Mouse invasion

I have spent a good chunk of the morning spring cleaning a kitchen cupboard because when I went to get out flour and sugar to make muffins (apple and milk chocolate chips), I noticed a mess! Several bags of flour had been ripped open at their bottom corners and flour spilled. Not a lot but enough to arouse my suspicions.

I commented to Toad, who is at home this week, that there were no droppings. He said: "Constipated mice, then". Then I noticed that they hadn't gone for the icing sugar. His comment? "They've been watching the telly and know sugar's bad for them."

Since he was planning to go round the loch for primer and base coat paints for various walls, I gave him a grocery shopping list. Because of the damage to the flour bags, he asked if he should buy flour too. "Nah", says I, "it's all going in a hot oven. I think we'll survive if we eat it". Toad left, looking slightly alarmed. It'll be interesting to see if he can resist the muffins ;)

The flour is in mouse-proof containers now or cupboards inaccessible to mice and mouse traps (instantly effective and therefore humane ones) will be primed with peanut butter tonight. Next door's cats are not earning their keep. Sorry, mice. You are very welcome in the garden but not in the house.

Spring bonfire

On the morning of 22 April the weather was just how I like it for making a bonfire. The outside temperature in the shade was a little less than 15°C, there was hardly any wind, and it had been dry for a week. That itself is unusual in Argyll but it does happen and April seems a good month for such wee dry spells. So I made my bonfire of dry twigs and leaves and added chopped lengths of the woodshed rose that I'd chopped down in the autumn. That metal bar you can see in the photo is the edge of an old bed base. There are two tangled up in the spiraea up in the top west corner. I expect they were put there, possibly as part of the fence, once upon a long time ago.

This is the woodshed rose in July 2013. I just don't want it to grow right up the side of the house any more because it sends its vigorous shoots into the eaves and would damage the roof if we let it. It is looking robust this spring so don't worry, I will just limit its imperialism a bit!

woodshed rose

also woodshed rose, same plant

I kept back some thicker pieces and will let them dry out more. We can use them in the stove in due course. They are resting right now on the other old bed base.


After that I cleared out the messier side of the tool shed where Toad had flung various bits of sailing gear. It was hot enough in the sun and under a thin shed roof to be dressed in shorts and a vest top (the British kind, not the American).

Perfect spring weather. Not too hot and still comfortably cool in the shade. I'd be very happy for summers to be like this, especially the midge-free part! The blighters will start biting soon.

Inspired by Nick Ray (@LifeAfloat), I left a small tower of the stones I unearthed from the spiraea and grey sallow hacking last autumn up by the bonfire patch.

When I'm cleaning windows

As November approaches, I decide to do my "spring" cleaning. It doesn't get done in the spring because that would be a waste of good outdoor, good weather time. Spring is often the driest time of year here and November often heralds the local Even Wetter season. I'm starting in one corner of the kitchen. This blog post is to record the beginning. I wonder if I'll have finished by next spring?

When I decide to clean a window I have to expect the job to include cleaning several other things too – job extensions. I also have to expect to have to first find the ladder – Toad is not yet programmed to Put Things Away, try as I might – before I can use it. My expectations were not disappointed today.

Today I decided to clean this window in the west corner of the kitchen. It has been needing done for a while and there was an accumulation of pieces of onion and shallot skin near it (dropped by the monkeys – see pic; the onions are now on a different hook but the monkeys used to hold them), not to mention a cobweb or two – job extension one.

First I had to clear away some of the things that had accumulated in the corner since I last had a thorough rummage there. In putting away a hob kettle that we're not using at the moment (it gets used on the sitting room stove when there's a power cut), I found Toad's sake jug and cups, still in the box they'd been packed in back in 2006 when we moved here from Oxfordshire. I took them out of the cupboard to make space for the kettle which is being stored full of water. Yes, the water supply has been cut off a number of times too! At least, it was in the first few years. Scottish Water have improved the supply pipes on the peninsula now so it shouldn't be a problem. Once (or many times) bitten though...

I would post a picture of the sake cups but Aperture is playing silly buggers and won't let me. Oh, wait! I've managed it via iPhoto:

This is what the board at top right of the window pic says

present from a friend who knows me well

Tools of the job: stool

so I can get onto the counter to reach the window, brush (for the inevitable cobwebs now that I can reach the high pan rack and the ceiling), cloths and soapy water. I love brushes, especially hand-made ones like this. In the top left of the window pic you can see the rack that needed divesting of its cobweb dress. It is not much used pans that get stored up there so it doesn't get much attention. While I was up there, I decided to get rid (via the recycling bin) of two old frying pans which I had been keeping for goodness knows what.

To clean the outside of the window I needed a ladder. Did I mention that Toad doesn't put things back where he finds them? Sigh. So getting the ladder required a tramp up the garden to beyond the archery target boss where it had been left to gather leaves last time the back net was taken down. Job extension two: clean leaves and spider webs and wetness off ladder and carry ladder back down to house.

While I was outside I decided the 'moat' outside the back door needed swept – another hand-made brush job (and job extension three) – the drainage channel gets clogged with leaves in autumn and we've had a lot of rain lately. Other people have wet room bathrooms. We have a wet room wash-house.

The bristles are split bamboo, very stiff

I rewarded myself with a pot of coffee and a giant empire biscuit. I didn't think I'd manage to eat it all but I did.

And a final brush pic, for today, just because I can. This one came back from Thailand with me. The bristles are made of dried rice grass stems so it is a soft and flexible brush. Everyone used these for sweeping floors.