OF MOUSE AND WOMAN

I saw it Friday morning. I didn’t see it Thursday. I had used the iron Thursday, and I didn’t see it. I think I would have.

Nellie and Bess -- no mousers they!

It was on the ironing board. I walked into the sewing room and saw it immediately. I don’t believe for a minute that I overlooked it Thursday. It happened overnight.

No-o-o-o! Mouse sign!

I carried the evidence in the palm of my hand to show my husband as he sat with the morning paper.

“This looks like mouse sign to me,” I said woodenly.

He agreed and advised me to set a trap in my room.

I’ve been a little nervous about mouse infiltration lately. They’ve been quiet those mice – too quiet. Don’t you believe for a minute that there’s a truce in the great rodent war or that their numbers have decreased, The problem is that I’ve been lulled into complacency. I saw Bess lunge toward the sofa the other night, but she quickly lost interest. And I heard a small “nibbling” sound as I sat in quietude one morning. But oh! The possibility was too horrid to contemplate, and I just let it go.

But now my work has just begun. I will have to clean out the closet in my sewing room where half a dozen unfinished yarn projects languish on the floor. Oh well -- I have to clean it out anyway since I expect to install a new closet organization system there soon.

“We’ve caught them handily with traps before,” Mike replied, a little impatiently, I thought -- as if this were just nothing, just a little blip on the road of life. “Just line the room with traps,” he said. But I feel that at any moment I might turn around to see a giant mouse behind me, sort of like “Harvey, the Pookah.” At least the issue looms that large in my thinking.

Mike installs new weather station

You know, mice don’t tend to dance in the open, but I wouldn’t say they lurk. They’re nocturnal, so they play while humans sleep. But -- they just aren’t clever enough to hide their presence. If you have a mouse in your house, you will notice sooner or later.

So I set two traps in the sewing room, and this morning I crept in there to check them. Sure enough! One in a trap.

This morning I opened the linen closet in the master bath to remove fresh sheets, and I saw it immediately. I don’t think it was there yesterday. I know I would have seen it . . .

I bought more traps. KW

EXTENDING THE SEASON

Letters to Vance:

Your box came the day after Xmas and so prolonged it for us. I gathered them all around and all enjoyed the beautifully wrapped gifts and the verses on them. The holly decorations were so lovely, too. We reserved some and the bull pine sprays for our Sunday dinner decorations. We made a lovely centerpiece of holly and the sprays and candles and dined in state with the best cloth, dishes, etc., all by candle light. So don’t feel bad that yours didn’t get here for Xmas as we had more opportunity to enjoy it. As I said it just prolonged our festivities, really.

Ina Dobson -- January 3, 1937

Your beautiful box came on Dec. 26^th so we still had Christmas, but I almost wept when I saw the lovely tapers, silver table ornament and luscious holly! Those were the most beautiful holly I’ve ever seen, it seems to me – so full of berries, and how beautifully your blue boxes looked in among the silver sprays. It was a veritable treasure chest.

Ethel Dobson Robinson – January 3, 1937

We used the silvered bull pine sprigs of last year again as a centerpiece and the candles. They are so festive; we burned them all evening. We used up one pair of white ones and part of one short pair of red ones and greatly diminished the tall red ones.

Ina Dobson -- January 1, 1938

Farmhouse, 1930s - Jack and Dick

During the 1930s (the only decade of which I have a record of life on the farm at Gilbert), my dad (Vance) sent a box of greenery from the Oregon coast to the Christmas celebration at the family farm. Included in the box were holly, Oregon grape, and bull pine, some of which he “silvered” with paint and wired into sprays. Included were candles – beautiful red and white. It brought a welcome touch of elegance to the old home celebration. My dad loved that touch of elegance.

Having discovered that the silver paint preserved the greens, Ina began to save them from one year to the next. Evidently she also tucked the tapers away rather than enjoying them through the winter. I suppose that would have been extravagance.

Vance lights candles he made - Christmas Eve c. 1956

Then extravagant I am! I so believe in prolonging the season in an understated way, and burning candles is one way I do it – tea candles, votives, pillars, the occasional taper – it’s what I do. I’ve developed a lovely collection of candle plates and holders. Each evening as darkness falls, I put out fresh tea candles, trim wicks, and light my display in the kitchen window.

Well, it’s interesting that Ina didn’t burn candles of a winter evening, especially since she burned kerosene lanterns for her light. I suppose those lanterns were enough.

My mother, though – my mother burned candles but also kept a stash on hand for emergency use. When I was a child in the ‘50s, the electricity occasionally went off. A flashlight and candles were Mother’s readiness plan. KW

OLD MUSINGS ON A NEW YEAR

Friday, January 1, 1897

Another year has just ended and another one has begun. God grant we may do better this year than we did the last.

