The Church Mouse Family

by
St Margaret’s Church in Cley next the Sea, home of the church mouse family

Have you ever seen a church mouse? We never have. It is one of the poorest of the poor and is therefore only a shadow of its former self, still present in the saying about the poor church mouse.
“Hold on!” interrupts Siri :-), “mice in churches are not uncommon, especially in old churches where they nest.“
“There the church mouse is safe, because its mortal enemy, the cat, is absent from the church. Witches’ animals avoid churches,” adds Selma 🙂 by way of explanation.

“Lesen ist rattig, BĂŒcher sind mausig” 😉
Dina

Siri and Selma’s book corner in Cley Church

Siri 🙂 and 🙂 Selma are struck dumb when they want to display books in our book corner in the church. They pulled a box of books out from under our table and what do they see? Lots of crumbled paper, nibbled pages and gnawed bindings. The church mice had a lot to digest here.

Siri 🙂 und 🙂 Selma trifft der Schlag, als sie BĂŒcher in unserer BĂŒcherecke in der Kirche auslegen wollen. Sie holten den Karton mit besonderen Schriften unter unserem Tisch hervor, und was sehen sie? Viel zerbröseltes Papier, angeknabberte Seiten und benagte EinbĂ€nde. Hier hatten die KirchenmĂ€use viel zu verdauen.

Scott is a big mouthful for the church mouse.
AI generated mice including a pc mouse … with a tail.đŸ€”

Our church mice are by no means poor, but they feed on books, which shows that books are necessary for survival. And our church mice are choosy. They have a preference for older books. They won’t touch Mickey Mouse editions – “far too sweet!” warns the head church mouse – or Dostoyevsky’s novel “The Gambler“, in which the phrase ‘poor as a church mouse‘, which is otherwise widespread in Germanic languages, first appears in Russian.

Bei uns sind die KirchenmĂ€use keineswegs arm, sondern sie ernĂ€hren sich von BĂŒchern, was zeigt, dass BĂŒcher zum Überleben notwendig sind. Unsere KirchenmĂ€use sind wĂ€hlerisch. Sie haben eine Vorliebe fĂŒr Ă€ltere BĂŒcher. Micky-Mouse-Ausgaben rĂŒhren sie nicht an – “viel zu sĂŒĂŸ!” warnt die Oberkirchenmaus – und auch nicht Dostojewskis Roman “Der Spieler“, in dem die sonst in germanischen Sprachen weit verbreitete Redewendung ‘arm wie eine Kirchenmaus’ erstmals im Russischen auftaucht.

Delicious cakes are served at the weekly music event in the church, much to the delight of the mice who hoovers the corners at night.

Alfred Brehm (author of “Brehm’s Life of Animals“) called mice man’s most faithful companions. They are adaptable, including the way they show themselves to us. In the Middle Ages, they were considered a threat. Witches were known to conjure up plagues of mice. Witch-mice have no tail, as Siri 🙂 read in an old book. They ate a large part of the harvest so that the plagues of mice brought death.

Alfred Brehm nannte MĂ€use die treuesten GefĂ€hrten des Menschen. Sie sind anpassungsfĂ€hig, auch wie sie sich uns zeigen. Im Mittelalter waren sie bedrohlich. Hexen, so wusste man, zauberten MĂ€useplagen herbei. HexenmĂ€use haben keinen Schwanz, wie Siri 🙂 in einem alten Buch gelesen hat. Sie fraßen einen großen Teil der Ernte, so dass MĂ€useplagen den Tod brachten. Im AbzĂ€hlreim “Eins, zwei, drei, vier, MĂ€usedreck und du bist weg” hat sich die Erinnerung an diese Todesgefahr ebenso erhalten wie im Kinderreim “Ringelrose“ die Erinnerung an die Pesttoten.

There’s plenty of room inside the grand church, also home to many bats.

The mouse has had an amazing career. From the messenger of death, it became a sweet little animal. Mice are considered cute, but also clever, as we can see from our book-obsessed church mice. They are the revolutionaries, probably witch-mice. Our church mice evade the media constraints of children’s books. They are the despisers of the little mice who sit at the family table in their cute little lace bonnets. They fight about the Computermouse, if it is evolution’s mistake or Supermouse.

