Well here I am, back on the Agriculture page again. Those of you who have been reading my columns for years know I used to be ag editor here at the Courier News. I am going to be working with Mark Brasfield to try to get good local ag news and get the agriculture page up on a weekly basis again. ...

I don't know how it is possible for things to keep getting more hectic here at the Lendennie Homestead, but of course it is summer and the activity is just off the boards. I have a couple of 4H kids growing things in my garden again this year. One is growing vegetables, the other flowers. I have plenty of space, because I didn't put in a whole lot. Everything got away from me last year, so I decided to stick with the basics this year and put more time into my flowers...

Well, here we are in the middle of Holy Week, at the very end of Lent and the beginning of spring. Friday marks the end of the Lenten period of sacrifice that prepares us for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. And of course, spring is the very embodiment of the renewal of life...

I had the great pleasure of attending the KIPP School science fair this weekend. All of the kids did a great job on their projects, but a couple of them were really outstanding. There was no way to tell whose project it was because of course they were being judged so the names were not visible. But there were two that involved plants that I found particularly good...

We have had several encounters with coyotes in the yard recently, the most recent involving several coyotes fighting early in the morning at the end of our driveway and my dog Jingle calling to them and trying to get them to come and play. Since then, I have talked to a number of folks about these shy creatures and have found they are completely misunderstood. So I thought I would do a little research and pass along what I learned...

Today is the first day of early voting for the primary elections in Mississippi County. Starting today, you have a full two weeks (weekdays only) to vote at both the Mississippi County Election Centers in Blytheville and in Osceola, from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. ...

The weather in Arkansas is unpredictable at best, and once again we have proved that by jumping from ice storms and weather in the teens to a chance of tornadoes in less than two weeks. As you know, I have to write this column a couple of days before it runs, and as with all things weather in Arkansas the forecast may change back to snow in that time period, but since as I am writing the forecast calls for a good chance of severe weather tonight (Tuesday), I thought maybe it was time to dust off the old tornado/severe weather safety tips.. ...

A week ago last Sunday, I was just getting everything on the stove to make lunch, when I went to turn on the water and there wasn't any. Because it was so cold, I checked the faucets in the other rooms in case the pipes were frozen, but there was no water throughout the house. I told hubby Steve the water was off, then went back into the kitchen and finished making lunch...

Right now, as we are in the middle of our holiday activities, the presidential election cycle may seem too far away to worry about. However, our primary elections in Arkansas will take place March 1, and the early voting will begin two weeks before that. This only gives all of us a few short weeks to decide who we think would make the best presidential nominee for whatever party you will vote for...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I for one ate entirely too much turkey and do not regret a bit of it. Turkey on Thanksgiving is a tradition that developed out of necessity for the first European settlers. The turkey is a native American game bird, and would have been one of the main types of game the settlers learned to hunt as they built their communities. ...

Fall is my favorite time of year. Sometime between the last week in September and the last week in October, it is as if everything in nature heaves a big sigh of relief and begins to settle in for a long winter's nap. The mornings are crisp, the afternoons warm and lovely, and the evenings shorter and just made for taking an after supper walk...

Our old cat, Bubba, died last week. He was almost 16 years old, only had one eye, and wheezed all the time from allergies. If it took too long for you to give him a saucer of milk, he peed on your leg. If he got mad at Jingle, he peed on her bed. But Bubba was a good old cat, with a very interesting story...

We have all had the experience of having someone ask a question on Facebook about a method for doing something, and if we know the answer we share it. And then all the trolls, or potty-mouthed people looking for a fight, jump in and make it a free for all, and all the good information people tried to share is lost...

I saw part of a poem a few days ago that kind of resonated with me. It started out something like this: "Just because my hair is gray, give me time, don't throw me away." It goes on to say how much knowledge and wisdom the old have to share if they are just given the time and the opportunity to do so...

Well, I finally did it this year. I bit off more than I could chew, planted too much garden for this crusty old body to keep up with. Even so, it has been a great growing year. So far, I have harvested two gallons of green beans; a quart of garden peas; a quart of pinto beans; about a pint of black beans; 25 garlic bulbs; at least that many large onions, and that many again to still come out of the ground, even though I have been pulling them salad sized pretty regularly as well; a gallon of carrots; 15 cucumbers (I pulled the vines after I was finished with my pickle canning); and about a dozen squash.. ...

