On Monday,

I was talking to DTE on the phone while sitting on the deck dead-heading geraniums. Suddenly there was a little mouse headed my direction and as soon as it saw me, it turned and ran a different way. For some reason it seemed to decide that was the way it should go so it came back toward me, freaked out and dashed off again in a different direction. That direction was going to lead to the open screen door and I didn't want to have to live with the results of it getting inside.
I quickly took the opportunity to grab my camera while getting the door shut. Of course my moving around just upset the mouse even further, so it ran over to the edge of the deck and took advantage of the lattice work down the side. About that time Sadie discovered the fresh mouse trail, so she and her nose went into high gear snuffling out its path. She did an excellent job of tracking where it had been and taking the newer scent path whenever an old and new one crossed.
It didn't take her too long to figure out just where the mouse had gone; I think she would have really liked to figure out a way to get off the deck and join it on side of the deck.
Around that time, Someone wandered by, or out from under the deck, I didn't really catch which.
It didn't take her very long to do her best to get up close and personal with the mouse. Suddenly hanging out eight feet up in the air on some lattice work wasn't so appealing and it got out of there. I think it went back up onto the deck and scurried off the other edge, but I don't know for certain. I do know that it was no longer anywhere around by the time Oribel climbed down and dashed around to a spot where she could jump up to the deck to see where it had gone after it ran away from her.
(Do you know how tricky it is to lean over a deck railing eleven feet up from the ground while kneeling on a bench, talking on the phone, and taking pictures?)

Yesterday afternoon

I made sure this was empty when I was sweeping off the deck, not that one would know that from this picture. Right after I got soggy, I emptied it again, for science and all (or something).

 

Of course, one wouldn't know this was clean too.

I can't believe

the Brooklyn City Council actually thought this was a good idea, or that it was an effective strategy. (Transcript version of the news brief heard on NPR's Morning Edition yesterday.)

Good morning. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Forget bedbugs. Brooklyn has a larger pest: opossums. The New York Post reports that three years ago, the city tried to curb its rat problem by setting opossums free in local parks. The idea: opossums would eat rats, and when that food supply was gone, die off. Today, the nocturnal critters with twitchy pink noses are still around. They rejected rats. They eat garbage and climb fruit trees. And the rats are OK, too.

(FYI: It is very rare for opossums to carry rabies due to a low body temperature.)

Ping!

Some days that is a most wonderful sound.

14 pints of Peach Jam
9 pints of Lots 'O Pepper Jam
9 half pints of Lots 'O Pepper Jam