Die Maus hat eine erstaunliche Karriere hinter sich. Von der Todesbotin wurde sie zum possierlichen Tierchen. Heute gilt sie als niedlich, aber auch als schlau, wie wir an unseren buchbesessenen KirchenmĂ€usen sehen. Sie sind die RevolutionĂ€re, wahrscheinlich HexenmĂ€use. Sie entziehen sich dem medialen Zwang des Kinderbuches. Sie sind die VerĂ€chter der MĂ€uschen, die niedlich mit SpitzenhĂ€ubchen brav am Familientisch sitzen, stattdessen erhitzen sie sich darĂŒber, ob die ComputermĂ€use eine Verirrung der Natur seien oder die Übermaus.

Our book trolley was a bargain find in a Broadway charity shop. After many years wheeling heavy books from our home to the church it needs a sturdy replacement.
Siri and Selma would like a statement trolley with book mice print. Any idea?

The selection of nibbled books puzzles Siri 🙂 and 🙂 Selma. Our church mice nibbled on Freud, but also on Churchill and a hymn in praise of women. What our church mice spared, probably out of solidarity, were the successful church mouse books by Graham Oakley. Arthur, the head church mouse, is their hero because he is friends with a cat who protects the church mouse family. However, these mice go travelling, something our church mice can’t even think of. Where else would they find such a grandiose church in a beautiful location with such lovely Bookfayries as Siri 🙂 and 🙂 Selma, who constantly supply them with new books? The German church mice Nelly and Friedeline can only turn green with envy, as can Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Thomasine Tittlemouse, who is always busy cleaning and tidying anyway.

Die Auswahl angeknabberter BĂŒcher gibt Siri 🙂 und 🙂 Selma RĂ€tsel auf. Unsere KirchenmĂ€use knabberten an Freud, aber auch an Churchill und an einem Loblied auf die Frauen. Was unsere KirchenmĂ€use wohl aus SolidaritĂ€t verschonten, waren die erfolgreichen KirchenmausbĂŒcher von Graham Oakley. Arthur, die Oberkirchenmaus, ist ihr Held, weil er mit einer Katze befreundet ist, die die Kirchenmausfamilie beschĂŒtzt. Allerdings gehen diese MĂ€use auf Reisen, was unseren KirchenmĂ€usen nicht einmal im Schlaf einfĂ€llt. Wo sonst finden sie eine solche grandiose Kirche in schöner Lage mit derart lieben Buchfeen wie Siri 🙂 und 🙂 Selma, die sie stĂ€ndig mit neuen BĂŒchern versorgen? Da können die deutschen KirchenmĂ€use Nelly und Friedeline nur vor Neid erblassen, ebenso wie Beatrix Potters Mrs. Thomasine Tittlemouse, die sowieso stĂ€ndig nur mit dem Putzen und AufrĂ€umen ihrer Wohnung beschĂ€ftigt ist.

Greetings from St Margaret’s church, Cley next the Sea, home of our church mice

Mit herzlichen GrĂŒĂŸen von St Margaret’s church, Cley next the Sea, Wohnort der KirchenmĂ€use

The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

.

© text and illustrations, Hanne Siebers & Klausbernd Vollmar, Cley next the Sea 2024

105 thoughts

    • Liebe Sonja,

      wir haben eine Gruppe von ‘Flower Ladies’ im Ort, die stĂ€ndig unsere Kirche neu mit Blumen schmĂŒcken. Sie geben sich große MĂŒhe, anmutige Arragements zu schaffen, was ihnen bestens gelingt.

      Herzlichen Dank
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • Good morning, dear Pete,

      what a horrible weather we have here at the coast.

      The mice like to stay in the dark, they avoid being photographed. And we have never seen them. As with Schrödinger’s cat, they exist and they don’t at the same time. That’s quantum physics in our church 😉

      With love from the rough sea
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • Right now the rain has stopped but we have still quite a strong wind. Lucky church mice that they live sheltered inside our church.

