A spring ditch is revealed by degrees, as the days warm and elongate, as rain replaces snow, as the sun rises steadily higher over the southern horizon, and all the debris from fall and winter lose their cold-weather camouflage and surface in the brown and khaki laid-down grasses.

It can be a frustrating time for those of us living in the country, out on our daily dog-walks or mental-health strolls. Aluminum cans, plastic shooter bottles, fast-food garbage, blown-out tires, old televisions, forsaken furniture ... it all ends up in the ditches. Some is our own doing. I know certain rural roads predictably trafficked by motorists who favor red cans of Coca-Cola or cheap pocket-sized bottles of Fireball. I’m not a betting man, but if I was, I’d say they were country folk, disposing of evidence before they got home. The most common contraband I find is Busch Light cans, by far. Too bad the cans aren’t made of some more valuable metal — I’d be a millionaire.