Critters in the Garden

I have this little circular rock garden up close to the driveway and there is a hypertufia bird bath that a friend made me that sits on a stump in the center of the bed. For the winter I had turned the birdbath upside down on top of the stump so it wouldn't collect water and break. It looked like a giant mushroom. On one of those warm days we had in late March I was sitting there looking at the violas starting to bloom and I noticed that the bird bath stump was slumping on one side. It was bugging me that it now seemed off -center too, maybe because most of the plants were still dormant around it. So I decided to re-center it. I had to lift the top off carefully to move the stump. Imagine my surprise- and the little mouse's, when I revealed a nest. How it had slipped under the birdbath top, which seemed to fit flat on the top of the stump I don't know. But it had and it had hollowed out quite a deep depression in the top of the stump under the bird bath. It filled that depression with wool-hair from the sheep, which it had to travel at least 100 feet to get. So until I disturbed it it had quite a cozy home for the winter. It is amazing what animals do. I let the poor thing have his nest for a while longer. He is probably warmer than we are in the house since the furnace is out and the temps are only in the 30's. Oh, I wish spring was here.