Mice With Milk Moustaches

There was a little scribble, once, written and then read aloud… Not to a large audience, with neither admission, nor tents, for there were only just two for the crowd. 

Annnnd if you will pardon a varying variety of rhymey bits explaining things… (Of which this is not one, you will see what that starts) The story shall be told to you too. Whether you were greatly desiring to hear it or not. And so it begins. With the crowd of two, because it seems like a decent sort of a place to start.

And it went something like this.

You should publish it, said the cousin, at the end of the show. Put it on your blog, said the sister. (For they were the two who were listening) So the scribbler thought it over, and Did Things to it over a long period of time, (the longish spaces between tweakings accounting for the time it took, it did not really change in any great measure from this) until suddenly there was nothing left to do but push one button. The most important button, as everyone knows. The only button that can pull the curtain, and reveal your Scribbling Studio to the public, ever so much like a dollhouse with the front open.

Ahem. That is rather a goodly distance off course though, isn’t it? Allow us to get back on track. Where were we? Oh yes, the scribble! Shall we get on with it, do you suppose? Yes? Well then, off we be gone on it! Erm, almost, anyway. I haven’t finished my preamble yet. One moment whilst I go on with that, if you please ;) 

Ahem.

What were they asking for, what did they hear? Did they really wish THAT to be posted on here? And if so, what is it? Is it big, or quite small? Will it be important, in the slightest, at all?

Well, I can’t say t’will REALLY, though it may be amusing. And will you read it, or not? That’s for YOU to be choosing. 

But if you SHOULD choose to continue with us… I ought to begin it, and so I shall, thus. 

How do you go about Mouse Rescuing missions?

Much in the same way you give a pig a pancake.

And the very first thing you need is a deep hole. This hole being of the variety containing a baby mouse, and preferably be very deep, and difficult to get into, such as one into which people with arms of Customary Circumference cannot reach unaided. Not even the Smallest Of The Company. 

This being the case, you will rig a long stick with a hastily borrowed spoon, taking time to pound the spoon quite flat with a hammer first, bending it carefully in unusual places, in order to make it fit in the hole. This having been done, you must whip out your nearest roll of hockey tape, there being a dearth of duct tape on the place, and firmly attach this to your delimbed stick. (Oh, didn’t I mention you were cutting this stick down? Well, you are. It used to be a Fine Young Upstart of a tree, so there.) 

This all being in readiness, you will return to the Place Of The Hole, and go to fishing around with your spoon-stick. Upon doing so, you discover that if you do not manoeuvre very carefully indeed, you will squash the poor baby mouse you are trying to rescue. 

This will not do at all, so you deftly switch around your handy-dandy stick thingy so that it faces spoon-up, and go to work scooting him to one side so that there is room for the rescue-gadget to land. 

Your plan succeeds beautifully. You fish him up very carefully, telling him not to fall off. No bailing out on the rescue ship. 

It works. You are vastly relieved as you stick him in a box, and cart him off to be showed off to various stray persons who may be interested in such sights. 

After everyone has seen him, you realize he must be hungry. Wouldn’t you be hungry if you fell in a deep hole and got fished up?

Of course you would. This is a very sensible approach to take, especially if you’re in there for who knows how long. 

This leaves the difficulty of how to feed it. It really is an incredibly small mouse. You didn’t know they came in such small packages after their fur grows in. This is a beautiful irrelevancy that you take time for as you ponder and scratch your head on the matter at hand.

This having been a partially successful Sort Of A Thing To Do, you come to the conclusion that a syringe is the most probable article on hand with which to feed such a minuscule little micron of a mousie, and proceed to warm it a very small dish of milk. 

Note the very smallest mouse-kin, and his equally diminutive cup….  And you see about the size of the matter! Except ours was decidedly smaller yet. 

You don your gloves. The mouseling is carefully set in the middle of a very large and soft rag, and you settle comfortably on the rocking chair with your tiny friend. Very cozy. Very cozy indeed. Also incredibly cute, when it comes down to it. But bottlefeeding a mouse with a syringe proves to be no easy task. It’s so small, see, and drops of milk really are so big in comparison. Bigger than its mouth, almost. You pat its nose carefully with a Q-tip to remove excess and reduce milk-snuffling-up, and proceed until it seems to be full.

