The weather finally broke. 

After six months.

OF WINTER!

Friday night I sat outside for a bit. I ignored the chill in the air and focused on just being outside for the first time in months.

I noticed a smell.  Somewhere.  Was it my dog?  Very likely.

The flowers that have been dead for a year?  Possible. 

The dog poo that the boys are supposed to be picking up twice a week?  No doubt. 

Maybe it was just the earth.   Saturated with winter for far to long. 

I never figured it out and I wasn't going to dig around trying to find it. 

Despite the smell,  it was so nice to be outside. My poor yard needs some major work.  Maybe this week I'll plant some flowers. 

My neighbor has a beautiful back yard.  Even in the winter it's nice.  But in the summer...if I took a walk in his little piece of paradise every day, I bet I would find something new.  Although small, he has a couple of fruit trees, two gardens and flowering vines growing through wire racks. 

Today I watched him from my kitchen window.  Hes a older gentlemen, slightly stooped, and always wearing a wide brimmed hat.  He was slowing raking one of his garden boxes.  He stopped, leaned the rake against the fence and knelt down in the earth.  Taking off his glove, he scooped up a handful.  He put it to his nose, breathed it in.  Then let it slip through his fingers.  He slowly got up and continued raking. 

I was mesmerized.  Why did he do that?  What did he expect to learn from the dirt?  Did he smell my back yard and had to make sure my dirt hadn't contaminated his?!?!  Or was he just testing the waters, by the feel and smell of the dirt, maybe he knows exactly what needs to be added to grow the perfect vegetable.

 Or maybe he just likes to get his hands dirty. 

I was tempted to go ask him but then decided it was time to put away the fourteen bags of groceries on the floor.  I had stalled long enough. 

I have already apologized to him about the state of my yard.  And this was last year when it looked half way decent!  It will always pale in comparison to his. 

Maybe I need to smell my dirt.  Maybe that's the trick.  Be one with the dirt! 

This year I'm going to try harder with my yard.  I don't want my neighbor to shiver in disgust when he looks at it.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I did attempt to take some of me and my girl Ginger while I was outside that chilly night. 

She wanted to eat my phone so they didn't turn out so great. 



 





This was the best I could get. 





After getting that close to her...I did confirm that at least she wasn't the smell. 

Maybe after the earth dries out a bit, after I plant some flowers, after the poo is scooped,  the smell will be gone.

Or maybe I'll just have to wait till summer, after the sun bakes everything to a golden crisp. 

Here in Nebraska, that could be as soon as next week. 

Comments: