St. Stephen's Day

Dear friends -

Within 24 hours we have gone from celebrating Our Lord's birth into this world with joy and gladness, to remembering a very brave man called Stephen, who we can read about in Acts 6. Faith (our human friend) tells us that her vicar (Francis) mentioned this strange leap in his sermon today: with the birth of Jesus, angels descended to herald the Messiah's presence in the world; and the (liturgical) day after the same angels took Stephen home to be with God in the Heavenly Kingdom, bringing us hope for our faith, and justification in the Lord we worship.

Stephen was a very special man. He was commissioned by the disciples and the early church to serve those in need so that the disciples themselves could continue to teach the word of God. He became known as a man full of power and grace, performing many great and wonderful signs among the people in God's name.

Some people, however, were unhappy when they saw the work that St. Stephen was undertaking and so they tried to argue with him, but Stephen (who was blessed with the Spirit) could not be overcome by their words, and so they incited other men to lie and report Stephen to the authorities for being blasphemous. Stephen was stoned for his words. As he was being stoned, he prayed for the forgiveness of those who were putting him to death, and then died.

St. Stephen means a lot to the Caerphillian Mice. Here in Ambert, we have just found peace with the cats who, in ages past, persecuted us. It is so hard to be forgiving and loving to people who have hurt us, hated us, and made us suffer, yet forgiveness ushers in God's glory. As we see later in Acts, Barnabas goes to great lengths to welcome Saul into the Church - despite Saul approving Stephen's killing - and Saul goes on to become the great St. Paul, whose letters we continue to read today. By welcoming cats into our communities today, we hope we continue on in the spirit of Stephen, Barnabas, and the early church, because we forgive those who have persecuted us, and welcome them into our earthly family of God. Nowadays cats don't pick mice up by their tails to hurt them, but instead, they hold mouse tails down, whilst the baby mice bungee jump down tall chairs! God came to the world to make a divine and holy love open to every mouse, cat, human or donkey, so that in His Heavenly Kingdom, we can be one with the Father. How much happier is life in forgiveness!

May you continue your journey in peace this Christmas!

God bless you and squeek you,

Love,
Ella xxx

Merry Christmas!

Dear Micefriends,

We hope you are having a wonderful Christmas, and that Christ is born into your hearts today. We are all resting in the love of Christ this evening, having been working very hard to get this book to you today. I hope that you enjoy it. (The book can be found by clicking the icon below):

With lots of love,

Ella and all the mice at Ambert xxx

Twas the night before Christmas...

Twas the night before Christmas,
When all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring...
... except maybe a mouse!

Dear friends,

How great it is to be so close to ushering in the Prince of Peace! We can scarcely contain ourselves! Faith and I will be off to midnight mass shortly, whilst the mice, the cats, the dogs and the sheep are sleeping soundly dreaming of the day to come! Baby Belle has been very excited, and has already been taking a mischevious peek in her gifts, and Buttons is much more in the Spirit of the Season now then she had been, thanks to our suprise breakfast for her!

We are looking forward to giving our Christmas gift to you all tomorrow, and we will be working harder than santa's elves making the finishing touches tonight, but we leave you tonight with a little prayer to welcome in the Christ Child.

Little Jesus, come softly, to our sleeping world,
and wake our eyes gently to your glorious grace.
Messiah, and saviour, crowned prince of peace,
we're awaiting for your birth, for the whole earth's release.

God bless you and squeek you,
Ella xxx

Faith Writes - Thank you!

Hi there,

I've taken over the keyboard today both so that I can send you all a quick message, and give Ella McCheddar a well earnt rest! I can hardly believe that we have had 500 pageviews in less than our first month of being active on this blog - for little old me, that is quite amazing, because I didn't imagine I'd get much interest from these posts.

THANK YOU!!!

As you may have read elsewhere on this blog, I am the human friend of Ella McCheddar... and feel like I am just as busy as these Caerphilly Mice! Despite this, though, we have a special gift which we hope to bring to you on Christmas Day, to thank you for your readership. (I'd love to tell you what that is, but Old Mother Sally might tell me off for ruining the suprise if I do). In the meantime, then, please excuse our brief, if not absent posts... we only really began planning this gift this week, so there is lots of work to get done to get it online in time... especially inbetween my essays!

