Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud

People seem to gauge the arrival of Spring by different things. For some it is the arrival of Crocus flowers in the garden...

or Bluebells in the woods....

For others it may be the arrival of new born animals...

But for me it is  all about the MUD.  Having been a rather feral child that could spend many hours happily playing with mud (great for my parents who didn't need to buy me expensive toys:)) I have the dubious pleasure of knowing mud quite intimately and as a child it fascinated me that, when Spring  arrived, the mud changed its consistency even if it had been raining for days.  It is something I still look out for each year, although, this year it hasn't been so dramatically obvious as, with the dry, mostly mild weather the South East has had, there hasn't been the glorious, boot gobbling type of mud that we usually get in the winter...my youngest son, (who was also a bit feral) was always loosing his little red wellies in boot gobbling mud but would carry on playing regardless, frequently loosing his socks as well!  Over the last couple of weeks there has been a change in the mud so, in my book, Spring has Sprung..Hooray!!!!

So here's a little celebratory ditty that my dad used to sing to me, his little Mud-Lark.  Actually it's not about a Lark, it's about a Hippo which is more appropriate as his nickname for me was Pudding:)...

From The Hippopotomus Song

Flanders and Swan

Mud, mud, glorious mud,

Nothing quite like it for cooling the blood,

So follow me follow. down to the hollow,

And there let me wallow in glorious mud.

Is it any wonder that I grew up playing in mud after having songs like that sung to me!!

Unfortunately, each Spring, I suffer the affliction of terrible restlessness...I want to do something life-altering like moving to the other side of the country or travelling the world.  If I go for a walk I have an urge to just keep walking and never go home; if I am horse riding I want to gallop forever; if we are driving somewhere I want to buy a new car.  My long suffering husband and family (who are always included in my plans) usually manage to keep my feet on the ground and curb some of my more extreme ideas, but over the years this Spring Bug has motivated us to do lots of things that we probably wouldn't have otherwise done. We've been rock climbing, white water kayaking, white water rafting, climbed mountains, walked a few long distance footpaths, built a big house extension, redesigned the garden several times over and visited quite a few interesting countries.  Last year it was re-doing the bathroom and my poor husband is still struggling with the many problems this has thrown up but we do now have a lovely new bath and toilet and hopefully the sink will go in this week.  So what am I going to do this year?  I haven't a clue but I am going to explode soon if I don't think of something. With my dear old mum needing a lot of attention, I feel my wings have been clipped, which is a frustrating... I wonder if this is how our hens felt when we clipped their wings...hmmm...there's an idea...maybe I could keeps hens again.

As I have to stay at home and as spare time is short, I am trying very hard to direct my restlessness to the many useful things that need doing around the bungalow and garden but they don't really inspire me with enthusiasm.  I could take up painting again as there are boxes of my half finished bird paintings in the loft...I only ever managed to complete one, The Barn Owl, because I was recuperating after surgery but it could be quite nice to complete the others.

Thankfully the build up to lambing is starting soon with lots of jobs to be done in preparation so maybe that will exhaust some of my pent up restlessness.