The mudhole

Nope, this isn't a continuation of the camp blog from last week. It's a landscape design element added to our backyard by the darlin's. While I am counting my blessings, let me add that I am grateful that this is not in the front yard. Amen. The mudhole is right up there with cardboard toys and plastic containers leftover from the kitchen, you know in the category of "what kids really want to play with." It is a place where if you dig deep enough, you will find some kind of critter that will bite you and possibly end up dying in the "habitat" the darlin's keep on hand to trap innocent wildlife and critters. Of course at this point they are renamed "specimens" and no, I did not teach them this terminology. I can barely keep up, truly.

The mudhole is a place where you can cannonball and splash just about everyone in our backyard, including those not wearing their swimsuits. The mudhole gets filled up in about, say the time it takes for mama to turn around and survey if the shrubs need to be trimmed. The mudhole serves as a mud/foot mask treatment. It makes great muddy prints on mama's nice clean porch. It is the palette for fence mud paintings which are not photographed for submission to the National Geographic.

The mudhole is a place where if your sister comes close enough, you can completely slime her using your long "mudhole" shovel. What is it about ruffles and mud that I find disturbing? I can't say. I am glad the darlin's like fun weekends of sprinkler chase and mudhole excavations, but for my treat,  it's the military-like hose-down that follows such fun. Mama always wins, right?! Please don't correct me. I need to cling to the illusion a little longer.