Christmouse capers

Hooray! It's only three weeks to Christmouse.

Things are hotting up in the Medlar House Garden.

The Carol Singers group has grown from six to eight and Mr. Holly, the choirmaster has his work cut out keeping them all in order. Here he is in his smart red caped coat, with shiny spotty black buttons.

You remember Wensleydale the pet white mouse? He visits quite often. He's taken a shine to Periwinkle - you can read the beginnings of their courtship here.
He is a mischievous little mouse and I snapped him rolling up a snowball the other day.
"Wensleydale! " I cried as the ball went sailing over the Medlar Tree. I really did think he was going to throw it at the carolers...well...they aren't THAT bad I thought.

Never fear, there was a clattering sound. a thwack and a Meow as next door's cat went clambering up the fence. Well done Wensleydale! Here Latte ( so called because he is always latte for choir practice - ) no not really it's because he is a light coffee colour, is saying thank you to our little white mouse. That could have been nasty.
Wensleydale really DOES dislike that cat doesn't he?

Mrs Persimmon is working flat out in the kitchen making goodies for all the mice to eat. Rose is just about to eat one of her gingerbread men. Humans eat little pink sugar mice at Christmas...it's traditional. The Medlar House Mice have sugar humans to nibble on...well it's only fair!

Starflower has learned all she knows about picking wild fruits and berries from Mrs Christmouse. Here she is off to the hedgerow to look for Holly. Looks like she has been successful. They will deck the Halls with it soon but also they'll eat it in the form of jelly and other goodies. Mrs Persimmon is a very busy cook.

Visit Facebook to see all these mice on Heartfelt

Christmouse kiss.

The Christmouse season is upon us. In the roots of the Medlar Tree there is a lot of scurrying about. Miss Lemon is doing the washing of all the Christmas tablecloths and napkins which will be needed for the Christmas dinner.

Peacock has been helping Mrs Persimmon with the baking of the special Christmouse pudding...well it is Stir Up Sunday, when you are supposed to make your pudding and give it a good stir. The Medlar House Mice don't eat ordinary Christmas pud...oh dear me no. They make theirs from special ingredients like holly berries, elderflower berries and crab apples.

Here Mrs Persimmon has baked a Hazelnut cake. On the top she has put tiny little berries from the Wayfaring Tree.

Mrs Christmouse has been out in the hedgerows looking for holly. She doesn't want it to do the Christmouse decorating, she needs it to make holly berry wine, the Medlar House Mice love a little drink of that at Christmouse.

She is a very busy mouse at Christmouse. She helps her husband Father Christmouse, wrap up all the presents for all little mice everywhere in the world. THAT is a lot of wrapping paper!

Father Christmouse is so pleased that she is good at that job. He gets very stuck up with all the sticky tape! "Thank you my dear" he says and gives her a kiss on her little pink nose.

No Christmouse is ever quite right without a trip to the ballet or the Pantomime.

The Medlar House Mice are going to see the Nutcracker....well they would...they LOVE nuts.

Here are two of the mice ballerinas, Plie and Cabriole. They better get practising.

To go to the ballet, Fauna, Petal and Speedwell have been buying new dresses. They took an age to decide which ones to buy. They look so pretty in their flowery hats too!

Mrs. Christmouse will organise everyone so that they are all dressed up and ready to go when the day comes.
And everyone will have a special Christmouse chocolate from her huge box.

Which one would you chose?

A Christmouse Carol.

It's quite chilly tonight. They say we may have a frost, the first of the winter. That would be quite seasonal but I'm not sure if the Medlar House Mice will be very pleased about it. It can be jolly cold in the roots of the Medlar tree.

As soon as we get to the beginning of November the mice start getting excited, about the shows they will go to over the Festive season and in the run up to it; about Christmouse itself and of course, all the Christmouse Carols they can sing.

They have their favourites.
God rest ye merry gentle mice, It came upon a midnight feast, The Cobnut-try carol, Good King Wenclesmouse...to name a few. ;)

We have a choir at Medlar House.

There's Spearmint who sings a very high soprano. Her husband Caramel is a bass. Petunia is a very nice alto and Lavender sings mezzo soprano. That leaves Mr Darcy mouse to sing tenor. Now and again Periwinkle joins them, though she is very shy about singing in public and tends to hang around at the back.
 
