The story of the mouse, the thatched cottage and Dunchideock.

A mouse (plural mice) is a small mammal belonging to the order of rodents. The best known mouse is of course the common house mouse. But in a case of Lyalls Cottage, the common species are the field mice. They have stood with us in the autumn and winter time and they are visiting us on regular bases every day in the spring, at the moment. Our mice are very keen on expensive chocolate. They also like very much my paintings, especially the ones which contain seeds. Often they are very timid face to face, but not always.
Since mice could be a perfect companion pets I don’t understand why some are so afraid for them. They can be playful, loving and can grow used to being handled. But I admit I didn’t try it with our field mice, no time for it.

The mice have more reasons to be afraid of people than vice versa. Mice are a staple in the diet of many small carnivores. Humans have eaten mice since prehistoric times and still eat them as a delicacy throughout eastern Zambia and northern Malawi. In various countries mice are used as pet food for pets such as snakes, lizards, frogs, tarantulas and birds of prey, and many pet stores carry mice for this purpose. I didn’t hear real stories about mice eating people, till now.

I don’t like them when they are trying to damage my paintings by eating them, but except for that, I like them, actually. In my new painting there is a small image of a field mouse we found in our bath-tub. It was such a small, tiny, frightened little thing. And now she/he is the honourable guest in my painting.
I used acrylics, cd, leaves, seeds, canes, wax and lots of other unusual things. It is a kind of abstract image of Lyalls Cottage and Dunchideock (the village) at this time of the year (Spring).