I found the write up of the Tuesday Quorum Court meeting very interesting and not a little disturbing. As with everything, there is a right and a wrong way to go about this courthouse consolidation thing, and from that article alone it appears the Quorum Court is going about it exactly the wrong way...

As a kid, we would rush outside on a late spring or early summer night armed with pickle jars from the kitchen trash can in anticipation of catching fireflies. This always turned into a group activity. I grew up in the late fifties and sixties, when parents still allowed their kids to run the neighborhood together way past dark on warm summer nights, because they knew every parent on the block was watching out for all of us. ...

I grew up in a town the size of Dell. We had an acre and a half fenced beside and behind our house, and every year my grandmother and I grew a one acre garden for the entire family (and most of the rest of the town). Along the back fence, which was the east side of the yard, my mother had cultivated several mulberry trees. ...

I discovered a few years back, after some urging from my dear friend Anne, to start an herb garden. I now consider this the best decision I ever made. I have added enough annual and perennial herbs to my garden that I can not only provide most of the individual herbs I use in my cooking, but also most of the seasoning blends, such as chili powder, taco seasoning, and Italian seasoning...

We are a German shepherd dog family, which is something everyone who knows us also knows. I cannot even imagine living without a canine companion to let me know when something is about to happen (storm, earthquake); alert me when something is not right, like a car pulling off into our yard or driveway; or to just sit with their head on my feet when I am reading...

I remember when I was a kid, waking up that first day after school got out for the summer and thinking about how wonderful it was that there was absolutely nothing I had to do.

Every couple of days or so for the past three weeks I have been lugging out the garden hose and moving the sprinkler around my garden. So I have been overjoyed the past several days by all the rain we have been getting.

What I really want to talk about today is the newly passed law out here in the county requiring the spaying and neutering of pets unless the owner has a breeders license.

Well, it seems I have created a monster. Last week I finally found the time to try out a recipe I had been saving for several weeks, waiting for the dandelions to reach their peak. I made the dandelion fritters.

I don't know how many of you even noticed the article in last Thursday's paper about the National Geographic writer and Lincoln's Tomb.

I was fixing lunch after church on Sunday when hubby Steve came into the kitchen. "You have to come out and look at this," he said.

One of my biggest pet peeves when reading a book is when the author uses the metric system of measurement. It's not that I think there is anything wrong with anyone using that system.

It's hard to believe Easter is less than a week away, until you drive through town and see all the spring flowers and flowering trees in full bloom.

I was bringing my German Shepherd puppy Jingle inside for the last time Friday night when I heard something I had not heard since November: the frogs were singing in the rain-flooded ditches.

It is no surprise to anyone that house fires increase during the winter months, and particularly January through March in Mississippi County.

I was one of the 16 percent fewer folks who watched the Oscars this year, and there is a question I just have to ask. Does anyone remember when the good movies won the major awards?

The grocery stores have had a very good week here in the frozen Deep South. Prior to each of the several winter storms that have passed through this area, people ventured out of their homes in droves to stock up on necessities, most including milk and bread.

What a busy weekend this has been, and what a busy week this continues to be.

Well, it's almost here again, that holiday you either anticipate with great longing, or with great dread, depending upon you current situation in the amore department. But did you ever wonder where St. Valentine's Day came from, or for whom it was named?

As you are reading this, a good man and good friend is being laid to rest. Joe Gurley was a farmer and a public servant for his entire life.

If you follow my column, you know I have grown grapes for a number of years.

Hubby Steve and I don't get off the old Lendennie Homestead very much, we are old school homebodies and happy that way.

Since this is the first week of the year 2015, we are all thinking about our New Year's resolutions. Many of us are setting some sort of goal involving our diet.

As you are reading this, I am celebrating my 61st birthday. Well, celebrating may be a little strong. I am recovering from surgery, so there won't be much partying.

