The Allotment Mouse

I had this weekend all planned out and on Saturday on I headed up the allotment with a packet of broad bean seeds and a handful of garlic cloves ready to plant. That was my mission, to sow the beans and the garlic along with a few other small jobs.

When I opened up the shed door I noticed something had nibbled through a bag of tulips and there was a half eaten bulb on the floor. The next tell-tell sign was the large sunflower head which had been tunneled into, along with a trail of seeds on the cabinet. I instantly assumed that a mouse had nibbled a hole in my shed and after frantically checking the outside I sighed with relief, the mouse hadn’t nibbled a hole in my beautiful shed. We soon found the problem though, my stable door has dropped slightly to reveal a small gap in the opening corner, you could tell that the mouse had entered this way due to the little claw and teeth marks on the wood! What a cheeky little mouse!

I decided to tidy the shed up and to clean any cups which I keep there for tea breaks, so the morning turned into a big shed tidy up. I started to empty the bottom cupboard and found more signs of the mouse, a bag of straw which had been left over from mulching the strawberries had been nibbled and bits of my poor tulip bulb was sitting inside, it looks like the mouse had started to make a nest. To make matters worse I found my stash of biscuits has been nibbled open and 4 custard creams had vanished! And then I found the biggest clue ever… Miss Mouse was sitting on the shelf behind a flower pot, staring right at me!

I turned into a big girls blouse and super Dad came to the rescue. He emptied the rest of the cupboard but still no sign of the mouse, I thought I had gone mad until he pulled a drawer out and the mouse jumped at him before running out the door and under the shed. Lets just say that I caught a great moment on the camcorder so stay tuned for my next video which will be uploaded over the next couple of days!

After the mouse had been evicted I started the big job of cleaning the cabinet out and then putting everything back inside. It gave me the perfect opportunity to get rid of a lot of rubbish that I had acquired over the year though and the shed looks a lot tidier and cleaner now. I also managed to sow the broad beans and plant the garlic so the day wasn’t a complete loss. My Dad also helped me to temporarily fix the door, he nailed a small piece of wood to the door frame so when the door is shut the little gap is covered from the inside.

I did feel a little guilty for evicting the poor mouse, she probably thought she had found the perfect nest with enough custard creams to last through Winter! Sorry Miss Mouse 🙂