Little time to write anything . . . .

 

I keep seeing one of these little chaps scurrying in and out of the wall by the feed shed.  Dear little things as long as they are not in the house doing damage!  They have been know to sneak into the  pantry up the side of the dishwasher outlet pipe.  You would not credit the numbers of packets of things they can chew into in a single night.  Last year a couple of them shredded most of a bag of fresh carrots.  When I stepped into the pantry on that particular morning it took a moment or two to work out what all the orange, what looked like paper shreds, were all over the floor.The gestation  period of wood mice is of 25–26 days and each female produces on average five young. The offspring become independent after about three weeks and become sexually active after two months.   So no wonder we get a lot of the little darlings . . . .

I have been working on a couple of  water colour painting projects and we have been flat out sorting out the house a bit before our American visitors arrive.  Sounds awful I know, but now the old dog has died we have taken the opportunity to replace the dining room carpet, which necessitated moving the piano,  so we thought we could pass it on to someone who would appreciate it (gone to a good home).  Now our daughter is no longer at here no-one plays it and we can hardly pack it up to send to Switzerland!.  So one little job leads on to a lot of other jobs. . . . .  himself has been brilliant re-decorating …… and we are almost straight in that part of the house and where the visitors will be.   Can’t think about the rest of it at the moment.  Although GOS also had a clear up in his shed!!!  We think we will do a “carboot” next weekend.

We had the most tremendous winds and rain for a couple of days this week.  My runner bean row has a serious lean to starboard.  How the poles didn’t snap I don’t know; it is so top heavy with the weight of foliage.  The bean row is now secured with a couple of “guy ropes” to the  garden fence to stop it toppling over altogether; looks ludicrous but doing the job.  The ropes are going to make mowing the grass path in the veggie garden a bit of a trial!

One of my “projects” has been to paint a sheep dog for a friend ( a sheepdog breeder) as a thank you for a favour he is doing us …. hope you like it ….