We here in America tend to think that the way we celebrate all holidays is the same as the holiday traditions of everyone around the world.

I have always loved shopping for kids, first my own kids, and now my grands. But shopping has become so much more fun and interesting with the Internet.

Here we are in the second full week of advent, and the worship opportunities are almost endless.

While most people have tilled their gardens under and cleared out their flower beds by now, a few of us hard-core gardeners are still pulling fresh veggies of one type or another out of our well-mulched plots.

Those of us who spend a lot of time on Facebook, and who have "liked" more news outlet pages than we can count or even remember, get bombarded with posts concerning this news item or that current event.

I woke up this morning and realized we are passing from fall into winter. The leaves are falling quickly, and there is more brown in the landscape than any other color. The first snow of the season was a little bit of a disappointment, though.

Like a couple of thousand of you folks, I was at the Bill Clinton Get-Out-The-Vote rally in front of That Bookstore in Blytheville this weekend, and what fun that was!

Halloween is right around the corner, and we are ready for the little ghosties and ghoulies here at the Lendennie Homestead.

Things are finally starting to slow down here at the Lendennie Homestead, and it is about time. While all the activity of the past several months has been fun and rewarding, there comes a time when everything needs to slow down and reset.

Some of you may just be coming out of the three-day weekend created by the celebration of the "discovery" of America by Christopher Columbus.

Hubby Steve and I were out walking around the garden here at the Lendennie Homestead, when he turned to me and said "Can I go ahead and put out my lighted pumpkins?"

I have had the horrible, sinking feeling all week that I was not getting anything done. The fact is, I have been accomplishing quite a lot, just not at home. Hubby Steve and I have been running up and down the road, either together or separately, pretty much all week.

There have been a couple of stories that have come through the various news agencies over the past couple of weeks about caterpillars.

Hubby and I spent most of the morning Sunday moving a peach tree. This particular tree is a super-dwarf, self-pollinating peach tree.

One of the most beautiful visitors to any garden is the butterfly. The Mississippi County Master Gardeners have planted a butterfly garden next to the Extension Office for the sole purpose of attracting these lovely insects.

The fact that I totally forgot until 6 a.m. Monday before my Tuesday column that I had a column to write at all this week should be a clue as to how this week has gone. The main culprit has been, of course, the Mississippi County Fair.

I was already researching this column when Andy Weld's column about Robin Williams was published last week. I usually try very hard not to write on topics that have recently been covered. This time, I just felt it was too important to let it go.

While the books by Dean Koontz, one of my top five authors, are loosely described as suspense thrillers, I would call them sci-fi/horror books. Whatever genre you consider them, they are not for the faint of heart, and that is one of the reasons I love them.

Some days just start out wrong, you know? And then they just go downhill from there. I got up this morning determined to get my flower beds weeded and the mums pruned back. I have been so busy trying to keep the 4-H garden going I have totally ignored the flower beds, which are as a result totally overgrown with weeds.

August is almost here, and with it, one of my favorite events of the entire year, the Mississippi County Fair. The grands and I are scrambling to finish up projects to be entered in the various categories in the exhibit building.

There are many things about the Steven Spielberg movie "Lincoln" that are worthy of praise. It is a quality film accurately depicting one of the worst times in this country's history. But the thing about the film that stuck with me was one of the characters, Thaddeus Stevens, of whom I had never heard before.

This gardening season has been plagued with more problems than usual. First, it was the fact that there was ice on the ground in large amounts when we should have been planting potatoes, onions and peas.

In a couple of days we will all be lighting our barbecue grills, pulling the steaks and burgers out of the fridge, spraying on the insect repellant, putting the pontoons into the lake, and sitting back to enjoy the fireworks displays as we celebrate Independence Day.

Well, I did it again. I blinked, and another week went by. And it went so fast, I did not have time to finish any of the books I am reading in order to do a book review. So here I am again posting random thoughts about a busy week.

I was driving through Walker Park the other day with my grandchildren, and we were looking at the geese, of course. Suddenly several geese came running/flying across the road in front of us.

I was beginning to think the power would not stay on long enough for me to write a column this week. What a wild week this has been!

