{"id":531,"date":"2009-05-23T08:14:22","date_gmt":"2009-05-23T16:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mtnmacaw.wordpress.com\/?p=531"},"modified":"2009-05-23T08:14:22","modified_gmt":"2009-05-23T16:14:22","slug":"mouse-follies-or-the-one-that-got-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"“Mouse Follies” or… “The One That Got Away”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mishkin has been catching some mice in the house this week, earning his bed and breakfast.\u00a0 The last mouse he caught was still very much alive and active when we got up in the morning.\u00a0 He was catching the mouse, going to the middle of the livingroom floor and releasing it, letting it get a bit of a running start and then catching it again.\u00a0 He was very into his game of catch and release but the mouse was not having as good a time.\u00a0 Then Mishkin made a tactical error – he chased the mouse into my purse.\u00a0 I carried purse-containing-mouse out onto the deck and dumped the entire contents on the deck.\u00a0 The mouse was hyperventilating, not a surprise there.\u00a0 Mish spent the next several hours looking for the mouse and he was very consoled when I gave him his toy mouse to play with and we played fetch for an hour.<\/p>\n

I’ve started a new knitting project using the yarn I got from my friend in March.\u00a0 I’m going to make a vest and I’m making up a pattern as I go.\u00a0 I totally adore how the colors are developing on my ribbing, and I think she should call this color “Blue\/Gold Macaw.”<\/p>\n

\"Ribbing<\/p>\n

This is an amazing color progression.\u00a0 It will be exciting to watch it become a vest.<\/p>\n

While I’m knitting, Mishkin is on chipmunk watch. He spends many hours a day being highly entertained by the chipmunks on the porch and windowsills. They are totally unimpressed by him, and will sit up straight on their back feet, nose to nose with him, the sliding glass doors on the patio separating them, and look him in the eye. They wiggle their noses and whiskers at him, and he is completely entranced by this behaviour. Then, they scamper sideways and Mishkin goes full speed in the livingroom, anticipating which window they will end up in. The game goes on for hours.<\/p>\n

\"Kitty-TV

Kitty-TV - the Rodent Channel<\/p><\/div>\n

Early last week we had snow showers in the higher elevations, and cool spring temperatures.\u00a0 The hills are getting less white on top, and turning greener day by day, and so we know it is spring.\u00a0 The morning light on the hills when the sun first peeks over the mountain peaks to the east of us is the prettiest light of the day.<\/p>\n

\"Snowing

Snowing yet again. We even saw flakes outside our windows, but they didn't stick to anything.<\/p><\/div>\n

We started on our outdoor landscaping projects this week.\u00a0 Our first chore was to remove a lot of wild rose bushes, and I do mean a lot.\u00a0 We didn’t attempt to remove their extensive root systems and they will return over time but they should be easier to manage now that it isn’t so hazardous to get near the plants.\u00a0 We’ve also been removing the jungle of grass in the flower bed by the two Service Berry bushes and putting down ground cloth and bark mulch.<\/p>\n

\"Underneath

Underneath all the grass are rocks, a juniper and fruiting bushes.<\/p><\/div>\n

The daffodils were hidden underneath a thorny jungle.<\/p><\/div>\n

New flowering plants have been planted, mostly perennials and only a few annuals to fill in the blank spaces.\u00a0 We have a new rhododendron, delphinium, day lily, fern, azalea bushes, columbine, and a stonewort.\u00a0 All the perennials are small versions of their adult size and we’ve left a lot of room for them to grow before we add any more plants to the beds in years to come.\u00a0 When the rest of the bark mulch is spread, it won’t look so bare.\u00a0 What we really want to do is to get some more native plants for our perennial gardening, but that will be next year.<\/p>\n

\"The

The beginning of a finished flower bed.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Most

Most of our perennials were planted in this flower bed. They're small now.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"More

More weeds need to be removed, and ground cloth and bark mulch needs to be spread.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our hummingbird population has exploded, a lot of migrants still moving through most likely is the explanation.\u00a0 Yesterday they drank their way through six cups of sugar water.\u00a0 Immediately prior to taking this picture, there was a swarm of ten birds around this feeder.\u00a0 They take turns scrappily getting a drink, and then chase each other out through the woods.\u00a0 Their evening feeding frenzy is as much a party as anything else.\u00a0 It is important to tank up for overnight.\u00a0 They are so fascinating to watch.\u00a0 We had over 20 birds on the front deck last night swarming around the feeders.<\/p>\n

\"Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds at sunset.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mishkin has been catching some mice in the house this week, earning his bed and breakfast.\u00a0 The last mouse he caught was still very much alive and active when we got up in the morning.\u00a0 He was catching the mouse, going to the middle of the livingroom floor and releasing it, letting it get a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redmeadow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}