I'm sure spring is coming!

Where it once was a frozen tundra, it's now mud.  At least the top two inches is mud; under that it's frozen.  

This kind of mud makes walking a real adventure.  Thank goodness for my Muck boots.  

I almost lost my balance a couple of times, and wouldn't THAT have been messy?  

I know spring is coming, because I can finally see the ground in parts of my yard!  

The trees know spring is coming, too; look at the buds.  

The hyacinth knows winter is almost over.  

So today, I planted tiny tomato seeds in my miniature greenhouse.  There were four spots left after I'd used all the tomato seeds, so I put cauliflower seeds in those.  
Last fall I bought a crepe myrtle tree really cheap; I planted it in the front yard and it seemed to thrive, but in the back of my mind I kept wondering how it would fare in winter:  Crepe Myrtle is really a southern tree.  However, the information attached to it at Home Depot said this was a variety developed for our area.  When the winter weather turned so vicious and stayed that way, I had my doubts whether that tree would make it.   
The best I can tell, it's dead.  It's no big loss; I think I only paid $5 for it on clearance.  But I know not to try crepe myrtle again; it's a tree... or shrub... of the south.  

Checking in from Mudville

Yesterday it warmed up and thawed considerably. So for the first time in weeks, I gave both my horses a little attention. Because of the thawing, there was absolutely no bottom to the ground; our whole place was a marsh. Rather than soak my cowboy boots with mud, I put on rubber boots and waded across the pasture after Blue. Once I got to where the horses were lounging, I decided not to ride; Cliff's sister was coming to visit with us, and it would be rather rude of me to ride off into the sunset. Besides, Libby hadn't had any attention since I brought her back home from the "trainer".

It's risky to wear rubber boots with working with horses, but I had very little choice.

That's where the horses stood as I groomed them. Only it looks a lot worse than that, live and in person.

I spent about a half-hour with each horse, and I think both animals appreciated the attention, even if they had to stand knee-deep in mud. I notice they're shedding like crazy, so spring must not be too far off.

Cliff's sister decided to spend the night with us; so today Cliff mentioned Olive Garden, and Rena said she had never been there.

"Well, we'll fix that," Cliff said.

We made a stop at Penny's to pick up some T-shirts for Cliff, went to Wal-Mart and found a grinder on clearance exactly like Cliff needed, and then browsed around Sam's Club until time for Olive Garden to open up.


We had the soup, salad, and bread sticks with an appetizer of artichoke-spinach dip.

Yum.

Cliff's sister, who's been in Wisconsin for the past fifteen years or so, is in the middle of divorce proceedings and is looking at places to live in this area.

I know, this is a pretty hum-drum entry. But at this time, life itself is pretty hum-drum. Sometimes that's a good thing.