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Monday, April 11, 2016

Rainy Mondays

Rainy Mondays. The recliner beckons more invitingly than usual on dark dreary mornings and the kettle's come-hither hum tempts me to pour fresh hot cuppa. This kind of morning begs for extra snuggle time with a warm bundle of fur purring contentedly on my lap, and maybe even some snooze-time while I'm there--one of the perks of retirement!

Now were it a sunny, brisk-breezy Monday, there'd be a line of fresh sheets snapping on the clothesline already with considerable sloshing and humming going on in the laundry room. Mount Laundry beckons regardless of the rain, and yes, I will have to find some get-up-and-go here and get-to-it! But not yet.  Meanwhile... I'm sure you're wondering what's cooking on Walnut Woodstove this morning, and I'd love to tell you the latest adventures from that part of Hare Hollow Woods. So draw up a chair, pour yourself a fresh cuppa too, and bend an ear.

As you may recall, Sir Fivel and sons, along with son-in-law, Bret have been busily expanding the Fivel abode to accommodate all the little grand-mice that come to visit after school each day.  That, and the family gatherings that take place frequently require serious expansion. There's just not enough room to seat everyone around the table, or anywhere for that matter.

Well, the construction is nearly done, all but a little touch up paint here and there. Bret found a nearly empty can of interior latex by the road last week, with enough puddled in the bottom to retrieve. (MouseHouse Village folks are never wasteful. They repurpose most anything!)

So, he rushed back to Underground Warehouse to pick up some containers and tools, then back to said-paint can where he scooped up every last drop from the bottom. Why, it was enough to not only fill several small old prescription bottles, and use for the new rooms at the Fivel House, but also enough to restock a small area in the Underground Warehouse paint department. He was thrilled! It's a lovely green shade, very restful for the two new bedrooms.

Fivelina has been busily going through the children's bureaus, weeding out things that no longer fit, adding some to the mending basket as she discovers a small tear in a sleeve, or some wee loose buttons. Again, nothing is wasted, so she will launder and repair everything, then bring the unused items to Underground Warehouse Children's Department for some other little mouseling to wear.

She and Fivel have moved into their new bedroom, the hand-carved four poster snugged into the corner is made up beautifully with one of her signature quilts. The heart-etched dresser stands beside the bed with a tiny lamp atop.  Fivel wired and repurposed it from a beautiful old hand-painted porcelain thimble sometime ago, and it is one of her prized possessions. He and Bret also fashioned a small closet, tucked into the other corner, for hanging clothes. Dresses, jackets and trousers are hung carefully on repurposed paper-clip hangers that Fivel reshapes into just-right sizes for mouseling apparel. As you can imagine, they are a popular item at UnderGround Warehouse, but for his lady-love he always curls the leftover wire end into a small heart-shape right there beneath the hanger hook.

Bret hung a dowel across the corner  so Fivelina could hang a curtain to protect the clothes from dust. Of course it had to match the colors in her quilt, so she pieced some of the leftover quilt fabric along with some newer pieces, and made a lovely ruffled curtain.

This morning, she is finishing up a project months in-the-making, a braided rug fashioned from bits and pieces of yard-goods that were too small for anything else. She spent many an evening cutting those pieces just so, sewing them end to end, folding them into long strips that she then braided and sewed into an ever-growing oval. There's just the trimming of little threads, adding a few more supporting stitches here and there to strengthen the braiding, then as soon as Fivel gets home from work, she will ask him to help her drag the rug into their new room, unroll it and settle it by their bed.

Bitsy and the twins, Tatiana and Trieste will be moving into the other new bedroom. It is larger than their current one and, where there's three of them, Bic and Ben will take the smaller room. Sir Fivel fashioned three new single beds (the existing bunk beds will be for the boys) and with the girl's  small bureaus, one between each bed, each will have their own space, yet they can still enjoy each others' company. The bureaus have already been moved, but the beds aren't quite ready, so that will have to wait. All are impatient for the upheaval to be settled, everyone back in their own space and the living room and kitchen free of bedroom contents waiting to be moved. 

Fivelina has a pot of sunflower and acorn squash seed stew bubbling on Walnut Woodstove. She made sesame breadsticks on Sunday, enough to last for a couple of meals, so that'll round out the supper meal tonight along with dried current tarts for dessert. Nobody goes hungry around Fivelina's table, that you can be sure.

Now I really must get up out of this cozy recliner and get moving here. Looks like a dryer-using day. Not much will dry outside on this rainy Monday. Wonder what Fivelina does? Oh, come to think of it, I know. When we went up in the attic to change a lightbulb a few weeks back, I saw the sweetest line of miniature bloomers and pinafores strung across the rafters! When you can't hang 'em outside, why, an inside line is perfect!

Okay, okay! I'm really getting up now.

















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