It is strange to be saying this so late in the season, but it has been a couple of weeks since we had freezing temperatures, so I guess we are finally well into gardening season.

"The Quarry," the final novel by author Iain Banks, is the perfect example of why you should not purchase a book based solely on its online reviews.

I have become addicted to a series on the History Channel called "Vikings," and the name of one of the characters in the series caught my attention early on.

Our 4-H rummage sale fundraiser was a success this Saturday, and I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped us in any way.

Remember that old school yard song, the one where you were going to eat worms because everybody hates you? The fact of the matter is, children, and I mean all children, are fascinated with earthworms.

While sharing my trials involving raising a German Shepherd puppy with others on Facebook, I received a comment from one of my friends concerning a rescue dog she took in some time back.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter. We certainly did. And that was due in no small part to the wonderful services presented for the entire community by the Blytheville Ministerial Alliance.

In my search for reading material for the grandkids, I sometimes stumble upon a jewel. Such a find was "Flight of the Butterflies" by Roberta Edwards.

My son is on his way back to Seattle as you are reading this, but we got to spend just over a week with him and it was really nice.

It was really hard to resist the urge to write this column as an April Fool's prank. Almost impossible, but lately I have been making an effort to keep my grown-up self in charge of things here at the Lendennie homestead.

The book "Custer" by Pulitzer-prize winning author Larry McMurtry and published by Simon and Schuster, should have been a great read on a very interesting topic, but it wasn't.

As I visit with my Facebook friends in my writers' groups and book club, I have come to a very sad realization. Most of the people with whom I speak are not only not Christians, but have no problem stating this fact to the world.

Well the weather has officially gone crazy. I am sitting here in my office as I write this watching the ice storm and listening to the rolling thunder. And reminding myself that I live in Arkansas.

A couple of weeks ago we welcomed another new baby to the family here at the Lendennie homestead. Jingle, a 6-week-old German shepherd puppy, came home with us right in the middle of the coldest, iciest week of this historically cold and icy winter.

The book I am reviewing this month was recommended to me by my friend Jay Ziolko at the Blytheville Public Library. I tend to forget to mention the library in these book reviews, and I shouldn't, because the library is the place many of us learned to love reading.

One of my favorite events will take place again this weekend: the Great Backyard Bird Count

Doesn't it seem that some years, the movies released are all good, and others, they are pretty much not. This year, in my opinion, has been one of those "not" years.

Well, here we are back in the deep freeze. There are not many things you can look forward to when the temperature drops below freezing and stays there for several days.

Every now and again I have the good fortune to stumble upon a great novel entirely by accident, and that is how I came to read "The Long Ships."

There is a reason most of us live in the South. As a native Northerner (I was born and raised in north-central Illinois), I came here as a military wife and ended up staying. You know what they call people like me, don't you?

Once again, we have survived a sneak attack by old man winter. And although the ground is frozen and the air is frigid, the time has come to start planning your garden for the coming summer.

As you are reading this, there are just a few hours left of the year 2013, before the arrival of Baby 2014. And I find myself reflecting on the past 12 months, while at the same time looking forward to the things I hope for in the coming months.

As you are reading this, you are most likely putting the finishing touches on your Christmas list, sticking the turkey or ham or roast into the oven, and maybe even preparing to receive family into your home.

It is becoming my custom to review one of the great classic works of fiction in December. I do this as my Christmas gift to that one reader out there who has not read this particular piece of literature, but who, as a result of reading this review, will pick it up and read it.

The Christmas tree is up and decorated at the Lendennie homestead, topped off, as it always is, by an angel. Of all the stories, accounts and legends surrounding Christmas, those involving angels have always been the most special to me.

The holiday season literally came crashing in this weekend. I was watching a movie, getting ready to get in bed, when what sounded like an explosion rattled the house.

As the time I have spent on this earth gets longer, I find there is so much more for which I am extremely thankful. With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, I feel it is appropriate for me to express my thanks for at least some of them.

As is becoming my custom, my book review for this month is also my recommendation as a Christmas gift for the reader on you list.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed several of my Facebook friends from Great Britain complaining about folks around them setting off fireworks.

