DIRT!

Damned hard to believe how much I like dirt at this point of the year.  Yes, you heard me correctly, dirt!  It's not like there has been much of it to see since Thanksgiving.  This morning I went on a long hike with my dog.  It was long enough that at the beginning there was still snow all over the roads and ice sheets everywhere.   I took pictures of the frost covered trees and the snow that still tops most of the fences here.  Well, of course it does!  Today was the first time it topped freezing in a month!    

Roland took snow baths wriggling and squirming down long snow-covered slopes.  He was sliding down one very steep hill when he hit bottom and went straight through the ice into a deep pond.  I hung my camera on a tree limb and jumped into the mess of trees and willows between the dog and me.  I got soaked up to my waist but I got my coat down to him in the water and he drug himself out on it.  While Roland merely shook himself off I was pretty wet.  Not so wet that I would head home and miss out on a sunny day though.  As long as I kept moving it wasn't all that chilly.  

I met up with some other locals and we stopped to stare at a bare bank, checking to see if the DIRT had anything green sprouting in it.  We checked for pussywillows budding out and got on our hands and knees and brushed the old leaves away looking for any sign of green.  Not yet, but it smells like life is getting closer to returning.  You can smell soil now, not just snow and ice water.  The scent of spring isn't quite here yet but things are stirring.  

It may not seem like much but up here in the high country we are damned happy to see dirt, any dirt, anywhere!