On the subject of the mouse

Now I might have seemed a bit of a wooz when I evacuated the Hutto (Hut Office) the other night at such speed, and I need to explain what had happened. Now I am not afraid of mice, after all they are God's creatures, but when one is concentrating very hard on finding the words of inspiration for one's blog, and as you other bloggers will know, sometimes it can be quite hard work, and out of the corner of one's eye one sees a big grey mouse having a walk up the wall beside one, just an arms length away and at head height.....well, I defy anyone not to have let out a squeal. Or two. So I did.

Which upset Hubs, who had his headphones on and was deep into a game of Internet Chess, such that he lost the game which didn't please him at all. So he had a grumble at me about 'Not being silly'. But he did act on the second sighting of the mouse, because it took the same walk up the wall a few minutes later, just as I was trying to finish off the blog sensibly. Off he went to find the broom so he could 'Shoo it out'. Meanwhile Gus and Bools had woken up from the doggy sleeps, and were pacing about restlessly. What had been quietness and calm and now become the reverse.

Hubs realised that it was really no use to try to 'Shoo the mouse out' because the Hutto is so cluttered up with stuff at the moment. 'You'll have to get a mouse trap tomorrow' he said.
And with that we all exit the Hutto, except Gus who has to stay behind in his kennel.

Cup of Ovaltine in the kitchen caravan. "I'll just take this bowl of veg peelings out to the compost heap" says Hubs. Comes back a few minutes later fuming. "Toto (Bruno's shetland pony) is grazing on our grass by the veg plot. If that ******** horse eats my fruit trees I'm gonna ********* that ********* horse!"
And to fill you in here with a bit of info: Bruno, our neighbour across the road, has decided not to keep his litte horse penned in by an electric fence any more, but to let it wander where it will. It was, apparently, having a wander out into his field, having a nibble of grass, and then happily wandering back to his stable behind the house. But it would seem that now Toto had decided to expand his horizons by popping over the road to have a look at what he could eat here.

Hubs was not best pleased. His fruit trees are precious to him, having watered them from the river over the long months of summer. "I'm going to have a word with Bruno about that horse" he said.
"Why didn't you chase him off?" I said.
"Because I don't want him to get run over" he said. "But if he eats my fruit trees....."

And so to bed. Lights out. BBbbbbzzzzzz. Hubs leaps out of bed, crashing over me as he did so. (We are sleeping in a caravan so sleeping room is minimal but cosy.) 'There's a mosquito in here' he said.
'Oh crikey' I thought, 'This could take ages'. Once Hubs goes on a midge hunt no-one is going to get any sleep until it is caught. Me and Bools are frequently trampled over as he lunges for the mosquito if it is in flight, or if he sees it parked up somewhere, normally out of easy range.

"There it is" he yells triumphantly, walloping the ceiling of the caravan with a hefty thump, and examining his palm to see if indeed there is the squashed remains of the mozzie. Yes!

Now we can get some sleep.

Just drifting off: From the vicinity of the Hutto comes a cacophony of noise: squeals, yelps, howls, whines, barks, yaps, thumps. Thumps?

Hubs springs out of bed, crashes himself over me ( he can't get out his side because he sleeps against the window) and Bools (who sleeps in the gangway beside me). On go the lights. Thump. And again. Thump. Hubs grabs some clothes and hurtles out of the door. All goes quiet. I feel anxious. Was Toto in the courtyard bashing things up? Was the tall barn roof finally collapsing? Or worst still, the walls of the house? The quiet lengthens. Should I go out to investigate? Perhaps Hubs has been knocked over the head by An Intruder. Still I wait.

Not to worry though. In through the door comes Hubs. "You won't believe this, but Gus has only gone and unhooked the latches on his kennel door. ******* ** ****** ********." He says. "That door (the door of the Hutto) what I paid a lot of money for, that ****** dog has gone and chewed a hole in it"

The night is flowing majestically on. Tick Tock, the clock says. 'Sleep', my head says in response, 'I need sleep'. Hubs lurches his way over me to get to his side of the bed. Zooom! A big, well more 'huge' really, flying thing swoops between Hubs and me in the middle of his lurching. And here I must say that sometimes Hubs does have a tendency to linger in mid lurch. Sort of not out of bed and not on his side of the bed, but parked up over me. Which he was doing when the flying thingy zoomed through. "Oh what was that now" Hubs said with resignation. But since it wasn't a mosquito and wasn't going to bite him, he finished his lurching movement and collapsed onto his side of the bed.

All quiet. "Let's have a snuggle" Hubs says. Ah but not before I have had that final loo run of the night. Which requires of me a careful feel round as I head toward the caravan loo area, in case I trip up on Bools.

Eventually we are settled. We are heading towards dawn at a cracking pace now. Bools sighs, no doubt wondering about the sanity of his owners, Hubs rolls over and sighs, no doubt worrying about whether he is going to have any fruit trees left in the morning, and I am asleep now too. But the tick tock of the clock seems very loud suddenly. Makes me stop my drifting off to sleep moment. Up I get again. There! It can sleep in the cupboard tonight.

Things I have learnt: That if one sees a mouse and it is getting late in the evening, and the other family members are quiet and dozy, then it is best not to make a huge hullabaloo because it only wakes everyone up and delays the joyous moment of falling to sleep for ages, or hours as what happened on this night.

The mouse is still loose. I did get a mouse trap but I have forgotten to give it to Hubs, and a few minutes ago I did hear a bit of a scrabbling about, or I thought I did, so if I see a mouse I am going to gently and silently evacuate the space so the males of the family are not woken up!

And at sixty plus, I am not frightened of mice, it is just that they make me jump. Frogs do the same. Only frogs are normally at ground level and not at head height. Toto is banned from visiting and is being kept within electric fencing again. The Big Thingy which flew across Hubs I think was a moth: it hasn't been seen since so is probably happily munching its way through my clothes in the nearby cupboard. The 'hole' in the door is more a chunk taken out of the wood: with a bit of a rub down with sand paper and some wood stain applied, it will act character to the door and lend itself to the general beaten up appearance that the Hutto has anyway. After all, it is an old place, and a pristine door did look out of place. And my camera has become deceased so no photos today. Otherwise, all is well.