      Let’s hope for a sunny weekend, dear Pete.
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  4. That is a beautiiful church, the mice have chosen a lovely place to live. We used to have a family of mice living under my shed, we would leave small piles of birdseed for them which they loved. Then they went away and never returned, and now we have cats! Great photogrpahs by Hanne.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Good morning, dear Fraggle

      The cats are the enemy of the mice against which they cannot defend themselves. Poor mice …
      We didn’t know that church mice eat books. The church is indeed an ideal place for them, books and no cats. That’s the basis for a happy life as a mouse.

      Thanks and keep well
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  6. Good morning, Klausbernd. I see that you have taken the trouble to arrange the books by colour. It beats Dewey Decimal, aesthetically speaking. I envy those mice. Even more reason to pay a visit to Cley soon. You will be pleased to know that the weather is awful here in Norwich too. All the every best. Laurence

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Thank you very much, dear Laurence 🙏🙏

      It’s not bad they life as a mouse in our church, isn’t it?
      Different to the church our books at home are arrange following – more or less – the Dewey Decimal system. That’s ideal for a library we use for our work. For selling books the arrangement by colour has some advantages. Before we combined both our libraries, Dina arranged her library by colour and inspired our dear Bookfayries to follow her idea. Kb isn’t convinced but noticed that he usually remembers the colour of the cover of a book.
      In Germany the Suhrkamp publisher published the series Edition Suhrkamp with its famous rainbow-coloured covers (design by Willy Fleckhaus) that was highly praised in the book- and design-world.

      You are very welcome to visit our church mice and us
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • Dear John

      great that you like our post. It was fun to write it. It’s a kind of abbreviation of longer story about the church mice Kb wrote a couple of days ago. Actually, it’s no story it’s real.

      Thanks and all the best
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Like

  9. Fab Four of Cley,
    I went looking for your book trolley but no go. I found plenty of tote bads, but none on wheels. Someone will come up with a solution.
    Hope all is well in your area of the world.
    GP

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Our dear friend GP

      We are quite sure that the right book trolley will just appear. Until it will appear we will use the old one.

      Everything is fine in our world except the weather. It’s horrible, strong winds, rain and rather cold.
      We hope everything is fine in your world, you are healthy and happy.

      Thank you very much and wishing you a wonderful day
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    • Thank you for looking, dear GP.
      Our trolley lost one leg this morning. We have blustery showers with no end in sight and Norfolk is supposed to be the driest county in England. Hope you get enough rain in sunny Florida.
      Fairydust from Siri đŸ§šđŸ»â€â™€ïžđŸ’žđŸ’«âœšđŸ“šđŸ­đŸ’ž and Selma đŸ§šđŸ»â€â™€ïž

      Liked by 2 people

    • With us, it’s feast or famine. Right now we are not supposed to get any rain until Monday, a 50% chance of showers.
      Thank you for the Fairydust, I could use some!

      Liked by 2 people

  11. Diese Kirche ist so groß und beeindruckend schön, dass sie bestimmt ein paar KirchenmĂ€uschen beherbergen kann und trotzdem ist es wirklich sehr schade um das schöne Buch von Selma!
    Am besten gut verschließen, nur bei Bedarf herausholen und zum GlĂŒck schmecken den MĂ€usen die wunderschönen Blumen nicht auch noch.😊
    Liebe GrĂŒĂŸe, Hanne

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Liebe Hanne

      die Kirche ist groß wie eine Kathedrale und relativ leer, weswegen ihre Architektur besonders beeindruckend wirkt. Dass wir eine solch große Kirche haben, hĂ€ngt damit zusammen, dass im Mittelalter Cley ein wesentlicher englischer Hafen war. Zu der Zeit stand die Kirche direkt am Hafen, der jedoch verlandete, und nun steht sie um einiges vom Meer entfernt. Sie bietet reichlich Platz fĂŒr KichenmĂ€use.

      Da wir die BĂŒcher im Umlauf bringen wollen, mĂŒssen wir sie auslegen. Wir haben jedoch stets viele BĂŒcher in Kartons zum AuffĂŒllen der Regale. Die sind der MĂ€use liebste Speise. Und, ehrlich gesagt, uns stört das nicht.

