The backyard called to me this afternoon. The snow has disappeared and surprisingly the matted leaves allowed my shoes to stay dry. I did have to pick up some branches from the square garden as I saw the bright pink spears of early tulips peeking out. From now on, I won’t be walking in the garden areas so as not to step on fragile perennials that want to poke out of the dirt.

Of course I had an entourage made up of Butter Ball, Snuggles and Fuzzy traipsing along, needing to check out each branch as I began building a pile.

We do have access to a burning ring across Stauffer Avenue. Right now, I would have no idea how to cross the short distance without sinking into a lot of mud. Last fall the city did such a great job of spreading and packing ground asphalt onto the avenue, it really gave me hope of a fairly hard surface. Right now it reminds me of a mucky, murky cow yard. It will eventually dry out.