When life gives you mud, make... mud pies?

No, no recipe in this post. I know, bummer, right? I went for a nice long walk with my parents, brother and his girlfriend, and my sister last Sunday in the woods. It was a rare, sunny day in what has been an absolutely dreadful month of May, so the forest floor was muddy and the tracks hard to walk on at times, but we managed.

You could tell that we've had a crappy spring season so far: trees were just beginning to blossom or grow their leaves, barely any flowers anywhere, tons of dead leaves on the ground... But the greens were vibrant and alive, and when the sun was shining it was absolutely gorgeous. The temperature was nice, and we were under cover of the trees so we barely noticed the winds. Perfect weather for a wander through the woods. Plus, all the rain from the past week made the pine trees smell amazing!

Sometimes, we'd come across weird stuff, like this single bright orange-leafed tree in a sea of green. With the sun shining through, it almost looks like a flock of butterflies!

We slowly made our way uphill to the half-way mark and could see how much rain had fallen in the past few days: there were mud tracks like this one all along one side of the path, where the water had made its way downhill.

And then there were parts of the woods that looked like, well, this. Car tracks where the mud was still soppy and where you could easily sink down past your ankles if you weren't careful. We decided to not go that way. Nobody brought their bathing suit.

There we go, the top of the hill! This is the Austerlitz Pyramid, a monument built by the soldiers of Napoleon in 1804. Why build a monumental pyramid in the middle of a forest, you ask? Because the French general Auguste de Marmont, who had amassed an army on this site so they could fight back any invasion armies the British would send, was afraid his men might get bored. Yep. That's history, people. It's not all about epic battles and heroism. Most of it consisted of waiting, eating, sleeping and fighting off boredom.

Oh, hello, little sis. I wasn't the only one dragging a camera around. My partner in crime here and I were constantly lagging behind the others because we were taking pictures. On our way down the hill, I left my camera in my bag and enjoyed the scenery with my own eyes and not hidden behind a lens, but we still had to wait on occasion for this shutterbug to catch up. I guess it runs in the family!