And all throughout the process it is being said,“Never thought I’d come to this!” MICE, you people. In the house, voluntarily. We do not even keep cats in our house, so this is rather a very far stretch of the imagination. (And we do not have rusty imaginations a bit) But it IS very, very adorable. His little nose twitches, and you are amazed all over again at how tiny it is. Also have I mentioned that baby mice jump?? And that their squeaks are incredibly shrill??? Well, you know it now, and don’t you forget it! (Kudos to you if you recognize an Odyssey moment when you see one, and can apply all the correct emphasises to this sentence.)

(Think of the Words-That-Come-With-The-Mice as their thought-bubbles ;) 

Having fed it what you assume to be enough, you put it to bed in a small box, with the previously mentioned large and soft rag, set the box into a pail, just in case it can climb, (mouse, not box) and go on looking up information on the care and tending to of mouselings whilst you wait for cookies to bake out in the summer kitchen. The sun has gone to bed, even out in the white nights of the north, when finally you make the trek back to the house.

You go on researching after you crawl into bed, and finally and after much hunting, discover that by this age, being determined by fur and open eyes, they are apparently capable of going an almost the whole night through without having to be fed every few hours. Quite possibly even all the way through.

This is a great relief to you. You have not relished the thought of this at all. Your extra feeders-of-small-mice wish also to sleep, but would have, on account of some sense of responsibility resulting from finding it in the first place, taken their turn if necessary. 

It will not be necessary. Huzzah!!! You go to bed and sleep for a somewhat reasonable length of time. 

Six am dawns. You and your trusty helper warm the milk, and you pull on your gloves to repeat yesterday’s process. (It fits really quite a great lot for such a tiny thinglet, something at which you forget marvel until your assistant points this out.)

If you were relieved to learn that it could sleep comfortably through the night without Human Intervention, you are doubly relieved to learn, further researching later, that open eyes mean a baby mouse is technically old enough to be on its own, and you may turn it loose out of doors with a clear conscience.  Which means that since you have rescued it from the Hole, it now has a chance. Every bit as much as it ever did before it fell in. And you will not have to keep mice in the house for any great number of days, which were seeming longer the more you thought about it. 

And Mousie being set free, you and your newfound knowledge may go on with your day. 

And in the end, after all, you have come out of it with myriads (alright, so they are only medium sized myriads, and not the XL variety, but still) of priceless pictures, and having learned many things you did not previously know about the habits and customs of Diminutive Mice-kins. You might say it was somewhat educational.

And THAT is how you conduct mouse rescuing missions! (Although the rocking chair may be omitted, if there is not one to be had. If you must. The result will still be nearly the same.) 

Ps. To clarify one possibly essential point, as brought up by Lizzie in the comments… Yes, this is a true story. Mostly. In some places the perspective was changed for the sake of the scribble. 

But other than that it is all quite real ;) 

A Sunny Day In The Kingdom

Dear Readers.

Something new and delightful has been happening to this little blog while it slept, and it has been…. *incredulous gasp* nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award…. By the lovely Lizzie Hexam of Starlight And Saucepans… Can you imagine??! Generally this is given to blogs known to be of a sunshiney nature, which is a lovely compliment, especially to Young Upstarts Of Blogs Like Us ;) but then there ought to be one for the sunshiney people who go around nominating even people who have only such small starts in the blogging world yet! But since there isn’t any such thing, so far as I know, we shall settle for a simple thankyou (;  Also an apology, because this is a terrifically late post😬 As in September has turned into October on me… But here I am, and it truly has been in the works for just as long😜 I write by patchwork most times, see. And this time was not different. 

Now, getting along with things now…. There is an official set of rules to be followed on such occasions, and having borrowed them from a reliable source called Lizzie’s Blog, I shall then go on to share them with all and sundry, who may whip out their opera glasses and go over them minutely if they possess such inklings. (Allow me to point out a hole or two in the warp and weft of this post for your inspection, though. See, here, and another one over there… The moths got in, there being a sort of a dearth in the land. Both of mothballs and Bloggers With Whom I Am Acquainted.)

But let us get on with the rules, shall we? Else how shall we know what we are about at all? One must do things decently and in order, after all. So here they are. 

The Official Rules         

1. Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.

2. Thank the person who nominated you.

3. Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.

