And then it was Winter...

Evenings cool as ice and frosty mornings,

a sudden need to have the fire on in the morning ( too ), as our rental house, especially the downstairs area, turns into a wee li'l fridge, over night.

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Days ago, I discovered a small rodent, apparently called a vole ( 'woelmuis' in Dutch ), in the outdoors compost toilet.

Luckily for the wee critter, the toilet was clean ( not being poo-ed and pee-ed in yet ). It had probably been looking for warmth. There were leaves and earth inside the bucket and it might have seemed like a nest of sorts for it. The thing hadn't been able to jump out of the bucket, after jumping in, though.

I discovered it, in time, and set it free.

This morning, @clareartista discovered these two furry friends inside the compost bucket. Once again, the toilet was clean. I had taken care of that, yesterday, but over night the mice/voles had either gotten so cold or run out of energy, trying to climb out and not managing to do so, that they were barely alive when Clare discovered them.

She lifted them out by their li'l tails and laid them down in the sun.

When I took the above picture, an hour or two later, it seemed like they had passed on peacefully.

Now it's up to nature to recycle them. The beautiful circle of life.

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I'm about to bake pancakes for second breakfast, as Clare took care of breakfast #1 and started the fire.

Afterwards, it will be time to get more firewood, as it's very much a priority this time of the year.

We have been blessed with a very lengthy/stretched 'Summer'/mild Autumn, up till recently and even now the sun is still shining a handful of hours per day.

Whenever this isn't the case, it's freezing though and we need to stay warm to keep the energy moving and our creativity and life force flowing.

I hope you stay cosy yourself, wherever you are :<)

Sending love and a hug from Central Portugal!