Mud Season

Walking the dogs around the entire farm, for the first time since December, inspired a sense of awe. The knee high drifts of snow and ice now departed. All was muddy, sodden, yet green. Daffodils already erupting. Buds on lilacs and trees. Grackels, robins, woodcock all here.
The herb garden fared well and the sage looks ready to grow into the enormous bush it became last fall. Verdant blades of chives poking through a matt of straw. The stepping stones of slate all akimbo as frost departs. Winter mosses already on the crawl.
The dogs inspected their usual haunts. Sadie sniffed the two still standing Brussel Sprouts stalks, which she regularly poaches in fall, while Sofie lingered at the fence where the green beans grow. These two canines are adept harvesters. Sadie even eats the berries off of the crab apple, digs out parsnips and nibbles on strawberris. Sofie loves the grape tomatoes. The only crop safe from their scavenging are the blueberry bushes.
Bird song, mud, rain all herald the miraculous return of growth. Tree mosses hug elephant skinned maples. The smell of earth wafts freely, as enticing as the best perfumes of jasmine and sandalwood and ginger. The arbor promises a bouquet in two months time.