Consider the Lilies


It rained in Rogers yesterday afternoon. The pavement was wet and the air was cool. When I got home my sister was just leaving. She had brought us onions – fresh from the ground and redolent with robust fragrance. I rushed around to get out of the house for Wednesday evening services, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of our daylilies. They had raindrops still hanging from the blooms like tiny diamonds in the late afternoon sun.

Gardening has many rewards whether it is an onion with dirt still clinging to its skin or a daylily sparkling with raindrops.

What is your garden producing (or the neighbors if you lack a green thumb)?

Another Kind of Art


The Walton Art Center is a cultural hub for our entire area. It offers all sorts of art experiences and opportunities. This June marks one of its most popular offerings, a fund raiser that is in its 10th year, The Art of Wine Festival.

One of humankind’s earliest agricultural inventions, wine making has been around for 6,000 to 8,000 years. As one source put it, “The history of wine in many ways coincides with the history of the western world.”

Today, the subtleties of wine appreciation have become synonymous with sophistication. The popularity (most of the tickets are already sold out) of this event indicates that, while we are rural and southern, we are not without a touch of class North of the Tunnel.

What are some of your favorite indicators of sophistication to be found close at hand?

Goin’ to the Barn Dance


Kids and horses just seem to be a natural fit. For children with disabilities horses are more than a passing obsession, they can be powerfully therapeutic. The “track record” of the healing effect of riding for the mentally, physically, and emotionally challenged is amazing, especially to the parents of the children involved. One such father, Mark McWhorter, saw so big a change in his daughter that he became a member of the board of Hoses for Healing of Northwest Arkansas. He is this year’s co-chair of the Barn Dance, a major fundraiser for the organization, scheduled for this coming Saturday (June 12).

In a recent Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article, McWhorter encourages participation in this worthwhile cause. Describing the Barn Dance, the paper said, “The event will feature music by Jamie Wolfe and the Wranglers plus live and silent auctions and food by Smokin’ Joe’s Barbecue. Former Razorbacks head football Coach Ken Hatfield, now a staunch Horses for Healing volunteer, has agreed to serve as “honorary cowboy” for the second consecutive year. Tickets are $100.”

I know not everyone can afford to go to the Barn Dance. Still, an organization that makes as big an impact on children’s lives as this one apparently does is worthy of our support whether monetary or in spreading the word about the work they do.

Are there other great organizations North of the Tunnel we should know about?

Pet Groomer on the Go!


On my way to work this morning I caught a glimpse of a van in traffic. It carried the logo, “Pet Mobil.”

That caught my attention so I jotted it down to remind myself to look up the business when I had a minute. What I found was Aussie Pet Mobile of Northwest Arkansas. These folks will come right to your door and groom you dog or cat in their nifty van. They even have a de-skunking service.  That might prove very useful in case Fido gets over enthusiastic and chases the wrong kind of “kitty.”

The website also has links to businesses and organizations of interest to pet owners so check it out even if you pooch doesn’t need a bath or a clip.

Have you ever needed yourself (I hope not) or a pet de-skunked?

Get Out and Find …


There is lots going on North of the Tunnel this weekend. Just driving through Rogers this morning I saw the 7th Annual Rogers International Festival in full swing. Then, at the Rogers Library they were setting up "Chalk Walk," a promotion for their summer programs. Looked like fun, even the Chick-Fil-A cow came.

If you are a garage sale or antique mall shopper, you might want to drop by the Little White Schoolhouse sale on 71B between Springdale and Fayetteville (1.5 miles north of the NWA Mall) and check out the big sale they are running today (until 8 p.m.). They have lots of venders participating and it should be fun.

Keep your eyes open for more interesting activities; what do you see worth passing on?

A Garage Sale Find


My niece had a Memorial Day cookout at her house. We enjoyed good food, pleasant company, and the simple pleasure of sitting on the front porch with a string of party lights providing a soft illumination as the sun went down.

One of the highlights of the evening was checking out her new fountain. She and her boyfriend love to go yard saleing. It is an inexpensive hobby, as long as you have space for all your purchases, and, occasionally, you score a real bargain. This weekend was one of those times. She hit a sale where a young woman was getting rid of some product samples that had found their way into her garage. Her find went for a fraction of the price it would have in a retail store. She put it up in her back yard, turned it on, and we all got to enjoy this charming addition, thanks to her bargain hunting coupe.

What was your last shopping bargin?

Do Moose Eat New Mown Hay?


As I was driving home yesterday evening my nose detected the sweet smell of new mown hay. I had just past through Lowell when the scent came through my open window bringing to mind the richness of June. It also reminded me of a recent "Otus the Head Cat" column in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, “Peripatetic moose Myron no threat to the public.”

This column, a “humorous fabrication,” contends that a moose, Myron, stopped traffic on Interstate 540 near Lowell after having wondered over 70 miles from the Buffalo River. Now the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has a great record for re-establishing wildlife populations, including an elk herd on the Buffalo, but they haven’t gone quite this far … yet. Maybe this story was the inspiration for the bumper sticker I saw this past weekend on an antique, bright yellow jeep, “I break for moose.”

In verifying that this was fiction, I found information about a couple of great Arkansas parks, first, Boxley Valley (pictures), then, Lost Valley, both part of the Buffalo National River Park. These are great outdoor locations worth visiting this summer, moose herd not withstanding!

My apologies if I told any of you this “moose story” as fact. Still, isn’t it a great story?

Memorial Day, A Time to Remember

It is now officially “Summer.”  I know, the real beginning of summer does not happen until June 21 when the longest day of the year marks the change of the season.  But Memorial Day marks the beginning of the Summer state of mind that will last all the way until Labor Day marks its conclusion.  It is convenient to bracket the idea of summer with holidays.  It gives us a feeling of place in the year to do so.

But Memorial Day is more than just a holiday to mark the beginning of vacation fun; it is also a time to remember.  This tradition reaches all the way back to the Civil War era when a time of remembrance for the honored, fallen dead of that great conflict became a tradition.  The Civil War is called the first “modern” war.  The loss of life on both sides is one indicator of the changes in warfare that earned it this appellation.  The entire country paid a great price in that conflict and the need to remember and recognize all those sacrifices, to mourn as a nation those losses, to reflect on the price of freedom came together as Decoration Day, the precursor of our modern holiday.

The same need remains.  Our nationhood, our freedom still is defended by the lives of those who give the “… last full measure of devotion.”

It makes the pleasures of summer all the sweeter to remember the cost of its enjoyment.  Those honored dead did not die in vane but that we all might live and enjoy the pleasures of an American Summer.

What are you planning for your Summer?