A mouse saga,

First time ever we have a little unwanted guest/guests in the awning. I mean a mouse or mice !! They have been quite frisky and somewhat unafraid in fact, running around while we were sat at our meal in the awning. We saw the first one about 3 days ago and thought how sweet they looked ! 
Sadly, they took a great liking to the awning carpet and one day we had rolled it up halfway to give the grass underneath a little air/light and came back from a day out to find that they had started nesting inside the rolled-up part and had chewed great holes in the carpet as nesting material. Very cute but very destructive. So Philip confidently tried to block all the entrances/exits but almost impossible really.

Next day we had a wonderfully relaxing time at the Sole Therme Spa and came home to supper and bed. We did think that more chewing had been done to the carpet but could not be sure. In the morning, while having breakfast the mouse popped out of the awning skirt and we then noticed that in the end of one of the rolls of proper carpet was a pair of my panties. On further examination we discovered that it was a pair of very chewed up panty!!

The mouse had pulled it off the drying rack and tucked it neatly inside the carpet roll. Quite an effort as my panties are the cotton M n S big knicker types! poor thing having to lug that thing around.

Gently, we then unrolled the carpet and found a moss nest inside - Philip promptly took it outside and scattered the moss in the hedge and brought the carpet back inside and laid it flat!!

This could not continue, no matter how sweet the mouse looked, so I went to the office, explained the situation and they lent us a humane mouse trap which was kept under the counter. This was obviously a frequent occurence. We laid the bait - bread and honey - and carried on as normal. But, literally within minutes, the mouse was popping its head out and just could not resist the lure. He managed to scamper back n forth a few time before the trap sprung all the while being photographed by me!! quite heedless really.

Even when in the trap the mouse seemed unconcerned and carried on nibbling the bread and honey as if making the best of a bad situation. Positive thinking ?

Happy to say, Philip took him off down the road to a sports ground and let him loose - he scampered off nippily I'm told. The trap is still in place though with fresh bait - just in case...another little friend comes calling.

Country life.