Solstice Capers: Mice Capades!

In my opinion, it was a clear case of monkey see, monkey do. Or something like that, except . . . with mice. When Esperanza (Hope) and Fidelis (Faith), the two Christmas mice, heard about Percy's madcap holiday fun at the Arboretum last week, they would not rest until they got to go there too. And so it was that on the morning of the Solstice, we set out on a grand adventure.

Esperanza is wearing a pink tutu and holding jingle bells. Fidelis is wearing a blue jacket and mustard-colored scarf and a marvelously huge stripey HAT, and holding Christmas lights. I bought them at the museum gift shop two weeks ago. What a picture we made, the three of us, trotting about the Arboretum, enjoying everything in sight!

The mice jumped up and posed on every evergreen - they're all Christmas trees now! And they made friends with the snake who guards the children's garden. (He's a real softie, that snake! And he gets so lonely sitting at his sentry point in the cold.)

And then the two Christmas mice rode the fox, and this time we even remembered to visit the four bunnies near the Glass House. You'll never guess what we found near them: actual bunny poo! Real live rabbits live here too!

They visited the fairy house, and posed and became art on the garden kaleidoscope - that was a very silly and fun time - picture many tiny pink Esperanzas in repeating geometric patterns. Cool!

They crawled up onto a beautiful winter wreath and explored the bird houses in it. Status report: no birds present, at least, as of yet. And they checked out the sundial, as that's where the Solstice happened, of course!

And then we concluded our adventures with a little bit of mice capade capers on the lily pond, which is, of course, frozen solid this time of year. The surface was slippery but nobody fell, which was good. Their bottoms got a little bit cold, as you might guess, but they warmed up quickly in the car later.

What a wonderful Solstice adventure; a swell time was had by all!

The song: Foreigner, Cold as Ice.