Dear naughty little Wensleydale dresses up as Father Christmouse  ( he isn't shy at all ) and gives out presents from his never ending bottomless sack.

Here they all are..practicing for their concert.

They are wearing their Dickensian costumes, it helps with the atmosphere, they tell me.

Here is playful little Wensleydale playing Father Christmouse.

All these figures are for sale and can be found on Heartfelt on Facebook. If you don't have access to Facebook then please email sue @pastmastery.com.

The Medlar House Mice and I would be pleased to help you.

Christmouse Past

I must apologise for not writing anything on this blog for a long time.

I was taken into hospital over a month ago with a pierced bowel after a routine laparoscopy went wrong and have spent a long time in the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford
I had thought that the hospital would have Wifi and blithely took my equipment ( or got my husband to bring it in ) so I could play on the net. Would you believe it...they have no Wifi at the John Radcliffe hospital!
Nothing 
Zilch!
A HUGE teaching hospital and one of the, so say, finest in the country has no facility for people to plug their laptops into the net!

I am beginning to feel better now and as Christmas is rapidly approaching ( oh yes it is ), I now have to knuckle down and get some things made for the Holiday Season.

I shall be showing you Father Christmouse soon.
And Angel mice and of course Fairy mice.

But for now, I am still recovering and taking things easy. I'll do my best to get well for Christmas.

Meanwhile here's a blast from the past. The Christmas catalogue for the London shop, General Trading in 1983.... I sold my original mice there. Quite a coup I can tell you!

Rice Mice in the catalogue of 1983

Indian Summer

The Medalr House Mice have been deep in the roots of the tree today ...it's been so hot. That, and there have been two tireless and terrible terriers, Samos ( who lives here ) and his friend Bertie Skallywag Bennett who visits, tearing around the garden.
Best to stay away from them.

The mice are girding their loins for a trip to Deepest Darkest Derbyshire for a really nice show. They so desperately wanted to go earlier in the year but snow and overturned lorries prevented them. How disappointing was that?

This is where they will be seen on Sunday.

It says Autumn but I think the mice will still be in Summer mood. There's another show here later in the year which will be for Christmas and then you'll see a lot more Christmousy things. At the moment they are still wearing big floppy sunhats and pretty summery dresses. And of course every good mouse carries a parasol!
So do I!

I have been very busy over on Heartfelt, making Christmas stockings for dogs. I know, it's only September but I have to start early, as like the mice, they are all completely hand made. This means I haven't had much time for mouse making. Rest assured more mice will be hiding themselves under the roots of the Medlar Tree soon. And you'll be the first to meet them.

Meanwhile lets hope the lovely weather continues. More chance to show off with our lovely hats and our pretty parasols.

A Midsummer Wedding.... I wonder?

Here in the Medlar House Garden, things are blossoming. However, the weather has been rather unseasonable and so the flowers you might expect to see fully out- perhaps, roses and foxgloves - are only just budding.

That's sad in a way, because when we planned the wedding of Spearmint and Caramel ( you remember he proposed to her on St. Valentine's Day ) all that time ago, we had hoped to be able to have it in a garden festooned with roses and summer flowers.

Never mind. It was still a grand occasion.

Dear little Spearmint wore a very pretty cream lace dress with a bodice of spotty ribbon.
On her  delightful pink jacket, which had a lacy collar, ( it was a little bit cool so she needed it, ) she had pearl buttons. Her huge hat was a frothy affair of pink spotty ribbon and pink and white flowers - very Edwardian.

All these colours went so well with Spearmint's lovely pale green fur.

Her bridegroom Caramel also decided to wear pink and he looked so handsome in his jacket and top hat.

He too sported spotty ribbon in the shape of a wonderfully oversized bow tie.
And he carried a pearl topped cane - like all proper gentlemen!

The guests were all dressed in their finery.

There was Mr. Darcymouse in his lovely blue riding coat, Cobnut, who was the Best Man - he brought a whole wheel barrow of rosebuds to the wedding to decorate the scene.

Becky Sharpe was there in her huge bonnet and little Posy was bridesmaid in her Broderie Anglais dress. She had a bouquet of Violets and held Spearmint's tail just in case she tripped up when she was walking up the aisle.

Spearmint and Caramel were married in a bower of rosebuds and Spearmint had her photo taken standing on a special flower filled platform.