M. L. Dickson

Sunday, January 3, 1897

No meeting. No Sunday school. No prayer meeting either abroad or at home. No reading of the Scriptures. At this rate we will lose ground and be lost. Let us not forget daily prayer, and may God help us.

M. L. Dickson

OLD THOUGHTS ON A NEW YEAR

January 1933

Well, we had a great Christmas, and it helps to pass the winter.

Ina Dobson

January 1, 1938

I’ve dismantled the tree . . . and feel like I can settle down to just living again and enjoying my gifts and memories of a very happy Christmas. . . Ina Dobson

It seems to me that we spend December in anticipation of Christmas -- perhaps allowing ourselves to enjoy it for a week or so before New Year’s -- but then we put it all away. Moving away from Christmas and into the New Year, some of us face the doldrums. Oh yes, we have to take the tree down, put away the decorations, and return to normal, but do we have to put away everything that might make the drab winter months more bearable? We even “put away” winter songs and pictures of pristine snowy scenes, and really – Christmas sits at the official beginning of winter rather than the end. We have weeks to go before the days are appreciably longer.

The New Year forces us to face our issues. Some relate to business and income tax and thus stand out as “musts.” Others relate to the tradition of “resolutions” and have to do with self-improvement – admirable goals for the individual.

“Beautifully Organized,” declares the cover of the January Better Homes and Gardens. I wonder who they’re talking about. “Make 2015 the year you finally get organized (for real this time),” says bhg.com. And now I’m slightly irked. I will never be organized “for real” until I lose interest in this world. They might just as well tell me to “drop weight for good.”

Last week I began “spring housecleaning,” starting with the pantry floor. You may think I’m ahead of the game, but actually, I’m woefully behind. I told myself I had to make a start, and the start didn’t have to be the whole pantry – just the floor. And so I did the floor, and when the spirit moves me, I’ll do the first shelf.

Already scattering my fire, as it were, I took a break from the pantry and moved to the sewing room where things are in utter disarray. As I sewed prior to Christmas, so many things came out – needles, threads, ribbons, yarns, patterns, fabrics – and very little went back into hiding. The little sewing room is overwhelmed, and so am I. Those things came out one-by-one, and now I must put them away one-by-one. The hardest decisions relate to storing works in progress – from mending to doll clothes to quilts.

Well, it’s the winter, you know, and not much is happening. KW

A BEE IN MY BONNET

Emmy

I saw Christmas photos of granddaughter Emmy wearing a crocheted “Elsa” hat/wig, a gift from her Uncle Murray. That was my inspiration – all it took for me to be off on one of my tangents. It was “a bee in my bonnet.” I “took a notion,” as my mother would have said.

“There must be patterns to make these ‘Frozen’ hat/wigs for 18-inch dolls,” I said to myself. Online research from my armchair proved there are! And once I saw Elsa’s hat I had to have Anna’s as well. (Emmy has two American Girl dolls.) I chose to purchase both hat patterns from Etsy seller, The Cozy Buckeye. Naturally, I downloaded them instantaneously, which is affirming in itself.

Then I dithered around for a while trying to find the right yarn colors. I’ll summarize the 45 minutes of agonizing over yarn at Jo-Ann’s by saying that it was picked over. I couldn’t find the colors I needed in any line of 4-ply yarn.

“But,” I hear you saying, “you have a stash of yarn.” Yes, I do, but much of it is stored on the farm and inaccessible for a while. It just wouldn’t do to put this project off. NOW is the time -- while Emmy’s hat is still new and while it’s winter.

I do have some yarn stored here and there at the town house. Sometimes it’s easier to buy new than search it out – that’s the way one grows one’s stash -- but as I stood there at Jo-Ann’s, I had to admit to myself that I really didn’t need much yarn to make these hats – just a variety of colors. I decided that I would have to use ingenuity (oh no!) to adjust colors and yarn weights, which probably wouldn’t matter for this project. I could do it even if I had to take something apart, I decided.

Elsa & Anna hats

Back at the house, I began a second search through my yarn with an open mind. I haven’t seen Frozen, but Emmy is eminently familiar with the characters Elsa and Anna, so first I had to research them to see what kind of leeway I might have. A dark turquoise became the body of Elsa’s hat and I preferred yellow rather than white for her braid. For Anna, I unraveled a scrap afghan I started years ago for a shade of rosy pink, and since I had no black on hand, I substituted a color called “claret.” For her braids, I used “brick” in a lighter, softer yarn, which works well for this project anyway.

I made both hats quickly and really enjoyed doing it, so I’m starting 2015 with finish. A simple project finished quickly is inspiration in itself. 

Mrs. Claus' 2015 sewing room is indeed open for business. Last night the neighbors stopped by with a Christmas gift they had crafted for us – this “W” which suggests Santa’s pants. It’s just the decorative element Mrs. Claus needed. First up: reorganize the room. KW