      Blumen knabbern unsere KirchenmÀuse nicht. Sie stehen auf BuchdiÀt.

      Hab Dank fĂŒr deinen Kommentar.
      Alles Gute wĂŒnschen
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Like

  12. That must be God’s plan–a sanctuary for mice and bats. Who knew? What a gorgeous church. Is that your local church–where you go on Sundays? Mine is a cafeteria. And the Pope wonders why Catholicism is shrinking in the US.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Dear Jacqui

      we have no religious bone in our body and fortunately our church is used for cultural events. As our villagers have a lot of connections to artists, we have hight class events. Our local church is like a cathedral because Cley was an important harbour during the middle ages but as it increasingly silted it’s now only a little harbour for sailing boats and little dinghies with outboard engines.

      Since Henry VIII catholicism doesn’t play any role here. The Church is church of England.

      Thanks. Keep well and happy
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

    • Lieber JĂŒrgen

      wir werden gleich neugierig schauen, wozu euch die MĂ€use inspirierten.

      Mit lieben GrĂŒĂŸen von der gerade regnerischen KĂŒste
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Like

  14. Eine wunderschöne Kirche sowohl von außen als auch von innen. Es hat Spaß gemacht, Ihre Geschichte ĂŒber die MĂ€use zu lesen und die Fotos, die Sie gemacht haben, sind mehr als gelungen.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Ja, unsere Kirche ist wirklich toll. Da sie relativ leer ist, wirkt sie auch von innen echt grandios.

      Danke, dass Ihnen Dina’s Fotos gefallen.

      Mit herzlichen GrĂŒĂŸen vom kleinen Dorf am großen Meer
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Dear friends, what a lovely read!
    Cley Church is magnificent. One can easily be overawed by the beauty and size of it which is what happened to me when I first visited St Margaret’s many years ago. Stunning photos, Hanne! I hope the new Church History Guide books is in good progress.
    As a child I had many books featuring a Norwegian church mouse by the name of Kristoffer kirkemus. I’m sure you would have enjoyed to learn more about the adventures of the kirkemus. Sadly, my books from my childhood home were donated to a charity when my parents decided to downsize. I assume, many of the books you receive for your book stall come from local homes and supply you with an eclectic mix of interesting reads.
    Wishing you warmer and drier times to come. The bad weather you are experiencing must be perfect for a retreat in front of the open fire, reading and writing and generally chilling without feeling bad for not being outside – that’s my way idea of surviving the bad spells of weather! Cheers!
    Klem
    Per Magnus x

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Dear Per Magnus

      what a pity, we would have loved to read about the adventures of Kristoffer kirkemus.

      Hanne-Dina is working on the church guide, she does the photography. As we look after the books, we are once a day in the church where we enjoy the different light.
      You are right, we get a lot of different books. As quite some known authors live in Cley, we are constantly provided with new books and then many elderly people live here who are downsizing and sometimes donate whole libraries. We quite often had the problem to store books but that problem is solved now. Hanne-Dina loves it to sort out all these books which don’t sell or in a bad condition.

      With lots of love
      KLEM
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  17. What a delightful read, dear Fab Four! The poor mouse being overfed on Scott made chuckle.
    You know, I love massive books. Books so big, like bricks, you could drown yourself in a pool with them if you’re not careful. Too much for a mouse to cope with. At the moment I’m reading “Gödel, Escher, Bach” by Douglas Hofstadter, well I have just started and my first thought when I picked up this old gem, did you read it?
    Have to rush to my students, sorry.
    Kram
    Annalena Xx

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Derar Annalena,

      maybe too much romanticism was too hard to digest, especially for non-Scottish church mice.

      Kb read ‘Escher, Gödel, Bach …’ many years ago and liked it very much. It’s such a big book, big as a brick. We love big books as well. To live in the universe of the text for quite a while is great. Another big book we liked very much was ‘Otherland’ by Tad Williams. We felt a bid down when we had finished reading it.

      With lots of love to Stockholm
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Like

  19. A really beautiful church.

    And I like the colourful way of sorting books. (I sorted mine according to size. That way I can fit more books on the shelf. 🙂 )

    However, I don’t know a lot about mice at all – and I have never spend a thought on church mice. Well, now I have.