4. Answer your nominator’s questions.

5. Nominate up to 11 bloggers.

6. Ask your nominees 11 questions.

7. Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

There we have it, rules one through three have been fulfilled… Number four is up next, and then… Well, allow me to be all upfront and full-disclosure-ish. So, ummmm… This thing about nominating up to 11 other bloggers?? Yeah, this is gonna be a slight hitch. (Which also renders unstable the 7th Rule….😬) Because the bloggers that I personally know are Lizzie and Ruth, and the list of bloggers I have recently begun following but have yet to actually TALK to…. Or do more than comment once or twice on their blogs…. There are not an extreme lot of even them😆  But this does not, however, mean I am going to skip asking my own eleven questions, and I may even find a blogger or two to tag my own self :P  Additionally, if anyone out there happens to feel like giving their own answers, (whether they possess blogs or not, and also whether they are personally acquainted with me or not. ) they are very welcome to either join in on the fun, or comment an eleven-length down below (;

And now, having presented both excuses and explanations, let me see how a good a job I can make of my answers! Which are, so it happens, the following. Complete with questions. Ahem.

1. What’s your second favorite TV show?

I’m honestly scrambling to think of tv shows that I watch😳Okay, so Joy Of Painting with Bob Ross. Which I do not watch often, haven’t in ages, but the other options were either Hollie Hobbie, Heartland, (the one with Ty and Amy, just in case there is any other. Preemptive clarification.) or The Three Detectives…. (The last of which I quite like ;)

2. If you could only read the works of one author all the rest of your life, who would you choose? (The Bible is exempted from this.)

Firstly, thankyou for the exemption😜 That makes this…. A little easier. But I’m still like Clementine trying to decide on just one candy, choosing this means I have to NOT choose that, and that makes things difficult🤣

But I think I am going to go with Tessa Afshar. Because she writes such consistently beautiful, thought provoking, soul-touching books…And if one is only going to read the books of one author for the rest of one’s life… Oh boy, what a choice to have to make😆 Though the beauty of this one is that she is still writing! It isn’t as if what there is now will be the end of her books, Lord willing.  And yeah, they are entertaining, but at the same time, there is a goodly dose of both meat and salt in… 

3. What’s a fun fact about yourself that you would like people to know, but there’s never a good opportunity to bring up?

I have just the fact right here! It is this. 

I am a sabbath-keeping (this meaning Saturday) Christian, and my family and I keep the biblical feasts as well! Still learning, but we are (:

4. Tell us a random weird word that you like.

*Snaps her fingers* Eureka! (No, that isn’t my word😆) I have, so it turns out, just exactly the thing here. (Er, word.) That being the word Octolimbie. This is a word of my own invention, exclusively used by exactly two people up until right this moment (; And now tis being introduced to the world at small, (aka the blogosphere) and whosoever finds that they need an alternative word for archanids…

5. You’re going to Mordor with the Ring, and you’re assembling your Fellowship! Which eight fictional characters (from any fictional works, not just LOTR) do you want to come with you, and why? (If you aren’t familiar with The Lord of the Rings, just assemble eight fictional characters you would want to bring along on a dangerous quest.)

Ahem. Thankyou for the clarification, because I happen to be one of those people who have no idea where Mordor is😆 But my fellowship I can build up anyway, like you said… And I have been thinking this over (; 

They shall come mainly out of two places, my eight, from one book, and one audio drama. And since I have meant to review the former for ages, and still wish everyone would read it and love it as much as I do…. Call this a recommendation. One of the highest. I cannot say enough about this book, not if I tried for pages… So you must read it and see for yourselves, you simply must. 

But getting back to my poor neglected fellowship!

In order of age, I think we will go…. 

Firstly?

•John Avery Whitaker—Who KNOWS things, and people, and is so much more than you could ever imagine. 

•Jack Allen—not because he has incredible skills which the dangerous quest would require, but because he’s the kind of comfortable rock-ish person you can count on to have a quiet wisdom when you need it most of all. A kind of safe harbour….

•Jason Whitaker comes in next. Because he’s Jason, and how on earth can you mention Odyssey and choose your heroes without Jason? 

