jmgoyder

I have been doing a rather frightening job today – folding the mountain of washed clothes that has accumulated in our spare room. I only got halfway before getting a fright that I was frightened of getting – movement amongst the pile.

Let me explain. We don’t just have feral fox and randy rabbit problems here; we also have spinny spiders, massive moths, carefree cockroaches, sneaky snakes and mischievous mice. Now, before you unsubscribe or delete in horror, I can assure you that we do not live in a feraldom. We do, however, live in a farmhouse that is over 100 years old and, despite Husband’s various renovations over the years – black and white tiles and a fantastic red Aga in the kitchen, a beautiful, antique-filled dining room etc., this is still an old farmhouse and old farmhouses tend to have holes.

Heat waves, like the one we’ve experienced over the last week, tend to draw these creatures through these holes and into the house to privilege us with their company. For me, personally, cockroaches are the worst and I have baits everywhere and I’ve seen and killed two in the last two days and they are those big ones that come from the bush – argh. I know it’s ridiculous, but they terrify me! I’d rather a mouse but perhaps I shouldn’t say that….

So, back to that pile of folding. Okay, last night, as Son was looking for a fresh pair of underwear in the mountain, he saw some movement inside an unfolded sheet – you know, one of those fitted sheets with elastic on the corners. Well, it wasn’t a fox or a rabbit or a spider or a cockroach or a snake – it was a mouse. Heroically, Son, wearing his post-op. splint/corset, tried to eradicate the mouse by lassooing the sheet but, lacking the required energy, gave up. He didn’t tell me this until later – not heroic!

That’s why I felt like the hero this morning, folding all of that washing knowing that within that sheet at the corner of the pile, in the corner of my eye, there was a mouse. I managed to do the whole job except for that sheet.

Oh no! Now there’s something really loud running around in the ceiling. It sounds like a sprinting competition; it sounds like something really huge.

Son is asleep again so I am going to escape to the outside.

I will not fold!

ps. I have not included pictures because that would be too weird.