    Excellent post.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Dear Rabirius

      indeed, it is a beautiful church.

      Well, we never ever thought about church mice and now they are our friends. But we have never seen them. It’s like Schrödinger’s paradox they are there and they aren’t.

      Thanks and all the best
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Like

    • Liebe Uschi, lieber Herbert,

      Kirche, BĂŒcher, Blumen, Kuchen alles ist bestens. Das ist Kirchenmaus-Paradies. Wo könnten sie es besser haben? Siri und Selma schauen liebevoll danach, dass es ihnen gut geht.

      Dina möchte einen Trolley, der ein Statement ist, eben einen feschen BĂŒchertrolley. Aber da die Trollys fĂŒr den Transport fĂŒr EinkĂ€ufe gedacht sind, braucht sie wohl eine Spezialanfertigung – oh dear!

      Habt herzlichen Dank’
      Mit lieben GrĂŒĂŸen nach Frankfurt
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  22. Wonderful photos and stories! Mice are very cute; unless they invade one’s home. When the abandoned house next door was finally purchased after 10 years and renovated, all the mice that had been living there moved into my basement. And then quickly made their way upstairs and attempted to take over my kitchen! It took quite some time to evict them as I did not want to hire an exterminator that would spray poison everywhere.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Dear Magic Mermaid

      we are quite happy as the church mice seem to like staying in our church. We live a ten minutes walk from there but fortunately that seems to be a world travel for them. We wouldn’t like the mice in our house. We once had some mice in our house but could catch them with mouse traps. We wouldn’t like poison in our house either.

      Thanks and keep well and happy
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  23. Beautiful church and lovely stories! We had a sweet little one feeding on my bird food last year – but we also have 11 cats around in the neighbourhood…So, this year no mice, lots of cats and me hunting them for spying on my winter birds. Beautiful photography as usual. Loved Klausbernd with trolley and flowers at the entrance. Will there be a book mice printed trolley?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Dear Ann-Christine,

      as we live in the centre of a bird sanctuary there are not not many cats around. Understandably the many birdwatcher living here don’t have cats.

      Indeed, you got it, we are looking for a book mice printed trolley or a trolley printed with pictures of books. Hard to find. But Dina is looking hard for such trolleys.

      Thank you very much for liking our post
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • Dear Steve

      the German word ‘Leseratte’ is a metaphor that started to be used in the 19th century when people devoured (mostly romantic) books like rats devour food. Books are ‘mousy’, because mice like books. ‘BĂŒcher sind mausig’ it’s a highly unusual expression, it’s Dina’s individual expression. Books are mousy because mice like books. Different to ‘Leseratte’ the expression ‘BĂŒcher sind mausig’ isn’t standard German.

      Thanks and cheers
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  25. I love the way you have given the mice such personality. I grew up in an old house plagued with mice. They lived under the floorboards and over time had chewed through the skirting boards. Always in a corner of the room. My brother would stuff the holes with steel wool. It was only as a somewhat older child I realised what a horrible death they must have suffered.
    On the other hand, if you are an Australian farmer and get a mice plague – that is truly terrifying!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Good morning, dear Gwendoline,

      indeed, mice plagues are terrifying. In Central Europe during the middle ages they brought famine and death. The mice ate about a third of the grain.
      We wouldn’t like to have mice in our house but we would use mouse traps. It’s a quick death better than steel wool, we suppose.

      Thanks for your comment
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  26. A very clever and entertaining tale! And I learned some new things, as I always do from these posts. Perhaps these discriminating mice would like a collection of cookbooks or Readers’ Digests? But not The Grapes of Wrath.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Dear Robert

      Readers’ Digest – what a good idea. 👍 Readers’ Digest doesn’t sell anyway and ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ is standing in our shelves at home, out of reach for the church mice.

      Thank you very much for liking our post. It was fun to write it and it inspired Kb to start writing a longer story about the church mice. He does it like a Dichterkatalog (poet’s catalog) in the middle eval literature (z.B. ‘Tristan and Isolde’ by Gotfried von Strassburg).

