a Time of the Season

There are certain signs that indicate a change in season or time of the year. Around our house, one of them is the cats staring intently under the stove. That is a sure sign the autumn is around the corner because the mice are trying to move in doors. Ginny in particular will sit and stare for hours. I had been noticing this behavior for several days, when at a community meeting one of our neighbors asked it we had been having any mouse problems because she was having a mini invasion. I related the story of the cats staring under the stove speculating that yes we too must have them even though they hadn’t shown themselves to me. Last winter we had a mouse invasion about this time, a number of them dining on packages of instant oatmeal in the pantry closet before we caught on and set a couple traps. Between the traps and the cats I think we scored 5 mice last year. When I returned home after the meeting I checked a trap that I leave in the pantry just as a matter of principle, and sure enough there was a desiccated mouse ensnared. It had been there for more than a few days, and required tossing carcass and trap as one unit. Since then I have not trapped another mouse, the instant oatmeal is intact, and the cats have not captured any and their vigils at the stove have stopped. That must mean that mouse season is over.

As a little postscript, the meeting was to get the neighborhood behind a proposal to upgrade a little pocket park that is up the block. The park has been there since the 1870’s but in the most recent configuration dating from the 1970’s is best described as ‘barrier construction’ of low concrete walls and short pilasters, it has been long neglected and is hardly inviting. There are funds available for upgrading and this was a meeting to discuss how to get some of those funds. The guy who organized the meeting and is the force behind the project had brought some visual aids among them were plans that the Olmsted Brothers had originally done of the park and a page out of the city atlas from 1873, that showed the park, then known as Lewis Park but now known as Kitteredge Park. But most notable to me down two blocks from the park and pictured on the atlas was the plan of our house. I have never been sure how old our house is. I have a page from an 1890 Atlas that shows it, I have speculated that it could date as early as 1875, from when the neighborhood was first being built up, but this is the first time that had seen evidence that my suspicions might be true.

Lastly, another sign of seasonal changes is the guilt I feel each year towards the end of summer when I realize that the road to hell has again been paved with all the intentions of the projects I was going to accomplish over the summer. I will not enumerate them her, as it will only make me feel worse. It struck me bad the other day and I did manage to sand and varnish the front door, a task that need to be done at least every 2 years. So a few hours of sanding and polishing later I was feeling better there are just the other dozen jobs now.

But at least this gives me a picture to post: a street view of the front door ..