Graffiti Keats

[BrokenLyre]

While tearing apart my kitchen, the workers removed my cabinets and wallboard behind it. They proceeded to put up new wallboard before they install new cabinets next week. So I was standing there, just looking at my new, blank, clean walls...and thought "What a great space...What shall I do with it before they put up the cabinets?"

You guessed it. I took a sharpie and decided to write out some lines from Keats. Poems and letters...I thought the installers might actually read a little before they put up the cabinets.

But I like to think that someday - 30 years or so from now - somebody will tear down my cabinets and when they do, they will get a very pleasant surprise! I deeply wish I could see their faces when they remove the cabinets and wonder who wrote all that poetry. And maybe, just maybe, they will be inspired to look up our poet friend....because I also put up on the walls the URL address for the Keats Forum. Just fun to imagine what they will think...

[Cybele]

LOL, BrokenLyre. What a fun thing to do! Some future kitchen renovators will probably be more puzzled by the URL than the poetry, tho'.

And my sympathies for dealing with a kitchen reno. I thought ours would never end.

[Raphael]

What a fun idea Baroken Lyre! I ought to scribe the Robbie Burns mouse poem on mine due to the two Mice that have set up home behind my washing machine...
Yes, I do have a clean kitchen, and no, not found their hole and point of entry, the cheeky little blighters.

[Cybele]

We had a poor little chipmunk catch itself in the motor of the drier last spring. It was terrible!
Sigh. Rodents and household appliances -- not a good mix.

[Raphael]

We had a poor little chipmunk catch itself in the motor of the drier last spring. It was terrible!
Sigh. Rodents and household appliances -- not a good mix.

Awww..chipmunks are so cute. I have called my Mice Tiny and Smelly- their names say it all.

[Ravenwing]

Adieu.

[Raphael]

Hi Raphael,

A cat would only be too happy to make short work of those two—you might be able to rent one for a week or two, or borrow a cat from a neighbour or friend or family member. Hopefully you can do something about that situation before the small mouse becomes a larger mouse, and they then breed, as the spring has arrived, and the summer is near. If you are renting, then I would expect for it to be your duty as a Tenant to report those mice to the landlord—after all, if they are living there, then they must pay rent, too.

From Ravenwing.

Tiny has been coming out ( and it is the DAYTIME!!) and I think it is the one who stinks not the bigger one which doesn't come out much. The smell is very unpleasant. I have put clove oil and peppermint oil about to deter it as it offends their noses. I am a Buddhist and I cannot kill them, I do not want to kill them- just to send them packing. I have a trip trap and been putting bait inside it but they don't go in it. I had another mouse I called Mickey a few weeks ago who didn't smell and she got trapped in it and I took her to the local cemetary and set her free in the derelict church there. I left her food and the next day found her dead outside. I felt guilty about that and was upset as I didn't mean for her to die.
The landlady sent her guys round and they put a plank to seal the gap unbder the sink and pulled the washing machine out but could find no holes or nest.
I am not allowed to keep pets as I have a four roomed little house and am allergic to cats anyway. Though the man who delivers my veg has offered to come round one night for a brew and bring his cat...would a cat prowling around for an hour be enough to send the mice away? I doubt it. Tiny is very audacious and comes out in the day and stares at me.
I am ordering a big metal box type trap end of this week from ebay and will get a 3 way sonic deterrant when I can afford it. I only work part time. If I had a well paid job I'd call pest control guys who know how to seal up holes properly. I cannot find them- the land lady's guys even walked around the outside of the house and could not see any points of entry.

The guy who lives behind me also has mice. I think the cellars from the houses who used to be here before these houses were built in the 1980s are still underneath.

[Cybele]

In my experience those sonic pest botherers really don't work well. We have what's called a Havahart trap http://www.amazon.com/Havahart-0745-Professional-One-Door-Chimpunk/dp/B000BPAVCG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366683580&sr=8-1&keywords=squirrel+trap+havahart for squirrels that works very well. I don't know how it would work for mice. We've had recurring problems -- some hilarious, all were messy -- with squirrels inside our house for years.

[Cybele]

LOL! To get back on topic, did Mr Keats ever offer up any thoughts on household rodent control??

[Malia]

He did write, in his letter to Georgianna in 1820 that he'd sent a cat along with George on his return trip to America--in case she needed a rat catcher