It wasn't quite Midsummer but almost. The sky was blue and the grass was green but sadly it wasn't all that warm. It didn't matter. Everyone was so happy, they didn't mind.

They all went off to the Wedding Breakfast deep under the roots of the Medlar tree to eat hazelnut pie, medlar jellies and drink catkin ale.

However Wensleydale, that cheeky little white mouse, couldn't resist just one little nibble of cheese beforehand. You can just see him in the back of the photo...trying to hide. Naughty little mouse.

Literary Medlar House Mice.

As promised in my last post - I took up my needle again. I made a couple of mice, a few pincushions..nothing strenuous you understand. I wasn't struggling with stuffing or stretching myself to the limit hemming sheets but...back came the poorly shoulder.

I have been told by the Dr. I must rest.
Ah dear. He doesn't understand the rigours of the mouse maker's life does he?
The urge to take up a needle and, at the very least, embroider something simple.

So today I'm having to give you 'mice I have made.'
Or, as they say on Blue Peter - 'here's one I made earlier.'

The lastest creation is Becky Sharp. Sharp by name and Sharp by nature.

Those of you who are Thackeray fans will know what I'm talking about. Vanity Fair. That wonderful book about two young ladies ( a la Jane Austen only more earthy ) and their progression through various states of early 19th century life.
Becky Sharp is the heroine...or should I say, anti heroine. She's a right madam and so my little mouse has to be too. Here she is in her lovely bonnet and holding her reticule.

She sits on a display box which is a separate item. They do look good together, as the same ribbon used on Becky's bonnet is also a decoration on the base of the box.


I've made three of these designs of mice and, frankly I could make dozens more. They are very popular. No three are the same though...similar but never the same. That's how I want the Medlar House Mice to be. They may be of a theme but not one is going to be a copy of another. We've done Vanity, we've done Amelia the true heroine of the novel, if a little wishy -washy in personality, and now Becky.

Amelia, on the same display box.

Vanity, and behind her, a book of costume.

We also had a little go at another Dormouse, as the original one Dainty turned out to be so sweet. Meet Dido - lovely in lemon. Dido was Queen of Carthage, in the old myths and there is a very sad story attached to her...so she is another character from a book.

We ALL know Pride and Prejudice.
At a fair recently we sold Mr. Darcymouse and of course, Miss Bennetmouse was bereft...so we had to make another one for her. Here he is, very smart in his blue riding coat and holding his top hat.

Frankly, I think this one is even more handsome.

And last but not least Cindermousa lost her fairy Godmouse. So a new one had to be procured.

Here she is... Does she come from a book?...Oh yes indeed... a French one by Charles Perrault.

Now, for a change, I made this mouse a Woodmouse. They have very large ears, so they can hear the swoosh of the owl's wing I suppose, ( though they are really very silent).

"Shake the glitter, wave the wand here,
A Fairy Godmouse shall appear! "

She is very pretty in a green' blue net dress with stars and pearl drops.

So that is all from the Medlar House Garden for a while.

 I do hope I shall be fit enough to create some new mice soon.
Meanwhile back to my books..... < sigh>  it's about the only thing left for me to do....read.... and write blog posts. :)

French Fancies.

I've been having a little bit of a rest from making The Medlar House Mice.
For some reason I've had a frozen shoulder and so you can imagine it has been quite difficult to sew. It feels a little better now and so shortly, I'll be taking up my needle again.

The mice have been happy because the sun has been out. They have been able to scurry hither and thither collecting the catkins of the purple hazel and the fall of last year's hazel nuts.

One of our mice, Greengage has been making jam with them.

Her secret recipe is written down in the little book she has tucked under her arm.


Then Persimmon uses the jam in her special catkin cake.

Old Mother Hubbardmouse hasn't got even a tiny piece of the cake left for her dog Boneless. Anyway, he's not fond of cake. He prefers dog biscuits in the shape of bones. But when she got to the cupboard to get him a bone...there were none left....just an empty plate!

Alba the little white hare likes carrots best.

And we all know what Peacock, Papillon, Cowslip and Marshmallow like best....

Tea and cake! Perhaps these French Fancies are made with the French Lavender growing in the Medlar House Garden. I know one little mouse who would love these cakes..... Mme Chambord. She's French, you know?