Hello again.
Sasha here; pleased to be back.
Alpha mom has gone off on her bi-annual “Grandma Janet Road Trip” and left me home with Alpha Pop and the chickens.
She’ll be back with her series on civil discourse next week. You know, the LEAP FROG series. She did the R in FROG last week.
Have you been enjoying the series? (She wanted me to ask you.) She says she’s learned a lot from putting it together. And she’s REALLY looking forward to the last two, O and G.
I thought I might have a little fun with OG myself, but she asked me to behave.
Sigh.
This is me last winter, behaving. One winter up here looks pretty much like another.
This year winter ended the week before Alpha Mom left for Ohio.
And you know what comes along right after the winter snow?
Mud season.
Sometimes the mud arrives in March and doesn’t leave until May. We never know. We just keep trudging along, one day after the other.
Some people find mud season annoying and a lot of folks up here complain about it. But we try not to. Alpha Mom sometimes leaves her car in town and has Alpha Pop shuttle her up and down the mountain in his truck. Her car is one of those Corgi or Basset Hound automobiles. You know, low to the ground, short legs.
Canine-nally, (Well, I can’t very well say person-ally) I love mud season. First of all, it means the days are warm enough that I can stay outside all day if I want to. And, I do.
Then there’s the pond; the ice has started to melt and I love to jump in and paddle around. I tend to do this when no one is looking because I’ve learned that if they see me about to jump in, I get called home. So, I wait until they’re busy doing something else.
I love it when Alpha Mom towels me off.
The photo above is from a few years ago. It’s summer for sure. Look at all that green! I couldn’t find a photo from now; no one takes any photos during mud season.
The thing about mud season is that you only see the effects: what’s on the surface (the mud!). You can’t see underground — one or two or three or even four feet down — where the still frozen soil acts as a barrier to the snow melt. So it’s sometimes hard to know how bad it’ll be or how long it will last.
In states that have no mud season, the snow melts and the water sinks into the ground. But here, the ground down deep is still frozen even after the snow starts to melt. So the water can’t sink into the ground. Instead, it lolls around on top, mixing with the dirt and last year’s leaves.
A local novelist, Howard Frank Mosher, has written that mud season is “emblematic of everything that’s bleak and horrible about being isolated at the end of a road that you just can’t get out of.”
That’s pretty depressing all right. I’m glad I don’t read much.
The poet Robert Frost, a local guy before he died, wrote this about mud season back in 1934:
The water for which we may have to look
In summertime with a witching wand,
In every wheel rut’s now a brook
In every print of a hoof a pond.”
He named it Two Tramps in Mud Time.
Alpha Mom says I should ask you what are the “frost heaves” in your life? What brings “mud” into your life but is invisible to the eye?
Next week Alpha Mom will be back with O is for ??? There’s one more (the G) in the series and then we’ll get to meet a group of interesting women who have moved to the U.S. from other countries (and a few who haven’t moved here). And we’re going to learn a bit about how folks from other cultures see America. From what I hear, they notice things that we don’t.
Carolyn
Lovely to hear from you again, Sasha. Glad you are enjoying a mud season – I bet you get a few good baths then. Next thing you know Mom will be cleaning you with some fancy-smelling stuff.
Janet Givens
Oooh, I hope you mean some of that lovely smelling stuff the squirrels leave. I LOVE to roll around in some of that. I didn’t know it came now in a bottle. I’ll be sure to pass that information along to Alpha Mom. I know she’ll appreciate knowing. Woof, woof.
Ian Mathie
Good post Sasha. Mungo woke up enough to listen while I read it to him but then went back to sleep. He’s getting old – he’s 95 now – so he sleeps a lot these days and as soon as he goes outside he’s asking to come back in again. It’s still too cold to leave the doors open here so he can come and go and anyway, he forgets where the door is sometimes. We have an evil north wind bringing the cold down from the North Pole at the moment, so I’m not surprised he doesn’t want to stay out for long, and his bed is nice and snuggly with a warm blanket to lie on.
We’ve enjoyed the LEAP FROG posts too and look forward to O and G. But can’t you persuade A lpha Mom to add in a small aside and do D as well. After all it then spells DOG, and that has to be interesting.
Anyway, we hope she has a good road trip with no mishaps on the way back. It’s god to hear you’re back on form and hope there are plenty of squirrels for you to chase this Spring. Keep well.
Janet Givens
I think of Mungo every now and again, Mr. Ian. Do please give him a good sniff for me.
Merril Smith
Sasha seems to be doing well! No mud season here, but there is mud after several days of rain.
Hope the road trip goes well and is lots of fun!
Janet knows what I think is the biggest producer of mud right now–there’s a big swamp in Washington. . .
(I’m impressed that Alpha Mom has her blog topics so well prepared in advance–unlike me.) 🙂
Janet Givens
Too bad I can’t splash around in that mud too, Mz Merril. I’d get things emptied out, pronto.
Frank V. Moore
I think Sasha should have her own blog. 😎
Janet Givens
aww, gee whiz, Mr. Frank, sir. Golly, gosh; I’ll tell her. Though I do know she rather enjoys the one she writes.
Marian Beaman
Reading your post I thought of e. e. cummings poem ” in just – ” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47247 He coins the evocative words mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful.
No comment about the mud in my life right now. Let’s just say I’m looking for puddle-wonderful. Fun post, Janet!
Janet Givens
Woof, woof. (tail wagging here. Would you kindly just scratch that little spot just above my tail, Mz Marian. Ooh, that’s nice.)
Laurie Buchanan
Sasha — I can’t even begin to imagine how you keep your snow-white coat clean during mud season!
Janet Givens
It’s all in the pond, Ms Laurie. I just swim around for a bit and poof, off it all goes. Easy, peasy. Though Alpha Mom seems a bit kerfluffled when I do it. Something about it not being warm enough yet for me to dry off properly.
Joan Z. Rough
I think whoever came up with dirt (mud) covered jeans at over $400. a pair must live in Vermont. I used to live there but never found such inspiration!
Janet Givens
I don’t know much about money, Mz Joan, but I do know something ’bout my Alphas and they’d NEVER sink to such lows. Even if they reach all the way down past their ankles. Must be something one o’ them flatlanders brought up from sum-where else. Nary a real Vermonter would be caught dead (or alive) in such a thing. But we sure do ‘preciate you vis’tin’ us here today.
Kathleen Pooler
It’s so nice to hear from you Sasha! You’re looking might spiffy with your beautiful white coat. But I understand how much fun you have rolling in the mud. Max does it all the time and seems his happiest when he’s covered from snout to tail. Keep having fun!
Janet Givens
Why I thank you very much, Miss Kathy. I am fairly proud of myself. Alpha Mom says I could use a little humility.
Please let Max know that I really, really, really want to meet him. But, Alpha Mom (again!) can’t seem to figure out how to make that happen. It’s hard to be dependent on others.