Oh I Do Like t' be Beside the Seaside!

The sun has come out and for a moment, it's deceptively warm in the Medlar House Garden. Stephen has found a leak in the pond.
He has spent quite a time mending it and tells me that one of the mice has chewed through a pipe.

Now come on...which one of you did it?
Own up now....your pocket money will be docked.
No one is owning up.

Oh dear.
As the weather warms up ( we hope ) the mice will be out and about scampering over the rockery and flitting on and off the bird tables. The sunshine has made some of us, I'm sure, think of Summer holidays and warm days by the sea,

One mouse who never stops thinking about the sea...is Peregrine. He LOVES the sea and has many salty takes to tell about his adventures on the High Sea as a Pirate.

He is retired now. A retired pirate. But he still longs for the sea and a ship of his own and a chest full of gold and a target at which to shoot his, very beautiful, flintlock pistol. He keeps it primed and stuck in his belt just in case there are any cats about.

He was a great mouse for burying his treasure but not remembering to make a map and so he can't find many of the chests of gold nowadays, even if he were to be able to travel to the desert islands he visited before he lost a leg.

Ah yes...his leg. He was, he tells me, abseiling down an ivy stem when he lost his hold and fell into a stream. Before you could say, Shiver Me Timbers, a Stickleback fish bit off his lower right leg. A serious Pirate wouldn't let that stop them so his friends made him a wooden leg. The only thing they could find on this desert island was an old peg. So they whittled it down and attached it to a button and hey presto... Peregrine became Peg!
You can see him here in all his Piratical elegance. He still likes to cut a dash. Even if he can't dash nowadays. He has a machete for slashing through the jungle of roots and of course his lovely pistol. He wears a starfish on his hat just to remind him of the sea and of course his faithful 'parrot' Pipsqueak,is to be found on his shoulder. No chests of gold though.

Anyway, Peg the Pirate is quite content really nowadays, just to collect chocolate coins.

Did I tell you mice really like chocolate?