After reading posts on the advent season from two very talented bloggers, Tongue in Cheek and Plant Whatever Brings You Joy, I am inspired to share some of the Red Dirt Hacienda's holiday traditions over the next few days. Just don't expect mine to be as erudite or classy. Exhibit A: our over-the-top advent wreath. No evergreen or pottery wreath for our family. Ours is rugged to survive three children who joyfully light the candles at every opportunity and nearly set their hair on fire while trying to blow them out. Still, I don't know what we would do without our wreath and our calendar of small books to start dinner conversation and share about the meaning of Christmas for our family. Every Thursday, the kids' school has mass, and last week, the children sang a Yiddish folk song titled "Light One Candle to Watch for Messiah." The tune always...

I will finally admit it, although it pains me to write this. I am middle aged, and that's if I live to be 90. I could be older than I think. Last year, after we added four new garden beds, and I'd shoveled manure mix into all of them by hand with HH's help, I came in from the garden every night and thought I was going to die. My body ached from my hair to my toenails. It frightened me enough that I made myself a promise. My days of hibernating before the fireplace all winter were over. If I wanted to continue my gardening passion into old age, I was going to need to get off my duff and get moving. Being a member of several garden societies, I knew lots of people in their golden years, and most of my friends didn't reside in rest homes either....

As an avid digger in the dirt, here's what I would like to see under my tree, or yours for that matter, this year: 1. Soap and Glory bath products. I don't know about you, but when I come in from spreading manure, I don't smell like a petunia. I want something that will scrub me clean and smell good at the same time. If a product can do its job while entertaining me with sassy British wit, so much the better. Also, they aren't expensive. I found mine at my local Target store. 2. Pink Ribbon Elite Gardening Gloves. First, full disclosure: As a Garden Writers Association Symposium attendee, I was sent two pair of Bionic Gloves to try. This was after I told their rep that I'd destroyed two pair of the original style because my fake fingernails poked through. (I was going to save my fake fingernail...

While on a walk with my dogs, Mariah and Prancer, last week, I saw this lovely moss under the trees. It is prolific this year, probably because of all the summer rain. I also noticed that the native grasses were going to seed and showing off. What struck me was the architecture of each seed head. I thought I would share some of these with you. This is Little Bluestem. I am not a native grass expert, but after this walk, I wish I were. I thought about my grandmother, Edith Juanita, and how she knew all the names of common plants. She was raised in Kiowa, Oklahoma, and learned them as a child. She taught me many things like how to grow killer tomatoes and how to cook poke sallet in the spring (in order to cleanse the blood, she said,) but I wish I'd asked more questions before...