As the leaves on the trees change colors and fall, the landscape empties out as fields and gardens are harvested and plowed under, and the days grow shorter, our efforts change from those of sunny weather activities to the more intensive activities that come with being stuck indoors for longer periods of time.

"All along, I have told myself, 'So long as you are in pursuit of the truth, you can be doing no wrong. ... It's quite another (thing) to be the truth bearer. There's a reason people don't like revisionist historians.'"

My mother always hated Christmas. That fact about my childhood always stands out in my mind.

I was sitting on my porch swing one day last week, watching a bald eagle hunt for mice and other small creatures in a nearby milo field that had been harvested shortly before, and thinking how lucky we are here in the Mississippi River Valley.

I spent a big part of the past weekend, along with my friends and fellow church members, at the Blytheville First Christian (Disciples of Christ) Church saying goodbye to our pastor of the last 20 years or so, the Rev. Tommy Carney.

Listed by Amazon.com as one of the top new novels of 2013, Christina Baker Kline's newest work, "The Orphan Train," combines the plight of foster children in today's society, and that of orphans and other homeless children in the early part of the 20th century, to create a powerful, poignant and beautiful tale of hope, survival and the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.

Several people have stopped me and asked me how the grandkids did at the county fair. So for those of you wondering, here is a quick rundown:

With all the activity we have had with the grandchildren here at the end of the summer, the weeds in my flower beds had pretty much taken over.

Back when we had that two-week period where there were torrential downpours every day, I went out during a brief break in the clouds to walk my dog. We had stepped into the garden to see how deep the water was standing, when I heard something crying.

When I was a child back in the Jurassic Period, going back to school meant you got to see your friends again after a long summer of not seeing or hearing from most of them at all.

Those of you who are on my Facebook friends list have been seeing my posts about these huge mosquitoes we have this year.

Remember the good old days, when school started after Labor Day and ended at Memorial Day? And so did the new television season. These days, I could not tell you when the seasons for the various shows begin and end.

If you are a gardener, a farmer or just outdoors a lot, about this time of year you start to notice a subtle shift in the things around us.

It is strange how some of God's tiniest creatures can make the biggest impact on our lives. This is the tale of one of them.

For the second month in a row I have had the great accidental privilege of reading a book that was a joy to read and whose last page I was saddened to finish. And this one was written specifically for readers ages 9-12.

This has been a whole lot better year for gardening than the last several years. For one thing, we are finally getting enough rain at just the right times. And for another thing, the temperatures have been much cooler.

With Independence Day only a couple of days away, we are being besieged with quotes and misquotes from John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Ben Franklin, the most notable of the Founding Fathers of this country.

It's one of those things you don't think about until you need it; at least, I never really thought about the availability of accessibility aids for the handicapped until I lost most of my mobility. And now I think about it a lot.

Once again, I find myself trying very hard to like a book, but just not quite getting there. And in this case that should not be the case, since this book combines archeology, historical fiction, disaster and good old science fiction, ALL of my very favorite genres.

Well, it's that time of year again, when flowers bloom, gardens grow, kids get out of school for the summer ... and people start taking drives out into the country to dump their unwanted pets.

Studying horses with granddaughter Amy as part of the 4H Horse and Pony Quiz Bowl project is becoming quite the learning experience, and the history of horses turns out to be fascinating.

All of us were glued to the television last week as we watched in real time the tornado which demolished Moore, Okla.

Majestic mountains, deserts of gold and red and bronze, elk and deer and endless herds of buffalo roaming the Western plains. This is the picture of the old West painted in Richard S. Wheeler's Western novel "The Far Tribes."

This past Sunday, May 12, was Mother's Day, and I hope all of you at least called dear old mom on the phone, or better yet, took her flowers or out to lunch or dinner

I know a lot of you saw that snake photo of mine on the cover of the Courier News a couple of weeks ago. That is, by the way, a spotted king snake, although I have been calling them rock snakes for years.

A book review I will be doing in a few months brought up an interesting question for me, and was surprisingly hard to answer. And because all the information I was able to find on the Internet was absolutely bogus, I decided it was a question worth answering in this column.