Before I sign out for the night, however, I wanted to encourage you to please find some way of letting me know what you think of this blog, or simply let me know you've visited. If you have your own blogger/google account you can 'follow' me directly on this page. With Twitter you can do the same, but you could also follow our Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/EllaMcCheddar which will always be updated when there is a new post. We are still busy getting our facebook page off the ground, but if you want to be one of the first people to see us there then please click this link to our facebook page. Don't forget to squeek about us to your friends too... we rely upon you to help us to meet more people.

I hope you are all blessed with a wonderful Christmas!

With love,

Faith xxx

Missing you!

Dear friends...!

Oh how much work there is to do in Ambert...
I am tired just from making the lists! We have been so busy baking cakes, dispatching cheese parcels, and helping some of our animal friends that we have fallen terribly behind on our work here. Advent disappears in a heartbeat, and yet we feel we often miss out terribly on the wait for Jesus. Our human friend, Faith, has also been busy, and so she has not been around as much to motivate our little mouse world. We do apologise we have so much left to do...

Sadly, due to the bad weather, our nativity has been postponed, which means whilst we will still be sending friends out in the world over Christmas, most of them won't be sporting Mother Sally's home made nativity costumes... instead you will find pictures of general winter fun, such as snowballing cats, excitable dogs, and a lot of Baby Belle's mischevious fun! And of course, these cards will still help vulnerable children by giving a donation to The Frank Buttle Trust which we predict will total approximately £100. We also have stories from our Great British Tea Party to come shortly.

Thankfully, we are able to keep at least some people distracted over this busy time... Baby Belle is in her element at this time of year; she loves the colours, but most of all... the sweet treats! Until we are able to post again, we feel that a good way to end this post is to leave you all a little picture of her.

With love,

Ella xxx

The Cat that got the Cream

A few days ago we mentioned a conversation we had with a lady called Pheasie on Twitter, who replied to us when we asked what charitable deeds the mouse community in Ambert should undertake in the next few months. Pheasie's (very wonderful) answer was to:

"Buy a bunch of flowers for someone who looks sad and see the surprise and happiness on their face".

We thought this was a wonderful idea, as we knew some cats that did seem to be in need of some smiles, and now we can tell you how our mission went.

Everybody knows that it is very difficult to make a cat smile... you have to work hard for their love! For Caerphillian Mice, however, it is exceptionally difficult because for many years cats and mice have been enemies. We are now much more friendly, but cats still err on the side of caution with us, being much more ready to pounce than to purr.

Our plan began very early in the morning: Samuel Pittance was sent to the dairy to choose our finest cream and bring it home to Old Mother Sally and Baby Belle and her teacher Miss. Jervaulx went into the fields to handpick the flowers whilst Mother Sally and I rolled up our sleeves and to cook fresh fish for our cat friends.

We knew that Buttons would probably visit us quite early today, along with Smarties and Crunchie (her sisters) because they had got a job in the local farm chasing birds (which we prefer a lot more than them being employed to eat mice). Unfortunately, cats can't fit into Old Mother Sally's house, so we set up the dining table in the Church instead and decided to meet our cat-friends there.

As we set up the table, Baby Belle and Miss. Jervaulx arrived home with some massive bouquets of flowers for the three cats. Miss. Jervaulx hadn't realised how hard it would be for a mouse to find flowers in winter, but thankfully Scamp the dog was able to help her collect some that his keeper had been growing in the greenhouse. Miss. Jervaulx was quite suprised, as she knows that not many dogs want to help to make a cat smile; but as Scamp rightly pointed out, not many mice do either!

Not long after Miss. Jervaulx and Baby Belle had arrived home, Samuel scurried into the Church with two of his friends from the dairy. "Quick", he shouted "they're coming!" (He had heard the jingling of the cat bells approaching). We ran underneath the pew, as Mother Sally poured the cream into her saucers... the last of the cream had only just splashed onto the fine china when we heard a "miaow" at the door.

"Come in, Buttons!" said Old Mother Sally calmly, "we were just waiting for you..."

Buttons, Crunchie and Smarties delicately hooked their little white paws around the dark oak door, so that they could slip through the gap, and the candlelight illuminated their large green eyes.

