Last night, Tessa and I decided to take a run at dusk and as we came around a bend in the path we were on, we saw a HUGE full moon. It was five times the size of anything you would see in the city, and extremely impressive. Of course tonight, when I hoped for a repeat and dragged my sister out to photograph it, there were only clouds and a lot of cold air.

Earlier today, we went out to my nephew’s house which is also about as opposite of the city as you can get. He and his girlfriend were leaving to go up to the snow, but he’d told the girls he would pay them to clean up his land. The people who owned the property before had left various bits of trash and old ropes and boards tossed out in the field where they are planning on raising a barn. Eager to make some money, the girls jumped at the chance. However, there was a reason he was willing to pay them. You see, it’s practically a swamp back there due to recent rain, and it is also covered with horse and dog poo.

Only slightly discouraged and armed with gloves, both girls got right to work. Some of the boards proved too heavy for them so I went out to help. Big mistake. Huge, as Julia Roberts says in “Pretty Woman”. You see, while the girls both had tall boots, I had hiking boots. Tessa began sinking in the mud and my shoes began filling with water. As the mud came within a ¼ inch of the top of Tessa’s boots, I reached over to pull her out and guess who lost her balance and fell on her ass? Yeah, that would be me. Everyone had a good laugh, including me, but it was disgusting. The only thing funnier was when my younger sister did the same thing five minutes later while attempting to feed the horse.

It’s nice to get away and to enjoy the contrasts to where we live but one thing is clear; we are city girls. My nephew can have his horse, pigs, chickens, donkeys, cats, six dogs and all of that mud, and I’ll just take home the pictures.