Fireplace, moss and unwelcome house guests

Do you know what this is made of ? Read on and you will see!

The fireplace is finally in place. The long johns will have to be in use for a while yet though since the inner roof still isn’t quite finished and the heat goes right up the attic instead. But we are getting there…. Me and my husband have a weeks vacation and the daughters have autumn holiday so a lot of roof “making” can be done….. And hopefully a lot of creative stuff and nature walks as well.

As a matter of fact I already started with the creative stuff yesterday. And I combined it with a nature walk! I collected moss in the woods. It was beautiful in the woods. The sun was shining and the colors were spectacular. Moss is my favorite material. It`s great for making all kind of outdoor decorations. You can get it for free and it’s so easy to work with that you can create almost anything with it. I love the texture of moss, its color and its fairy tail quality…I even have a t-shirt with a “moss saying” on it rolling stones don’t grow moss! The saying is quite fitting for me since I never slow down long enough for any moss to get growing….



During my walk I came upon a flock of roe deer grazing. Unfortunately I scared them before I could get a real good shot with my camera. They looked like ping-pong balls flying through the air. Back home I made a mobile, a chair and a teddy bear out of moss! So the answer to this posts first question is .....MOSS! I made two circles with wire and covered them with moss. The leaves are made of rusty sheet iron.

An old jumble sale chair covered with moss.

Teddy bear

Body made of chicken-wire then covered with moss.

So what about the unwelcome house guest? Do you remember I told you about us finding a rat’s nest when we laid the new flooring in the hallway? Well let me tell you this, the owner is back and boy is he looking for somewhere else to camp for the winter. Last night we heard him on the attic and by the sound of him we are talking mayor size rat here! More like beaver size rat stomping about seriously pissed off and looking for a new nest.! I googled rats and believe me the reading wasn’t fun. A rat can have 800 – 1000 young ones in a year! And that’s just the one rat. What if he likes our house so much he invites his relatives as well? Yuck. I can barely think about it. I might be an animal lover but I hhhate rats! Tomorrow I’ll be phoning the pesticide company!