Joy in Mudville (Random Pointless Photo)

(Click on image to enlarge)

Last summer I planned to spend the long, cold, snowy winter holed up in my cozy little house, doing all sorts of wonderful things to my blog.

Instead we get day after day of spring-like weather, and I simply must spend every afternoon outside, digging tree stumps out of the ground. Out of the mud, I mean. Mud everywhere. Mud, mud, mud, mud, mud. Mud on my boots. Mud on my clothes. Mud on my face. Mud on my dog. Mud tracked all over the floor of my house. Mud on the furniture. Mud on the walls.

But every time one of those stumps finally gives up and lets itself be heaved out of the mud, it is a moment of joy and exultation.

That red thing in the foreground, by the way, is a Honeysuckle Popper and I love it.