gardenbre3: Day 13 - The Mouse(s) + Weeding and Tomato Tying

So this looks like a boring and bad photo of uninteresting gardening tools on weeds I know. And it is! However ... (and I pause here for emphases - lest any of you forget this little 'what the Sam Hell from last week') ... this photo of scissors and tomato ties over weeds is what might be referred to as my establishing shot for movies I made of the little soft furry brown mouse (which in retrospect might have been one mouse or two or three) that was in my garden yesterday.

I had just tossed these things onto the pile of weeds I'd just spent an hour or so pulling up and was holding my flip cam and having a rest on my little yellow plastic kiddie chair plopped on said pile of weeds wiping sheets of sweat from my brow with a clean black sock I'd resiliently rescued from my bag of (gardening) 'tricks' ... and right there from under my newly yanked weeds not a foot from my feet popped up the little brown mouse with something in it's mouth (something small and brown ... maybe a nut ... or better yet one of it's babies. I don't know). I just know that instead of jumping up on my chair and screaming, "Help - a mouse!" (or something earth-shatteringly loud that might even have gotten me permanently evicted from the allotment gardens for good), I pressed the button and began filming (after it was gone mind you) ... and I stopped a few short moments afterwards and realized I'd almost captured a moment. Phew. What fun.

I got very proactive then ... once I had the thought that it might return to get more babies or nuts. Mice don't just have one. If it was a nut then I was stuck waiting - like one! But no matter - I perched on the edge of my little plastic yellow chair ... if this was for National Geographic in the jungles of Africa ... there would be no one more patient sitting-in-wait. Within about 30 seconds the mouse came running back and disappeared under the pile of weeds (remember I am sitting on the pile of weeds) ... but thankfully I am wearing rubber boots up to my knees and my pants are tucked in ... I am verging on being slightly delirious with joy just because it returned ... I got my finger on the camera button and readied myself for a third round, took the 'small game hunter pose' not even caring if anyone walked by or saw me or not ... (surely, if they did, they'd not talk to me crouched intently over like this which I knew was to my full advantage and I gained confidence that all was right in my universe and knowing now the little guy would most likely return with another nut or baby in it's mouth to take it where it had brought the other one, etc).

He/she/it/them did it again ... popped back out of the weeds not a foot from my foot and disappeared quickly out of sight over to the right. This time I was confident I'd captured it and even held the button down extra long before letting up on it. I realized I needed to be careful not to crush the camera. I held steadfast, my hands were sweating as well, I'd flung the sock so there was no more getting any help from it, no matter, I used my soily shirt and was ready when the mouse(s) reappeared, stopped looked at me and disappeared under the weeds and I watched and filmed the weeds moving between my legs and under the little yellow chair ... and here's where I took a road less traveled and got creative over a mouse and under distress ... and did a camera pan to my face ... and made a face ... not a very flattering face ... but this wasn't about me it was about the mouse ... and the whole documentation of it ... as a little reality star of sorts I suppose and I had just become one of those annoying side kick characters that gives context to what is happening (not exactly how I would've done it if I'd planned ahead) ... the little guy came out and went in a few more times ... or maybe it was it's wife or cousins coming & going ... all so Mouse-atouille. They really played it up for the lens ... drank water pooling now under my feet from the hose over watering the tomato patch beside me, looked up at me and ran in confused little circles and ran back under my weeds between my legs and my kiddies' chair legs ... and I caught it all - and not to be outdone I even panned in on myself, again, this time holding up 2 fingers and then 3 indicating there might be a couple or even a few more ... ie, different ones - wink wink nudge nudge ... you know how we all think 'they' all look alike ... well not so - and these guys kept going and wouldn't let up ... 'til it got so that I was getting really tired filming (maybe it was the adrenalin leaving my body and me hitting my stride) but hey I stayed with and caught their every move on camera - in living - hi def - colour ... or so I thought. When I came home and actually downloaded all my shots, this still is all I have of this. HA. How I even actually got that now I'll never know.