A couple of days after I released one mouse into the back yard I saw 4 mice in the house!

We even managed to transfer one into the car via a shopping bag where it promptly munched its way through a chocolate bar that had been left on the back seat by one of the kids.

The cat quickly became bored with her new mouse friends and just left them to run around the house. Which they did. Then one evening when I was working late at the computer I heard a sound and turned around just in time to see 2 of the mice disappearing into the fireplace and up the chimney. The old chimney is their home and removing the old fire gave them a new back door to come out and play!

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I hate housework! I do like my home to be clean and tidy, but the effort to get it that way is sometimes just too much. Plus you do it one day and then the next day it needs doing all over again. Though there is probably no excuse for the vase of what once were flowers sitting looking accusingly at me from the old fireplace in my office. I say ‘what once were flowers’ because I was given this bouquet at Christmas and they have long since passed away. There is actually a very good excuse for this…well I think it’s a good excuse anyway.

A few months ago in a rush of redecorating enthusiasm, I got a friendly neighbourhood builder to pull out an ancient gas fire from the office, revealing a long disused fireplace. Our home is a 400 year old former inn and there are all kinds of strange things going on behind the wallpaper in some of the rooms. I made a mental note to turn the old fireplace into a feature at some point and then thought no more about it. Read the rest of this entry

I have been invited to a “Swishing” party. No, I had no idea what it was either, but now I do. Swishing is clothes swapping, and no it doesn’t mean you go to a party and get undressed! Plus it’s a women only event. Basically you go along to the party with any clothes you don’t want any more, because they’re too small, too big or you just don’t like them.

Everyone who is invited takes a load of clothes with them. It is often just women’s clothing but can also be kids’ clothes. You get to look at all the clothes before the party starts but you can’t grab anything until it is officially declared open. At that point, depending on how well-bred and polite the guests are, it turns into something between the first day of the sales and a rugby scrum.

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