Today, I’ve been getting the greenhouse ready. I’ve set up the soil warming cables, cleaned the window, some broken glass has been replaced and I’ve got pots and seed trays ready to be filled. Now, all I need is my seed order to arrive, which I’m sure will be on Monday. It was all very pleasing and I enjoyed myself in the sunshine. I suppose there’s still time for winter to strike, but there won’t be much of it, if any.
Weeza and co called in during the afternoon and when I brought out the fruit cake I made yesterday, Gus jumped up and down with delight. He was surprisingly overjoyed. They stayed for an early supper and then sloped off, apologising for all the washing up – which I don’t mind at all, it’s not as if I’m going to be standing with my arms in suds, after all.
This afternoon, I went up to the attics to check on the mousetraps. I haven’t been up there for a while, not having found any the last few times I’ve looked. In one attic, the three traps were untouched and I rebaited them with peanut butter, thinking that fresh food would appeal if there were any mice about. Russell had put a number of boxes up there in the last couple of years and I noticed that a couple of them contained papers, some of which were in labelled files, so that’s the next place to turn out. There are still papers I haven’t managed to find. In the other attic, two of those three traps had caught mice and the third was empty of bait, so that was a particularly light-footed creature. I’m sorry to have to kill them but there isn’t really a choice, I can’t have them breeding in the house and I’d soon be overrun. They usually confine themselves to the attic and there certainly isn’t a problem this mild winter, thank goodness.
This evening, I played the clarinet for a while and then listened to music, while replying to a couple of letters. I still always seem to have a backlog of letters, I can’t catch up. I think I’m going to have to make a list, because there are some that have been waiting for a while. Perhaps I should just direct everyone here.
What you need is a cat, a female, they are the best at catching mice! Even if it doesn’t you will find that the mere presence of a cat drives the mice away. Well it does in my house, because my cat is too fat and idle to be bothered catching mice!
Sad to say, but my gardening days are over. Too old and arthritic now. The garden is getting a bit overgrown. I need a nice young lady gardener to come and help me (well, I can dream can’t I?)
There’s a door to one attic and a trapdoor to the other, so it would have to be its presence downstairs that would do the trick. Russell would never consider having a cat as he was such a bird lover. But the one that raised kittens in one of the barns recently has done wonders in reducing the mouse and rat population outside and I’m sure I will have a cat one day, though probably not while I live here as I’m trying to reduce commitments at present.
A lovely lady to whom I delivered Meals on Wheels lived to 99 and grew plants from seed to the end of her days. She did have help in the garden, but she grew potted flowers, tomatoes etc and raised runner beans that someone else planted and she could pick. Just a thought!