      Wishing you a wonderful day
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  27. Liebe Fab Four of Cley, Siri, Selma, Diana und Klausbernd,

    vielen Dank fĂŒr Eure schöne Post mit Bild und Text. Die St Margaret’s Church sieht wundervoll aus als HeimstĂ€tte fĂŒr Menschen, MĂ€use und BĂŒcher. Was fĂŒr eine Aufnahme vom angefressenen Scott …

    … da fĂ€llt mir mein Lieblings-Schotte ein, Robert Burns und sein Gedicht: “To a mouse, on turning her up in her nest, with the plough, November 1785”. Den Originaltext findet Ihr in Eurer feinen Bibliotek. Eine Übersetzung teile ich:

    “An eine Maus, die er mit ihrem Neste aufgeplĂŒgt hatte, November 1785

    Klein furchtsam Tierchen! Welch ein Schrecken

    ErfĂŒllt dein BrĂŒstchen, so durch Hecken

    Und Furchen dich zum Lauf zu strecken?

     Bleib! nicht so jach!

    Nicht setz’ ich mit dem PflĂŒgerstecken

     Grausam dir nach!

    Der Mensch – betrĂŒbt gesteh’ ich’s ein! –

    Brach der Natur geselligen Reihn!

    Mißtrauisch drum fliehst du feldein:

     Voll Furcht, dir schade

    Dein armer Mitgeschnaffner – dein

     Staubkamerade!

    Mag sein, du gehst auf Diebstahl aus;

    Gut! mußt ja leben, kleine Maus!

    Manchmal vom Schock [60 StĂŒck] ein Ährchen kraus

     Ist klein Begehren!

    Der Rest bringt Segen mir ins Haus –

     Ich kann’s entbehren!”

    Aus: Robert Burns, Liebe und Freiheit. Lieder und Gedichte, Zweisprachig, Herausgegeben von Rudi Camerer, in Zusammenarbeit mit Rosemary Selle, Horst Meller und Joachim Utz, Verlag Lambert Schneider, Heidelberg 1988, Seite 109

    Seid herzlich gegrĂŒĂŸt von Bernd

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Lieber Bernd

      habe herzlichen Dank fĂŒr die Übersetzung des Gedichtes von Burns.

      Burns and Scott trafen sich nur kurz einmal in dem literarischen Salon in Science Hill House. Dieses Treffen ĂŒbte einen großen Einfluss auf Scott aus und nun liegt er angeknabbert als MĂ€usefutter in unserer Kirche.
      Am 25. Januar wird hier ĂŒberall Burns Day gefeiert, obwohl wir weit von Schottland entfernt sind.

      Mit lieben GrĂŒĂŸen vom heute sonnigen Meer

      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • Dear June,

      it’s not such a problem. They are nice church mice only nibbling on books we would otherwise dispose.
      We had a look at Graham Oakley’s books and found them charming.

      Thanks for commenting.
      Wishing you a happy day
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • Liebe Belana Hermine,

      unsere MĂ€use sind liebenswĂŒrdige KirchenmĂ€use. Sie knabbern nur die BĂŒcher an, die sonst im Altpapier gelandet wĂ€ren. Siri vermutet, dass sie neue BĂŒcher nicht anknabbern, wegen der verĂ€nderten Zusammensetzung des Papiers.

      Mit lieben GrĂŒĂŸen vom kleinen Dorf am großen Meer
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Like

  33. I had a few good chuckles from this post, Klaus, though I am certain it is not a funny surprise to find your wonderful books nibbled. I guess it’s all part of being in this beautiful historic sanctuary. Loved all the references to the literary mice and lol at the computer mouse with the tail. Beautiful photos and kudos to Dina, managing to capture the immensity and grandeur of this church. And wow, the flower arrangements here are superb.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Good morning, dear Jet,

      thank you very much for commenting and for liking Dina’s photos. For Dina it was easy to provide pictures as she is just working on a guide to our church. And Kb is just writing a longer text about church mice. This post is a kind of a summary of ‘The Adventures of the Church Mice’.