•Tasha Forbes. Although she does have, under certain conditions, my permission to change her last name to Whitaker first. This would  be quite acceptable. To me if not to the Jasonnies of the land. It occurs to me that I am making this a very controversial post in places as I write this… So allow to me to clarify that these are merely pet whims, and not intended to say at all that MY way is, naturally and of course, the only way that there is. But still I do like the idea of this😉

Alright. Moving on to the book portion of my faithful fellowship!

Annnnd so, from The Maggie Bright, by Tracy Groot, we have…

•Captain Jacobs, who never gave up on getting his men home, and brings Milton to life in a way you must read to fathom. You will never hear the words “What is dark in me, Illumine. What is low, raise, and support.” the same way again…. 

•William Percy. Because sometimes a righteous man’s rage against horrific injustice is a comforting thing. 

•Mrs. Iris Shrewsbury. For the staccato cadence of her piercingly effective shrieks, and the power with which she fights, knowing that the shatterer cannot prevail when folks still turn to their Creator in prayer. Also her tea kettle could come in handy, you know. 

And as for my eighth, I am caught between Murray Vance, Jamie Elliot, Grayling, Ballantine… And ohhh goodness, the myriads of heroes in this book make it practically impossible to choose!!!!

Also Claire. Young ladies whose goal it is to be the first woman to singlehandedly circumnavigate the globe in their own personal vessel, and are ready on the spot to go dashing off to the front waving a pistol are to be admired. Also Courage, vision, and singularity of purpose are extremely useful traits when going to Modor with the ring, I would imagine. Especially if it is far at all.

Let’s make it Claire, shall we? There was a rabbit hole I nearly dived down that involved Murray being included in the Eighth Place on virtue of being her brother, and then you have to include Jamie (whom I very much like) because he’s Captain John’s son, and Very Important To The Story, but that wouldn’t have been very logical of me, now would it? You cannot go around lumping people into one spot simply because of family ties. As much as you might like to.

Okay, that was not a short answer. Ahem. Moving on!

6. Do you on the whole prefer movies from before or after 1960? Why?

Before. Simply because they can tend to be a little more refined… If you watch the right kind. Of all things in movies, coarse humour bugs me. 

Not that I don’t like movies from AFTER, I do. But when one must choose one or the other, you know…

7. Suppose you’re tasked with creating a flag for a new country. What does it look like?

Ooh, I’m so glad I have an answer ready for this! See, one was drawn up quite literally, and I am really delighted with it (;

So tis Navy blue on either side and then between, set on ivory, a North Star with an uppercase cursive E curving around it.. Quite like that one, and overall giving a sort of nautical effect, in my mind (: The ivory being more ivory-ish in my mind than I could find when I was colouring it in….

8. Is poetry or prose fiction more expressive? Do you think one form is higher than the other?

Honestly?? I think there needs to be a perfect combination of the two for either to be absolutely all it can be! I want the words to be the poetry, whether there is any rhyme to them or not, the black and white to be intricate and lilting, to show and imply colour where technically there is none. Something that can be plain and simple on the surface, but that when read the right way, will come alive and delight the wordsmith in you. Does that count as an answer, I wonder?

9. What are the last three songs you listened to?

Right now? To be honest, I haven’t been very successful at listening to music lately😆 But I DID listen to You Make Everything Beautiful, by For King And Country, and now I’m having trouble thinking of what else… But YouTube says it was Open The Eyes Of My Heart, as played by Titus Major, and When You Believe, from The Prince Of Egypt! (Note that I am not taking into consideration at present songs played on the radio, because there are too many of them…. So Deliberately Chosen Songs it is.)

10. If you had the ability to make it so that it was always your favourite season of the year, would you do it? 

No, I don’t think I would😜 If it was always verging on spring, I would get homesick for summer, and a forever autumn would leave you without beginning, middle, and end…. An October isn’t nearly so delicious if you don’t get a summer first to make you love the crisp nights, and gold is more precious when it follows green! And a Canadian girl either without a good winter or forever stuck in one… yeahhh, she definitely ain’t a whole Canadian girl. 

11. Dream cast your favorite actor and actress (either can be from any time period; this is dream casting, after all!) in an adaptation of the classic book you think they’re best suited for. 

