Mud

Mud smells. It doesn't smell good or bad, really, it just smells like mud. That smell means spring in Vermont. Sure, there may be another couple of snow storms between now and May, and the deep ruts on the dirt roads might freeze over, but spring is coming.

We take mud seriously around here. There's a whole season named after it, we devote entire rooms to its containment, and most folks have special shoes just for that glorious mix of soil and meltwater. Early spring mud is entirely different from late summer mud, too. It's stickier somehow, more likely to grab your shoe and refuse to let go.

I'm not generally a huge fan of mud season—it's a mess, it's usually quite gray, and I start to miss my cute shoes after a while. But I can't deny that the smell of mud gives me hope when it first appears in the spring.