Can you blame me for getting distracted with this view? It is so utterly delightful watching tiny mice stuffing themselves with bird food. At first, I only noticed them on the ground, very fast and agile, moving trough garden plants and rocks cashing bits of bird food picky sparrows throw away. But recently they discovered the (additives & salt free) bird peanut butter and they love it.
They climb up through the ivy and if you sit outside and look long enough, you see several mice hanging out there waiting to feed from the peanut butter. At first, I only saw ‘large’ adult mice but last week suddenly there were these tiny newcomers, baby mice. I have babies I thought! Some people I tell about my mice say, ‘oh, be careful, they quickly become a plaque’. But I’m not at all worried about that with all the cats around here. I’m very proud the mice actually survived them and were able to successfully have young. I do try keeping the cats out of my garden, we have a happy indoor cat ourselves, but I know they do visit occasionally. I hope the mice have enough places to hide in.
I made a gallery to show a bit of mouse action. I probably won’t win a wildlife photography award with these, but I do consider myself lucky getting even these pics. They are very shy. Sometimes there are three mice in the pot sitting on top of each other, but as soon as they hear a squeak, they flee away. In the pictures you see three adult mice and in the second row the youngsters. If you look closely you can see several mice in some of the pictures.
Despite my tiny friends joyful visits, I did manage to make a sweet dog head. I’m very pleased with it. He looks much better than the drawing, more a puppy version of it and I can’t wait to finish him. Here he is in my ‘cat proof box for unfinished Popke heads’.
sonspopkes.com 
You may not win a photography award but your photo’s are beautiful. It is so nice to see you photograph them doing what comes naturally instead of trapping them and calling them vermin. I know they breed very quickly but they do have predators to deal with. I think nature is wonderful. Thank you for the pictures
Thank you Moira. I think nature is wonderful too.
Cuteness overload, Sonja. Adorable photos. Although I am mildly disturbed by the little dog’s head in a box, I can already see that he is going to be a real cutie when he has all his other bits! xx
Hehe, yeah, a bit ‘macabre’ maybe. You know what I mean.
Oh, how cute! Such pesky souls they are! I really like field mice, and having a cat to deal with them is a very clever choice on your part!
Pesky souls indeed, lol.
Wonderful photos Sonja! They are charming little beasts aren’t they. And I love your puppy dog’s head… just don’t show it to Chris Packham!! 😉
Let’s not indeed, it might upset the both of us, lol.
Who’s Chris Packham? I’ve looked him up on the Internet, but I just found that he’s a naturalist, so… what’s up with him? 😀
Sorry, in-joke! Last year Sonja’s gorgeous puffin design was featured on BBC’s Springwatch – she had only completed the head at the time, and Chris Packham was rather worried about it!
Yes, thanks Chris. It still makes me laugh when I think about it, what must have gone through Chris his head when he saw that strange body-less head.
Gabriele, Chris Packham is a naturalist and BBC broadcaster. He’s one of the presenters of Spring/ Autum and Winterwatch amongst many other things. He is also a fanatic and professional photographer and very critical about art.
I was utterly delighted of course when they showed Plubby’s head in Springwatch Unsprung. Never expected that! Chris’s remark about it looking a bit morbid caught me off guard. Thankfully the person that choose to show my image added that I probably just got started.
That period last year I had a very hard time mentally and ‘being’ in Springwatch really made my day!
About what you asked me earlier, now I am sitting here typing anyway. I would start by designing the head and then body and limbs. With crochet, clothes do add a lot of size, so design the doll with the clothes on in your head and not ‘naked’. If you add the clothes to a perfect size body, you’ll get a very chubby action hero.
Hope that helps! X
Oh, thank you very much about your advice, I’ll try and make my own pattern even if it won’t be easy!
By the way, is there any video clip of Chris Packham and your… uhm, popke?
No, it was just a very short thing. Maybe we are blowing it it bit out of proportion here 😛
Okay! Too bad, though…
Oh – I love your little mice photos. I think they are little works of art! I always do end up regretting that I’ve fed critters like that, but hopefully it will be okay for you. I have deja-vu – did a similar conversation to this occur previously? The dog-head in the box is a bit disturbing, as Jan said, but it’s extremely cute. And off to the side, I see a photo of him sitting in dim light with your hamster!
‘I have deja-vu – did a similar conversation to this occur previously? ‘ It might have, we love critters, 🙂
You can all breathe safely now, the head is out of the box and the dog is finished. He had a romantic evening with Bamse indeed Rhonda. Tomorrow the pattern release!