Mud and Gifts -

Feb 27, 2021

The weather by some miracle has warmed up! So much so, I went for a walk to explore the neighborhood. And in doing so, I discovered the existence of MUD! Sure, I knew what mud was before. it’s what you make when you leave the hose running too long. But I’ve never seen it in such… abundance. The road past our house is mostly gravel and dirt and it was entirely covered in sticky, gooey, life sucking mud. Slide down a hill on your butt mud. Mega suction cup strength mud. Stop moving and you aren’t going anywhere ever again mud. I mean, they kept saying there was a fifth season in Vermont called “mud season” and my brain understood that. But understanding didn’t completely sink in until I saw it for myself.

But with the warmer weather, I’ve been able to get out a bit more. Still a good foot of snow on the ground at least, but I’m taking it as a good sign! And I got to sit a moment on my porch swing which I’ve been dying to do.

On an interesting observation, my cat hasn’t been paying much attention to anything under the stove or under the cupboards and I haven’t heard the fluttering in the ceiling in a bit so maybe the critters have decided that my house isn’t cool enough for the likes of them. Wishful thinking, I know, but hey, if you can’t have positive thoughts, what’s the point in anything, right?

We had another visit from a new neighbor! This one keeps bees and gave us fresh honey. That’s right, I’m neighbors with a beekeeper. My cool status just went up like 5 levels! I’ve also discovered fresh peanut butter and I don’t think I will ever eat any other peanut butter again.

Yesterday, we received a surprise gift in the mail. Our realtor had a custom Vermont sign made for us. Which I’m pretty sure makes us official Vermont residents. Because are you really a resident if your name is not on a cutout of the state? Now I’m wondering if I was ever a real resident of Oregon, Washington, Florida or Utah. Clearly it was never official. We will be finding a place of honor for our Vermont sign.

Boxes are slowly emptying over here. And it’s beginning to feel more and more like “home”. Still, I find so many little things that just make me smile in the house. The doors, the stairs, the rain on the sunroom windows, the windowsill off of the kitchen sink to put fresh baked pies on (like this brownie pie I just made), the view out every single window. I’ve lived in at least 15 different locations in my lifetime and I can’t think of one that gives me so much pleasure.