There are many wonderful writers out there in the genre of archeological and historical fiction, and Clive Cussler is one of the best.

The Northeast Arkansas Chapter of the American Red Cross will welcome a nationally known hero as part of the final event in its Every Red Cent Counts fundraising campaign.

Last summer, I was approached by my good friend George Hale to do some research on why Mississippi County was still selecting its jury pool from the registered voter list.

Holy Week has started, with Palm Sunday this past Sunday, and I hope your family's celebration is an uplifting and inspirational one.

Well, if I had any doubt that people all over the country read my columns, those doubts were dispelled this week when I was deluged by emails concerning my column on the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. And the comments were all concerned with an error I made on the size of the bird in question...

A large percentage of the best authors out there were journalists first, and the author of the book I am reviewing this month is a proof of that rule.

This past year, a decision was very quietly made by a group of renowned scientists that put an end, officially, to a massive search effort in Arkansas.

No parent should have to lose a child, to watch that child grow sicker and weaker and know there is nothing they can do to help. But for the families of so many children stricken with one form of cancer or another, too often that is the case.

March is, of course, Red Cross Month, and the folks at the local Red Cross office need your help to continue serving this community.

Although there are some wonderful poets currently struggling to have their work published and read in the world today, the vast majority of new poetry sounds, to me, like baby talk.

I think the worst thing about January is that it comes immediately after December. I know, you are all rolling your eyes and thinking, "Duh!" to yourselves.

I cannot understand anyone who does not have pets. Really, I can't. A sterile house leads to a sterile life, but having a pet in the home, even if the result is a little bit of mess, is an infusion of love.

Although the whole world is brown and dead, and it is still very chilly outside, my winter vegetables are producing nicely right now, and the planting dates for early spring veggies are close at hand.

Personal finance can be a difficult thing for anybody to understand, especially young people just starting out in a new career.

There is nothing like hitting the ground running at the start of the New Year, and that seems to be the way this year is starting out here at the Lendennie homestead.

When I was trying to decide what book to review during the holidays, I decided classic was the way to go.

When we think of an old English Christmas dinner, many of us immediately refer back to that eaten at the table of Bob Cratchit in the Charles Dickens' classic, "A Christmas Carol," which ended with Tiny Tim's "God bless us every one."

I have never been shy to admit to myself or anybody else that I set up a Facebook account specifically to play games. Since doing that a number of years ago, I have been able to stay in close contact with family members and former classmates with whom I had completely lost contact.

Late last month Greg Kratz, a reporter and columnist at the Deseret News in Salt Lake City wrote a piece on a survey conducted by LinkedIn, a professional networking group. The survey asked more than 7,000 respondents to list 10 tools or practices in the workplace that likely would be replaced or would simply not be done by 2017.

In a few days we will all observe the national holiday totally devoted to stuffing ourselves with turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and other foods the Native American's introduced to the first settlers of this country.

The holidays are upon us, and most of us are making our list, checking it twice, and trying to think of the perfect gift for those very special people in our lives.

Today is Election Day. If you have not voted yet, you have until 7:30 p.m. to do so. This is one of the greatest of our rights as American citizens, and our free and open election process is the one single thing that makes our nation unique among nations.

I have been working for some time on research for a novel on the Native Americans of the Mississippian period, specifically regarding their contact with the treasure hunter Hernando Desoto.

This is one of those weeks when I just can't find enough hours or energy to finish every project that seems to just spring to life around me. Fast approaching is something to which I have been looking forward since I heard about it -- the National Novel Writing Month...

I was deeply concerned, as were many of you I am sure, while listening to the first Presidential Candidate Debate a couple of weeks ago, when I kept hearing it repeated again and again that Medicare Advantage was going to end when the Affordable Health Care Act (aka Obamacare) is fully enacted.

One of the reasons I started doing book reviews was to maybe encourage folks to read a book every now and then. I thought I would present some affordable and good quality options, as well as warning everyone away from the books I feel are a waste of time and money.

As the days get cooler and shorter, many of the furry critters so common in a rural community are out in force, trying to store up food and fat for the coming winter.

