Mice, peas and Timmy Willie

A recent discovery: mice love peas.

I have been looking at the packaging on a new range of Moulin Roty mice, and notice that the little mouse family is depicted shelling peas.

And since I've mentioned the new mice (plus I did promise you some Cottontails toys in my next blog post) I might as well introduce them to you. They are a little family of three - Zaza  mummy mouse, Zephyr daddy mouse and Zoe baby mouse. Each mouse comes in a lovely box - complete with pea-shelling illustration.

Big daddy mouse - Zephyr is £37.50

Medium sized mummy mouse - Zaza is £30

Little baby mouse - Zoe is £24

And all this mouse / pea business got me thinking about an illustration in one of my favourite books - the Tale of Johnny Town Mouse by Beatrix Potter. You probably know the story - it's that old town mouse / country mouse fable.

At the start of the story Timmy Willie (country mouse) makes his way into a vegetable hamper and just look what happens...

Yep. Under the influence of too many peas Timmy Willie falls asleep in the hamper (... and wakes up in the town, yikes).

So you see, mice seem very fond of peas.

And if you Google the subject, it seems there is quite a vibrant community of gardeners out there battling the little creatures. Take this quote from the RHS's online 'garden community'.

 Packets of peas and beans generally come with instructions to sow them in the ground where they are to grow. It sounds good enough, but it puzzles me because the instructions don’t take into account a certain small mammal - the mouse.

It made me smile anyway - but then I'm not trying to grow any peas this year :)