In which I'm sorry for Lytha, because the sky is very BLUE here!

It's true what we say in the Swamplands: into each life a little mud must fall.

So, although the sky was blue, the trail near the parkinglot was still pretty mucky. We are Swamplanders, though: mud does not frighten us. We went through it, and up the hill:

Dry(er) ground! And more blue sky.

Poor Lytha in Germany is still buried in sn*w, but here in the Swamp it seems like the very first edges of Spring are becoming visible.

Of course, it is only February, and I'm knocking wood like crazy the whole time I'm writing this post. Weather here can change overnight...daytime temps in the 60's today does not preclude pouring rain or worse tomorrow. (The forecast for the next few days says "partly sunny" though). My fingers remain crossed.

Fiddle is beginning to regret growing a yak-esque fur coat this winter, especially when we are out on the trail!

I took the wrist-top GPS this time, instead of the hand-held. It reported that we covered 13.5 miles, although we probably actually went a bit farther than that because the GPS signal is weak when we are in the trees.

However, when Jim tried to load our track onto the mapping software, it reported that we travelled from the Tree Farm here in the Swamplands to a small island off the coast of Ghana, West Africa. And back.

I thought that was pretty impressive for a trotting horse in less than three hours! No wonder her face got sweaty.

But wait. RED ALERT! BATTLESTATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

What is this creature, under the tree?

A Heffalump, perhaps? They have Heffalumps in Ghana, right?

Oh, wait. We didn't really go to Ghana. We're still in the Swamplands. So it's probably just a young deer. Cancel Red Alert.

On the way back to the trailer, I saw ShadowFiddle and ShadowAareneX riding along beside us. We like riding with them--they make us both feel tall and slender.

They are really LOUD, though. I know Fiddle and I aren't really that noisy, so it must be the shadows making all the racket.



Clop clop clop clop, ching ching ching ching.

Life is good!