"SUPRISE" we yelled, as we jumped out from underneath the pew.

Oh, how suprised those tall moggies looked as they purred, smiled and licked us all with thanks... they truly appeared as happy as the cat that got the cream!!!

"We did not realise how kind you mice could be" exlaimed Buttons, "we are so sorry for being your enemies for so long. Thank you for being our purr-fect friends."

Today, the Caerphillian mice feel like we have found very special friends too, since it was only because of our cat friends (and the help of Pheasie) that we learnt just how special it is to share happiness and love. We may not be able to give our cat-friends posh toys, collars or scratch posts... but by giving what we can afford with generous hearts, even the littlest mouse can make a difference!

God bless you and squeek you,

Ella xxx

Walking in a Winter Wonderland...

Sleighbells ring, are you listening???

Hello micelovers, cheeselovers, and Jesus lovers...

Today the 'sleighbells' are not Santa's emerging, but they are the sounds of the bells on the collars of Buttons, Smarties and Crunchie (the cats) who are playing out in the snow, enjoying snowball fights with Scamp the dog, whilst we mice enjoy the sight!

Our decorations are all done, although we've not done the pictures yet to post, but Mother Sally and I are struggling to get the cats excited about Christmas, whilst keeping Scamp and Baby Belle calm!

We decided to go for a walk this afternoon through Ambert, and some of the surrounding Yorkshire villages, and were quite surprised by how many different things we saw: sad faces, happy faces, worried faces, tired faces... all of these things in this time that is meant to be the peaceful, expectant wait of Advent. Are our friends just under pressure because of the approach for Christmas - or are they like this all the time, and we just notice it more now? I don't really know... but when talking to the micefolk, we wanted to remind you all that the big lunch, presents and festivities should not be at the cost of the sanity of busy mothers or the happiness of families... it goes against their meaning. Caerphilly mice do enjoy celebrations... but they are rarely perfect. We don't mind that Baby Belle's stocking has been patched up and passed down for generations, because she simply enjoys the magical idea that something special is coming to fruition: the gifts at the end of the bed are so insignificant when compared to the gifts that await us in the Kingdom of God; and our most carefully prepared Christmas lunch cannot compare to the Lord's banquet feast!

We know that we all, like you, will get so busy over the next few days... but take time to remember the good things, and find peace in the arms of God.

With love,

Ella xxx

Deck the Halls...

Hello lovely friends!

Today in Ambert we are hard at work making our homes and church look very pretty, as Christmas draws nearer... but we have been having far too much fun to be finished! We were joined by a little dog called Scamp, who has had a lot of fun chasing the baubles that Baby Belle has been dropping. Our new friend Buttons the cat, and her sisters Crunchie and Smarties also came in to say hi, but they aren't very festive yet... we hope we'll be able to cheer them up a bit this year, especially now that we are friends!

It is so enchanting to see the little ones play as us grown ups try to tidy up the mess they are making... so maybe it will prove to be infectious? Although I've been full of flu again today, I have been watching little mice running up and down the street and feel very enchanted by it. At least the little micefolk were being sensible though - all wrapped up warm in hats, scarfs and gloves - can you believe that some grown-up mice aren't wearing them? Quite frankly, I'm secretly glad I've got the sniffles, at least I can stay near the fire... enjoying a nice hot cup of tea too! The decorations will soon be complete, and we'll be having a Christingle service in the next few weeks too... oh, those oranges! We mice like a few cubes of cheese on those cocktail sticks, but we sometimes sneak the odd sweet on them too.

In other news, I got a message from Pheasie today via Twitter, because I had been asking what kind of gestures and charitable deeds our mouse community should do (we think self improvement for Jesus' name is always a good thing). She wrote:

"Buy a bunch of flowers for someone who looks sad and see the suprise and happiness on their face"

We thought that was a wonderful idea!!! As I mentioned earlier in this post,our new cat-friends are seeming quite sad at the moment... so we really want to cheer them up! We might even be able to give them some warm cream too when they next visit (but don't tell them, we'd like it to be a suprise!)Thank you Pheasie, you are very right that small gestures make a happier world... we'll let you know how our plan
goes!

