For the love of mud.

March is a tomboy with tousled hair, a mischievous smile, mud on her shoes and a laugh in her voice.
-Hal Borland

Yay!  March is here.  I'm not a huge fan of February.  It seems to be the longest month for me.  By February I'm sick of winter, and ready for the mud puddles of spring.  This winter has been a bit odd.  I didn't have a problem with February because it hasn't been very wintery.  Although, with the lack of snow, I knew we wouldn't have the kind of spring I like.  The kind where you have to wear your mud boots and stomp through some puddles in the driveway.  I love mud puddles.



We finally got some snow last weekend.  We didn't get as much as they were predicting earlier this week.  The 12 inches fizzled down to about 3.  Bummer.  I would have liked a few more inches of snow.  Fresh snow at this time of year is beautiful.  You know it won't be around all that long; and if you're a puddle jumper, you you know it's going to melt.


I know that most people hate the mud.  There are a few of us who enjoy it.  We wait anxiously for those first warming winds that will turn the snow into spring.  Yes, it can be a bother.  Those kids covered in mud coming through the front door and bringing the muck with them.  The endless loads of heavily soiled laundry.  The difficulty getting to the house when driving through the sloppy mess of a driveway.  The vehicles coated in a thick layer of dried filth.  I can hardly wait!


We're supposed to get warm temperatures next week, and that will get things going.  How long will we get to enjoy the puddles once they come?  One never really knows, so you have to take the enjoyment or put up with it one day at a time. 

Try to see the fun in mud.  If you were forbidden to play in the mud as a child, get yourself some mudboots and go outside.  As a kid, spring was a time for building boats out of whatever scraps of wood were available, among other things.  We'd take the boats out and float them in the puddle at the end of the driveway, or down the ditch.  I remember running through the puddle in the middle of the field and getting soaked.  We would walk across the biggest puddles to see how deep the water was, trying to go as deep as we could without the water getting into our boots.  Springs were great.  Finally to be outside without having to wear endless layers of clothing. 

Find your inner kid.  Float things on the puddles, make rivers to drain the puddles off of the driveway.  Granted, you can only do that if you don't have a paved drive.  Find out how deep the puddles are.  If you got snow, there will be puddles somewhere even if they aren't in your yard.  Go to the park.  Find the mud.  It's fun.  Let yourself relax and enjoy the beginning of spring! 

The mind of the people is like mud, from which arise strange and beautiful things. -W. J. Turner