This little daring ermine was is in our kitchen in Bradley, Maine over the holidays. With our house in mid-renovation and having been briefly uninhabited, it’s hard to say when it came to visit. The good news? We haven’t had any more run-ins with the tiny mouse which ate two houseplants the week before. Like, devoured them. The little nibbler even gnawed partway through our wild grown Maine avocado plant.

Thankfully, Ava Cado made a full recovery.

We cleared land with goats last fall and one of them left behind an avocado pit. It took root, and was an impressive foot-tall with six big leaves. I found it growing wild in the Maine woods out to camp where the goat pasture had been months before. So naturally, when we moved, I named her Ava Goat Cado and potted her up. Little did I know she would be in more danger as a doted upon house plant.

We seem to have a thing for houseplants that made their way into our lives in odd ways. Fabio Von Chivesworth was a chive plant Danny had given me for mother’s day two years ago—between when we were sailors on YOLO and leaving for our next adventure driving an RV from Maine to Alaska. So we brought him along for 12,000 miles meandering our way there and back. Now he lives in a solo cup full of glacial sand from Kluane Lake for potting soil, since it got dumped a few times and was low.