      We have a group of local flower ladies who decorate our church regularly. They do that really well.

      Wishing you and Athena a wonderful weekend
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  34. I have a little mouse that lives in a drainpipe nearby and visits in the evening to nosh on seed spilled from the bird feeders. I’m sure my house-mouse would enjoy some of those beautiful cakes, but I do wonder about the purpose of the gnawed books. The pages could serve as nourishment, I suppose, but I’d be willing to bet just a bit on the mice using them as nesting material. Baby mice being raised in the midst of book leaves might become more intelligent and crafty than those raised in tree leaves!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Dear Linda,

      we suppose that the gnawed pages are nourishment as well as for building nests. But we never saw a nest.

      Siri and Selma want a cute house mouse as well.

      With love from the sunny sea
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    • The idea of using the books as nesting material is very interesting, Linda. Yesterday cleared out the space underneath the table. The table is covered with a heavy velvet lined cloth. Look what we found inside the cloth!:

      Liked by 2 people

    • Dear Mary

      for mice books are tasty, we suppose.
      The church is from the middle ages when Cley was an important harbour.

      Thanks for commenting
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

  37. Wow, between the magnificent façade of St. Margaret’s and the super-clever story, I don’t know where to begin. The photos are too wonderful. To go from a straightforward, classically perfect photo of the handsome church on a gloomy day to the photo of a chewed-up Scott volume with a dead mouse AND the still life with flowers, mice and gnawed books takes a certain kind of mind. A mind that embraces contradictions and loves life. The photo of Klaus with the hot pink, flower-strewn trolley standing with his deadpan expression in front of the church entrance is hilarious! (And what impressive floral arrangements those are!!). 

    We don’t have a garage so cars are left in the driveway, to be coated with snow and pollen…and to be utilized by certain small rodents. We think it’s a small squirrel called Douglas squirrel but it could be a chipmunk or it could be a mouse. In any case, Joe discovered torn tissues in his car last month. You’d think the little creature was building a nice nest but the the tissues are left in place, just chewed up. The creature moves from the glove compartment to the pocket in the door, always finding and chewing on white tissues. They won’t touch unbleached, recycled brown napkins. It has to be white. And Joe hasn’t seen any droppings. Maybe he should leave a book in the car and see what happens….meanwhile, we have an amusing mystery, our own version of the church mouse. Thank you for a delightful post and have a wonderful weekend!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Dear Lynn

      Thank you very much for your kind words. We are very happy that you like our post. Klausbernd was very much taken by writing about our church mice. It inspired him to write a longer story about church mice and their food. Dina has photographed our church in every weather and from every angle as she just does the photography for a church guide book.

      Our skillfull flower ladies decorate our church regularly. They do a great job.

      If there are mice in the car, you can feed them with old battered books. That’s their favourite meal.
      We don’t see much mice droppings in our church. Maybe we have to scrutinise the dark corners under our table where we store our books.
      At home we have books with book worm. We hope they are gone to some other library now. Fortunately these book worms are not as greedy as the church mice.

      With warm greetings from the cold sea
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  38. Dina ~ here’s something else to consider re: the possibility of books as nesting material. Twice in the past few years I’ve taken my car in for service and had the technician present me with a nicely chewed-up cabin or engine filter. It seems that mice and rats adore the soft filter material, and will carry off bits of it for nesting. They’re opportunistic, our little rodents, and if books present an opportunity, it makes sense to me that they’d take similar advantage of it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Dear Linda

      We suppose it’s both, they eat it and use it as material for their nests. But we didn’t find any nests.
      Fortunately, we don’t have mice in our car – at least we and our garage didn’t notice.

      For a story the church mice have to eat books like Firmin the rat that was born in “Finnegan’s Wake” in the novel by Sam savage. As Siri 🙂 and Klausbernd live in a world of books, the book eating mice gives them the opportunity to write about the books, their world.

      Thanks for commenting.
      All the best
      The Fab Four of Cley
      🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  39. A very nice post. Thank you. A beautiful church despite the mice… who seem to have good taste though.

    I just donated loads of my books to the local French LycĂ©e, sans souris, I hope…

    Take care.

    Like

    Reply

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