Fall, my favorite time of year, has arrived, and in the past couple of weeks that has become very apparent. The first thing I began to notice was the fact that the smaller trees in the yard were looking a little threadbare.

In the world of romance novels, one of the best-known authors is Nora Roberts. And perhaps some of the best novels written by Roberts are written under her alternate pen name, J.D. Robb.

There are a few days you will remember in great detail for the rest of your life.

I have to tell you, I have waited a long, hot summer to be able to use this title. It took a hurricane to bring us a couple of inches of rainfall.

Even as a child, I was a voracious reader. Oh, of course, my parents read to all of us at bedtime when we were little, but of the three of us, I am the only one who began at about the age of 8 spending all of my free time off in some corner with my nose stuck in a book.

If the reality of war is just a little too much for you, you should not read this book. For everyone who has someone in harm's way, though, I think this is a must-read.

I really thought this would be my first year to enjoy delicious, home-grown peaches from my own tree. Boy, was I wrong.

In my column of May 1, I lamented the fact that Mississippi County had not implemented Arkansas Act 1404, which changes the jury pool from those people who register to vote, as it stands now, to those people with driver's licenses and state identification cards.

For the first 20 or so years I lived here, the summers were more or less predictable. I knew when to plant early veggies such as peas, how far into the winter I could expect to harvest tomatoes, and that onions would overwinter and be large and sweet in the spring if you planted them in the early fall.

Once upon a time, you could distinguish a learned man from his contemporaries because he most likely carried a book of poetry with him.

"I believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other ..."

This summer has already become so full of activities it is hard to get them all scheduled. But at the same time, life in general has slowed to a crawl, especially in the heat of the day.

I have a hard and fast rule are far as books are concerned, and that is if I buy it, I read it. All of it, no matter how bad it is. And I have read some stinkers. But this book I am about to review is absolutely the worst book I have ever read in my life.

I sat down to watch a movie a few days ago, one I had seen listed but which was airing too late for me to watch. So I set the DVR, and as soon as I had a chance, I sat down to enjoy it with great anticipation.

I have had a couple of calls in the past few weeks about birds people have seen in their yards, so I thought I might pass on some information about the most common (and some not so common) birds you might see at your feeder or birdbath here in this part of Arkansas.

Although I have been gardening most of my life, I only recently (the last 10 years or so) started growing herbs. The reason was simple: in my family, you cooked what the men wanted to eat.

What is the best way to make it rain? Put off writing a column due on Sunday night until Sunday afternoon. Then you get a doozy, with strobe lightning and sound effects and the whole package. And, of course, no power.

A number of years ago, my ex-husband's mother died. This in itself was not unusual, although she was fairly young, in her early 60s. What was notable was that it was only two days before she passed, after she had been in a coma for weeks, when she was finally diagnosed with something she knew she had for most of her life: Lupus.

Sometimes going back to the very beginning is the best way to move forward, and this latest paperback by Lee Child does that very thing times two.

I was disappointed Saturday to see the very small number of Mississippi County residents who came out to meet and greet our candidates for the upcoming elections for the offices of state and U.S. representative, among others.

Well, the prom was all the rage on Facebook this weekend. So I got to see the children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews of all my Facebook friends as they headed out to prom this weekend.

Did you ever pick up a book almost as an after-thought and find it is one of the best reading experiences you have ever had? This was the case for me with a children's non-fiction work I stumbled across by accident, while researching something else.

On May 20, 1937, America's darling, Amelia Earhart, began what was to be her last monumental feat in a lifetime of such achievements.

Are ya bored? Well, are ya? Then have I got just the thing for you, to rid yourself of those springtime doldrums and let you do something important for your community.

For those of us who are passionate or even just sort of interested in outer space, science, science fiction and what new wonders and discoveries await us in the future, this has been an extraordinary month.

There are some authors out there who just write good books, and Whitley Strieber, author of "Beyond 2012 The Omega Point" is one of them.

I think it would be fair to say that I am a political junky and a history geek. This past three months or so, however, have been a little more entertaining than most.

For the last couple of years before my dad died at the age of 83, he would say, usually out of the blue, "I don't have any friends anymore. They all died!"