Love,

Ella xxx

Poorly Ella...

Ella is a little bit full of mouse flu today, so we're afraid we don't have anything to post tonight... but just to keep you on your toes, we thought we'd post a picture of this unusually elegant feline... Buttons is one of three sisters who our micefolk have befriended and she is... a CAT! We think this must be historical progress for mouse-cat relations... At this special time we would find it squeekingly amazing if you could remember: forgive those who traspass against you. God is with the peacemakers (and, as Ella reminds us tonight, he is with the sneezemakers too). Life is better in love, not war, and so on this note, have good night-nibbley-night. With love from us all, and sneezes from Ella!xxxx

The (Nearly) Ten O'Clock Tea News...

Dear friends!

We have some very exciting news to share with you this evening! The Caerphillian Mice will be holding a very special tea party in the next week or so, as part of Yorkshire Tea's Great British Tea Party! Although originally Welsh, our micefolk have lived in Wensleydale for many years, and are very proud drinkers of Yorkshire Tea! After all, not many drinks go better with Cheese!

Here at Ambert, we are very proud of our community spirit... and very few things are better than when old and young are able to get together around a teapot and share laughter and love (especially for a good cause)! We hope to be posting our cyber invite on our blog very soon, with details of when our adventure shall go 'live' so watch this space! There will be a full story with this event!

We will also be posting our first Christmas mouse tale in the next few days to mirror our excitement over The Frank Buttle Trust's rebranding into Buttle UK. Faith will be writing more about why she is proud to support this amazing cause, so if you find a Christmas card pushed through your door, then watch this space!

For now though, I must bit you all a warm and cosy night. Essays await and there are three cats on the prowl watching us tonight!!

God bless you and squeek you,

With love,

Ella xxx

A cat's life

She sits gazing into the glowing fire, her eyes screwed up at the brightness. Her paws tucked beneath her chest as she sits almost calm, yet still, so silently aware. This is the creature we mice are trained to fear.

Her delicate black nose and fine little whiskers do not deceive us micefolk... she is the one who can steal life in a heartbeat. Her kind, and our kind have been rivals for centuries; since Tom Cat and his decendents waged war on our cheesemakers in Caerphilly all those years ago. Yet as we walk quietly past this housecat today, in the quiet solitude that the winter weather brings, we are not afraid. For as Saint Nibble assured us, in the words of our Lord:

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass by the cat, I'll be with you;

and near their paws, they shall not catch you;

when you fall near the food bowl they shall not see you,
and the cat will not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One, your Saviour,
I gave Saint Nibble for your liberation,

and brought you into safety.

Because you are precious in my eyes,

and honoured, and I love you.
I give edam in return for you,

and fine cheesemakers in exchange for your life.

Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from out of the sofa,

and from the skirting boards I will gather you.
I will say to the kittens 'Give them up'

and to the owls 'Do not withhold;

bring my sons from far away,

and my daughters from the fields -

everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed, gave squeeks to, and made."

(Saint Nibble's assurance - paraphrased from Isaiah 43:1-7)

Introducing... Old Mother Sally Salers.

Dear friends,

Today I want to introduce to you Old Mother Sally Salers: the mouse with the house which is never empty. No one quite knows how old Mother Sally is... some say she has been alive since Saint Nibble's time, although she does look too young for that! Whatever her age, our mouse community knows her for her hospitality, love and care. Whenever a little waif or stray is found in the field, it is always Sally who opens her skirting board door, and ushers our new friends into the warmth.

Her home is modest and small, with match box beds, and handkerchief quilts... nothing is ever wasted. The kindly smell of home cooking on the tealight stove lingers through the air, like a hug for her babies returning home, or for the latest addition to be ushered through her door. Her rule of life is a simple one: God has blessed her, and given her good cheese throughout the life. She works hard to extend her fortune to others. After all, what is better to see: one mother mouse feeling happy on her own; or a whole host of little mice who are laughing, playing and growing, blessed with the love God has shared with her? Mother Sally never feels happy when she sees someone else hurting, and I guess it is through her love that she earnt her name as 'Old Mother' Sally Salers... She is so well known in the mouse community, that she even has her own little song that the baby mice in Ambert sing to her:

Old Mother Sally Salers ties her pinny at the front,

she loves baking cookies,

and distracting kittens from the hunt.
Old Mother Sally Salers is synonymous with care,
because when little mice are crying
Mother Sally's always there.

