Despite the note telling me all about the bird feeder near the garden shed which houses a mouse , I still manage to set my heart racing . On the third day I notice the feeder is empty whilst conducting a finger tip search of the garden for one of the cats which has gone missing in action and whilst filling in time hoping for the return of the senior wanderer , I bring out the sunflower hearts and forget the note detailing the said mouse.
Picking the only empty feeder off the tree I notice how dusty it looks and glance inside at the cobwebby sides. Lifting the top off I wonder if Puss Cat will be long as I didn't see her at all yesterday and don't feel like going another day without spotting her . Its brilliant sunshine and I reckon she is out here lounging somewhere but there is a faint niggle of anxiety tickling at my innards. As I lift the feeder down and raise the plastic jug to fill I glance in and There ! At the bottom , looking up , all eyes and crooked cobweb legs is a tiny yet hugely thin all at once mouse staring back at me . Mm I think . Mouse! Put it down before it is up your non existent sleeves! I gingerley place the feeder on the ground and as I do the mouse whooshes up like a firework and up the tree under which we are standing .
My heart is racing . I am proud that I have not dropped it . Proud that it did not wind up somewhere about my person , dressed as I am in vest top with spaghetti straps and cut off trousers. Bare legs bare arms and chest with altogether too much room for manouvre!
And the note from S did inform me that she had seen the inhabitant mouse sitting eating inside the feeder, though she did not mention that this took place whilst she was trying to fill it .
And as I head back to the house there curled up like a snake is the lady of the house , fast asleep , uninterested in mice except in her dreams.
Her sister clambers out onto the fish pond pointing out that the tree stump has dried out over night and that my responsibility it is to bring a kettle full of water to replenish for her drinking pool . What can I do but acquiesce and then sit while watching the life of the garden as the morning purrs and buzzes on ?
