After a much longer than anticipated stay in Bristol with my Mum - thanks Mum for putting up with me - I finally arrived back in Essex on Friday afternoon. Amongst other reasons, I stayed on because I've done something to my back which is now extremely 'dodgy' to say the least and because, with the continued closure of Liverpool Street Station, I just couldn't face having to travel home via Basildon, a shuttle bus to Billericay, and finally the train back to Wickford. Cheers Network Rail, another job NOT well done!! Cue lots of muttering about 'they' should never have privatised the railways and it's all the fault of Maggie Thatcher!!
Anyway, the delicious chocolate covered turkish delight from Waitrose has now all been consumed.
(Although the very pretty wooden box will be put away for future use). The Christmas tree and all the decorations were taken down on Twelfth Night (yesterday) and the living room is now looking decidedly bare and the carpet has a fine miasma of bits of tinsel all over it. Next task - hoover up.
I got home to discover that a new neighbour whose garden backs on to part of ours has taken down two or three trees leaving us, them, and other neighbours, wide open to each other's view. In the words of DN - WHY? We've also discovered that Maurice the Mouse is now chewing around in the bedrooms late at night - the little beetle!! We really are going to have to do something about him but quite what we're not sure. We don't want to put down poison but he doesn't seem to be tempted by food at all so we don't know how we'd ever catch him. P suggested another version of our do-it-yourself mouse trap (which worked wonderfully with Mistress Mouse) but instead of loading it with food we put in a tasty looking piece of wood for Maurice to gnaw on. Not the worst of ideas, perhaps.
On a much more positive note, I sold one of my knitted beanie hats on ebay over the weekend, and I'm just about to start the sixth dishcloth which someone has specially ordered from me. The customer particularly requested plain dishcloths but in a larger size than I normally make them.
They look really pleasing folded up in a neat pile. At the moment they're the only items in the whole house that are in neat piles!!
Sorry to hear you have done your back in and you are still having rodent problems - I would use poison, that was the only way we managed to get rid of them, although it certainly didn't feel comfortable. Either that or borrow a cat and let it roam around for a few days (I could always pimp Stella out - she's a mean thing whe she wants to be!)
The dishcloths look lovely - I spent Christmas crocheting some face cloths in different colours and I have them all stacked up ready to have a photo tken of them before Etsy.
Hope that back/mouse situation improves!
Posted by: Claire | 01/08/2008 at 05:19 PM
Welcome home Elizabeth, hope the back improves soon (but nice to spend more time with your Mum!)
I'm afraid I'd have to go the poison route too, you've allowed Maurice plenty of time to find somewhere else to live and he could be doing some serious damage. I know it's not pleasant but might be the only option. Good luck anyway. Speak soon
Gill x
Posted by: Gill | 01/08/2008 at 06:31 PM