If you ever come and visit us, Mother Sally will be pleased to meet you! Maybe next time you find a friend stranded and in need, you might think of Mother Sally and help them too?

God bless you and squeek you.

With love,

Ella xxx

(PS. We'll try to put a picture up of Mother Sally soon, but she's a little bit camera shy!)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Dear Friends,

Many of us here at Saint Nibble's Church are finding ourselves snowed in again today... we micefolk often wondered why we referred to 'blankets' of snow, as we don't feel very warm! We have since learnt, however, that snow actually keeps the earth below it warm! I can hardly believe my whiskers, but here is the sciencey bit for your cheesing pleasure.

Anyway, we are very glad to be fortunate enough to have built community cheese stores which are well supplied in this awful weather... most of us are curled up in the warmth, sharing cheese-on-toast, cheese cake, and well... most other things made of cheese! We hope that you are all finding yourselves equally comfortable on this cold and snowy night.

Whilst human world can try to continue turning in the snow, it proves to be much more difficult for us, because we are only tiny mice! One of our mice however has been fortunate enough to observe a snowy Christian love elsewhere in Yorkshire tonight. Samuel Pittance, one of our specialist news reporters, attended the scene where hundreds of tall people and big lorries were stranded on the A57, after severe weather made conditions impossible to travel. Fortunately, kind Methodists in South Anston, Sheffield opened their chapel to provide stranded drivers food, hot drinks, warmth and somewhere to shelter overnight. Samuel reports that the stranded lorries on the A57 have begun to move again this evening, but that the stranded drivers had been touched by the generosity that South Anston had shown. He commented that:

"Sometimes, we must take a step back, and thank God for the adversity we witness unexpectedly... it is in these moments (usually out of our control) that acts of kindness breakthrough and show the world that love can always overcome our troubles. A kindness, which in this case, came so naturally and effortlessly to the community in South Anston has penetrated the heart of all those who found themselves stranded over the past couple of nights. We give thanks and praise for their generosity!"

The Caerphillian Mice here in Ambert would like to echo Samuel's praise of the Methodists in South Anston. We are inspired by your witness and example and we hope you can enjoy some yummy cheese as a reward for your efforts!

God bless you and squeek you,

Ella xxx

Holy God,

Your example shines in witness like star that guided Kings through the sky,

Help us to break through clouds that block out the light.

Be with us and fill us with Your love

which snow can't chill nor rain subdue.

Today we especially thank you for the example set by the Methodists in South Anston, who in loving service bore witness to your love today.

May we all be open to Your ways of working,
however unplanned they may seem.

Shepherd us in, and show us Your will,

in Jesus' name.

Amen x

News of our seasonal adventure!

Dear friends,

Many of you will not yet know that the Caerphillian Mice of Saint Nibble's Church have a special human friend. Her name is Faith, and she works very closely with me (Ella) to help us visit more of the world. She has arranged a very exciting expedition for the Caerphillian Mice which we are now delighted to announce.

With the help of Faith, we will be visiting households throughout the United Kingdom on some very special Christmas Cards. These cards will feature our parishioners here at Saint Nibbles acting out scenes of the nativity in squeekingly special ways. Unfortunately, Caerphillian Mice can not be bought, and neither can these cards... but we will be posting photos of the cards in late December, so that you can share in our exciting adventure.

Faith and I have been making these cards, because Faith felt that so much money can be spend on Christmas products, but the percentage charities actually recieve is minimal. We have therefore decided to donate as much as possible to The Frank Buttle Trust in January, as Faith will not be purchasing cards from local stores. Of course, the charity welcomes individual donations too, so please do visit their page.

In the meantime though, we'd like to hear what ideas you have for our January mission? St. Nibble's Church likes supporting charitable causes and promoting awareness of specific issues, as well as sharing with you our daily news. Please get in touch by leaving comments at the end of this post, or by contacting us on Twitter or on our new Facebook page.

God bless you and squeek you,

Love Ella xxx