Mortimer the Muse

Now I've gone and done it.  I've started a blog that I'm committing to write posts for on a regular basis. Oy.  It's all Mortimer's fault.

You see a few weeks ago I was looking out of my window and I saw a furry little head poke up in my grass.  'Yikes! A mouse!' I thought.  Oh, no. Not a mouse.  A vole.  And so I watched him fascinated. (Who cares that he was destroying my lawn! Pppbt!) 

He (it  really could have been a she, I didn't think to ask) worked away eating the nice roots of my lawn, creating his little corridors, popping up to take a look around for neighborhood cats, and then getting back to the roots.  I could have watched him for hours.  Animals fascinate me.  Especially when I can watch them doing what they do naturally, when I can be the hidden observer.  Instead I closed the curtains and got back to doing whatever I was doing that day.  What I didn't realize was that it wasn't any old ordinary garden pest that had moved into my yard.  It was my muse.  Who knew a vole could be a muse!  I've come up with all kinds of clever stories about Mortimer and his friends (because of course if I'm going to create one highly literary character out of a rodent, he has to have friends).  My sister looks forward to updates on the life of Mortimer.  I enjoy thinking of his exploits.

But this blog is not about Mortimer. It's about my need to create things. Something. Each day. Creating something with fabric or pen and paper gives me energy, lifts me up. And I noticed a strange thing after Mortimer moved in. Not only was I able to create things, but now I was able to finish them.  Instead of only having a continually and quickly growing pile of works-in-progress in addition I now have a slowly growing list of projects checked off because they.are.all.done. (do you hear the angels singing?)


Mortimer is my muse.  His arrival has given me new energy and drive. I'm inspired to create and to finish. (Because of course that has nothing to do with any New Year's Resolutions I may or may not have made. Ahem.)

I have continued to look out the window hoping to observe my friend each day, but he hasn't shown up to my voyeur sessions like he's supposed to. There are many possible reasons for his rudeness, but I like to think that he's ensconced in his library reading a highly academic book that requires hours of pondering (since I will never make it through one of those).  In the mean time I continue to sew, to create, to design.