Since man first appeared on Earth, we have been mesmerized by and obsessed about the moon. Oh, the sun was worshipped as a greater "god" by the ancients, but the moon has always held a special place in our hearts for many different reasons.

One of the things I enjoyed most but did not have many opportunities to do as a reporter with the Courier News was the book reviews.

Once upon a time in America, there was a young, struggling actor whose wife had a baby. The actor did not have enough money to pay the hospital to bring his wife and baby home, so being a devout Catholic, he went to church and prayed to St. Jude Thaddeus for guidance.

Blytheville has a number of wonderful nonprofit and community service organizations, and all of them depend on their dedicated volunteers to do the good work of this area. This week, we lost one of the best.

Toward the end of 2011, with millions of people still unemployed or underemployed, the threat of rising taxes being faced by middle and lower middle income families, and skyrocketing costs on everything from food to medicines to gasoline, our elected officials in Washington used their last weeks before the holiday break to put together two pieces of legislation and try to get them pushed through.

The last couple of weeks have been a mixed bag of extremely good and extremely bad things, with a few oddities scattered in just for good measure.

Everybody always talks about depression rates climbing during the holidays. However, it is this time of the year when I find myself, at times, literally bored out of my mind.

As I was riding down the road with my grandkids earlier this week, one of them asked me a really interesting question. Actually, the 4-year-old asked the 8-year-old, who answered, and then an argument ensued which Grandma had to settle.

Those of you who attended the Mississippi County Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 11 at the county courthouse in Blytheville heard a very informative and well presented talk by Mike Freligh on the plight of our nation's service men and women.

Well, here we are, at the beginning of another year, at least according to the Roman calendar. Most ancient civilizations use the winter solstice (northern hemisphere)/summer solstice (southern hemisphere) on Dec. 21 as the beginning of their year, including the ancient Mayans, but that is a topic for another column...

I truly hope all of you are having a great Christmas season, and of course that Santa brings you everything on your list.

Steve and I are not big partiers. As a matter of fact, we don't stay up until midnight on Dec. 31; we watch fireworks from our own back yard on July 4; and one of our biggest joys is passing out candy on our own porch on Halloween, just us and maybe a grandkid or two.

Dec. 7 marks a very solemn anniversary in the history of our country, and I think it would be appropriate for all of us to pause in our shopping, baking and decorating activities for just a few minutes in remembrance.

I hope you and yours had a blessed Thanksgiving, and that you were able to spend at least a part of it with family and friends.

I had intended to do something on part of the wonderful address presented at the Mississippi County Veterans Day Ceremony at the courthouse Friday, but that was going to involve some research.

Over the past few weeks I have enjoyed my twice daily walks around our yard more than usual because of the reappearance en masse of an old favorite.

I received an email from a reader this week concerning the dog issue in Blytheville. So I did a little checking and have some information to pass along. However, one issue temporarily solved does not settle the whole problem.

All of you who read my columns know that this time of year, with the temperatures cooling and the garden finally producing, all the flowers blooming, the cotton pickers working in the fields, and the holidays about to start, is my very favorite time of year.

Those of us who plant a lot of flowers for the purpose of sitting outside and enjoying the brilliant colors and the wonderful scents usually plant at least one good big patch of flowers within sight of our favorite lawn chair or porch swing that will attract hummingbirds.

Well, we did not make it to the first of October, not even close. One day about two weeks into the month of September, I walked out the back door -- and there it was. Laying on the porch swing. The Boo Pooh.

As most of you probably know by now, the United Way of Greater Blytheville-hosted 31rst Annual Championship Chili Cookoff takes place Saturday, Oct. 15.

Throughout the next few months I am probably going to be passing along information about various local organizations which do great work in our community and that need the help of the community to continue those efforts.

We are so lucky as a community to still have a local chapter of the American Red Cross.

When you live in the country, and I have lived in the country most of my life, things go on pretty well on an even keel most days.

Today is the day after Labor Day, and since grandmas deserve to have some time off for the holiday as well, I did not do any research and am not writing a long-winded column about bugs or patriots or any other such thing.