Pages 4 on 05/05/2010