Eeek! A Mouse!

And I disturbed its house!

Actually, it’s more like “Awwww…” than “Eeek!” Today was another gorgeous day and I was determined to spend some time outside when we got home from work. Probably more because I was frustrated and angry than anything, but anyway… I planted some lavender seeds and promise photos if they take. I planted some last year, only got some of them to germinate and only really got two grown plants out of it, I think. They are still in a container in the back yard, waiting for me to transplant them somewhere. They are a different variety than the ones I’m going to try to cultivate this year for use along the driveway, so I’m really not sure what to do with them. They may just get a little more space in their existing container for now, until they get through another season. Maybe.

So, after I got the lavender seeds in their little, expanded peat pots, I went outside, checked on the clematis in the front yard and generally surveyed the overgrown landscape. I have to admit to not being very good at tending my lawn and the green things around the front of the house. I’m a “live and let live” kind of person. Plant it and forget about it. 😆 I filled the two bird feeders, since the pigs emptied nearly both of them in just one day. Then I turned my attention to dumping out my old african violet plants and transplanting the new ones into their new homes. To do this, though, I was going to need my bag of potting soil. In previous years, I had left one on the porch for just such occasions, but, for some reason, I bought a bigger bag last year and left it in the shed. I retrieved the bag, having the dig it out from under some miscellaneous implement and set it on the front sidewalk. I then went inside, pulled out the four old pots and brought them outside, along with the four new plants. I dumped out the contents of the old pots, gave them a once over to make sure they were relatively cleaned out, then pulled the first new plant out of its bag. I opened the bag of potting soil and immediately saw what I knew to be nesting material for a field mouse. I figured, “Ah-hah! That’s where they nested this winter, instead of on top of the riding mower engine, like they usually do.” (Yes, that can have a sad outcome, if we’re not really careful in the spring.) I pulled the material out, figuring it was past nesting time and then I saw some wriggling in the bag and a little mouse poked her head out of the soil beneath where the nesting material had been. I went over and grabbed Terry to have him help me transplant her to another location so that I could use my potting soil. Well, imagine my surprise when he comes over, opens the bag and we see that it was a mama mouse with 3 babies actively suckling her! I felt so bad that I had disturbed the little lady and her babies. Here she was, trying to move around a little bit, scared to see us, with three babies hanging onto her teats. So, I gave Terry the nesting material and he put it back in the bag, gently scooped it up and put it back in the shed.

I wish I could have gotten a picture, but I didn’t think of it until Terry had put the bag back and poor mama was so scared, I wouldn’t have wanted her to go one more minute without her nest back. So, sorry I couldn’t share the moment with you, but it was cute. Now I’ll have to buy another bag of soil to use this weekend. I think I’ll go back to keeping it on the porch this year… 😉

Now, let me go and see about some stitching, completely ignoring the fact that I have a quarterly sales tax return for OSL that’s a couple of days overdue. It can wait a little longer, can’t it?