This afternoon the smell of newly cut grass suddenly and surprisingly carried me back to my childhood and all those times Daddy pulled out the old push mower and mowed the lawn.   It's amazing how quickly smells transport us through our memories.    Mingled with the fresh smell of cut grass there was always the smell...

I love dirt - always have, always will. What joy there is in running crumbly loam through my fingers! As a little girl, I can remember making mud pies, constructing frog houses by mounding dirt over my foot, and even eating dirt (it was our Pop Eye's spinach, if you can imagine). With gardening parents and grandparents, there...