First I gotta think of my favourite actor and actress😆 Whichhhh is admittedly more difficult than you would imagine, me not having a set ready to name off the top of my head. In fact, it has taken me a very long time to think of a half-answer! Which, now that I do have it, is this. I should very much like to see how an older and greying Fred MacMurray would do at playing Professor Bahr of Little Women…. I haven’t found him a Jo yet, but I HAVE thought of a second actor to play a second part in a second story. Does this count?? Because furthermore, I should rather like to see Angie (aka John Davidson) from The Happiest Millionaire play Richard Kendrick in The Twenty Fourth Of June. He must also be found an appropriately mysterious, clever, dark, and unexpectedly accomplished at the art of efficient typewriting (besides having no actual necessity of doing it whatsoever) sort of a girl creature who knows her own mind very well, and makes it decidedly. This girl we shall, upon discovery, name Roberta.  In fact, casting the whole bookful of people would prove to be great loads of fun…. And that subject would make a post all its own, if I posted half the posts I thought of posting😆 I do not, however, but it would be marvellous fun if it DID happen!! Especially Ted. I should like to cast Ted most particularly. He seems like an ideal sort of a little brother. 

Anddddd that was the end of the questions. 

Which leaves me yet a rule to fulfil, in the nominating of other people, and the subsequent Passing Of The Torch….

So as for me, I nominate:

Hadassah @ sassy & sunny 

(See, I have one! It’s not eleven, but more than none, and I was delighted to think of this many…. )

Also Anyone Else Who Wishes To Do This, because y’all are quite and very welcome.

And for my eleven questions…. Which I must have, having a nominee…. Here they are! See?

Questions

1. You are informed that you are going to move into a book.

What book? Well, it turns out that unlike every other character, you will be given the courtesy of being allowed to choose the one you wish to dwell in. And the particular, precise house and household in which to make your home. This makes you a most extraordinary addition, seeing as the rest have all had their places chosen for them. The only catch? You can’t make it up, it has to already be in existence.

But what book are you going to jump into??

Ps. I give you full permission to take drafty attics and cellars with mice well into account before you decide, also how well you will get along with the company you must keep On The Inside. 

2. What is your most used survival tool (aka Useful Thing) in everyday life?

3. What is the best book you read this year? 

4. What’s one inanimate object that always looks like it comes with its own personality to you? (It used to be cutlery, in my case. Just in case you wanted to know that)

5. My lil sis had a penpal ask her this one… Would you rather have a pause button, or be able to hit rewind? 

6. The number one skill you wish you had? 

7. Something that made you smile today… 

8. One thing in your life lately that just made you stop and say, “Wow. That had to be a God-thing.”?  

9. If you could rewind fashion to any point in the last 100 years, what would your closet look like? 

10. What is the least Anne-like thing about you? (Like for instance, I heartily disagree with her on the subject of zinnias ;) 

11. Now this one has a practical bent😜 What is your most successful cure for writers block?? 

Alright then. I believe that means I’ve wrapped things up, it now being late in the area of the putting up of this, and the hour doth be growing to match it…. And so I think I really, really ought now to go to work fulfilling the final rule, don’t you? 

But first, by way of finishing properly, allow me to extend a Thankyou Again to Miss Lizzie…. This post was SUCH fun to do, even if it took its own sweet time in being Published! As seen in the way my words ran away with me…. (they do this sometimes. Like now, for instance.)  Although they do make an excellent witness, bearing ready testimony to the fact that it was indeed so. (there was one, once, you know. A fact. Way up top-of-the-paragraph. We have merely buried it, it is still very much there)  Especially in the long-ish-most places.  (I have just realized that this must be a very confusing paragraph to read🤔 But it was fun to write too, and so I shall leave it where it lies!)

Alright. Toodle-Oo for truly now,  dear-very-patient-reader. We shall go away presently and acquit ourselves like proper and well behaved Little Women, and have the tea and the muffins-and-cream all quite ready for such a time as you may be called upon to stop by and see us again! 

Yours Wordingly As Ever, 

~Emi

PS. You may be wondering who this mysterious Other Person is who makes up the We part of us. Well, I shall tell you the truth. She is Me too. One cannot be Little Women all by one’s self, you know, and Little Woman has quite a different ring to it.

PPS. My apologies for the astonishing lack of pictures in this post, (this resulting in Solid Walls Of Text with only one small break in ‘round about the flagmost area)  I seem to be having simultaneous bouts of Blogger Difficulties In The Adding Of Pictures Department, and Lack Of Extreme Skills In The Technical.