Little Cotton Rabbits

in week one we...

... went berry picking

 

 

followed the same day by jam making

 

and then by jam eating!

 

 

Despite my best attempts I've misjudged it again and this year's batch is definitely soft-set jam. Still, it tastes good and we had fun.

summer hols

Well, you'd never think it by the weather (which has been far more March flavoured than July) but here we are again at the start of the long summer break. This one is slightly different as it marks a major transition point for Amy, who says goodbye to junior school today and is getting ready to be a senior from september. I'm so grateful (and relieved) that she's incredibly excited about it.

As usual we're not having a family summer holiday because it's just too difficult with Toby so I'm whipping up a little summer holiday kit for Amy including a batch of summer holiday vouchers - lots of little fun things that we can do together while Toby is at summer clubs or being looked after by H. I had thought Amy might have grown too old for these but she informs me she'll never be too old for them and it wouldn't be summer without them! This year treats include regulars like camp out in the garden, berry picking and trip to the farm shop, shopping trip with £10 spending money, lunch at a restaurant, trip to the cinema, picnic with a friend, trip to a museum, sleepover with a friend etc.

 

If you'd like some to use with your own family, you're welcome to print some off from here Download Vouchers

Anyway, there have been a few breaks in the cloud today so I'm off to spend the last few hours of peace at the end of the garden with my one-a-day blankie which continues to grow slowly but surely.

 

 

 

 

Wishing everyone a good summer/winter depending on your hemisphere. Will pop in here when I can, so see you soon  x

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PS: Thank you so very much for all of the kind comments on the previous post. Comments I'll treasure and am very grateful for. I hope I didn't make anyone who has simply asked about patterns for the animals feel bad for just asking - that was not my intention. I just wanted to explain some of my thoughts and feelings x

story time

Just recently I've had more messages than ever asking me to write up my animal patterns but it's something that I'm just not in a position to do just yet. There are several reasons for this, some personal, some financial and some to do with time and the pleasurable spending of it. All of my reasons are valid to me but are not necessarily understandable to anyone else because they are born out of my personal situation, so I'm not going to write them down here and invite public debate. I do hope though that circumstances will change for me and that I'll be able to share my patterns at some point in the future

Although thinking about writing up the patterns has put me in mind of a very, very old tale that I once heard, it's an allegory of sorts I believe.

 

 

There once was a girl who lived in a far off land (nowhere near here you understand). She loved to bake and thought a day incomplete without making at least one sweet treat to share with her friends and family.

Her friends and family were delighted by the delicacies that she made and suggested that she begin to sell her wares so that the people of the village could enjoy them too. And so the girl put up notices on nearby trees and soon there were a few people dropping by her kitchen each day to buy what she had baked. Over time news of the girl who baked spread across the land and soon there were queues of people standing outside the small cottage where the girl baked. Often many people went away with nothing as there was simply not enough to go around and sometimes people even squabbled over a particularly delicious looking cake. This made the girl feel sad. When she had been baking for just her family and friends she could keep everyone happy, but there was no way in the world that she could please all of the strangers on her doorstep.

She started to get notes through her letterbox. Some notes were from people who believed that one of her cakes would help heal a loved one or make a sad child happy. She tried her best to make cakes for everyone, wanting to bring happiness to others with her handmade treats but again she could only help a few. There were notes too from people who wanted her to write down her recipes because they believed that was all they needed to make exactly the same cakes and some people even called her selfish for not sharing her recipes with them.

When she baked the girl felt true peace in her heart and she often sang as her fingers kneaded dough or stirred batter. But when she had to face the queue of expectant people at her door she began to feel worried that she made some of them discontented and a little grain of sadness crept into the girl's life.

One day a note arrived from a book vendor who offered to publish her recipes so that others could make her cakes in their own homes. The girl thought long and hard because writing down the recipes and testing them would take a lot of time and meant there would be no time for baking for many, many weeks and baking was truly her joy in life. Still, she bowed to the pressure of the people and laid down her apron and set to work testing and writing and testing some more.

At last the day came when the book was finished and many people arrived on her doorstep to buy copies of the girl's recipes. This time everyone went away happily and the girl was happy too, for a time.

But, as is so often the way in these stories, there was not a happy ending, for many people were unable to make their cakes exactly the same as the ones the girl had made. And so the notes began to arrive again. Notes from people who had made cakes from the girl's recipes but who had not been able to reproduce the same lightness of sponge or creaminess of buttercream. To begin with the girl wrote back with suggestions and tips and tried her very hardest to help the people reproduce her cakes. She found that some people had used margarine instead of butter or stirred with a metal spoon instead of wooden and yet had still expected to make a cake exactly like those made by the girl.

Soon the postman was arriving with mail each day from people who wrote things like 'these cannot be the recipes that you use, you have lied to us'; 'this recipe is too complicated and fiddly and the results are poor'; 'I don't see how you can get decent cakes from this recipe' and other unjust and hurtful things. Because, as the girl knew from experience, people can sometimes be that way when they do not get what they want.

The girl returned to her baking, but the simple joy that she had once felt was tarnished and she no longer sang as she baked. What remaining pleasure there was in her baking slowly ebbed away with the arrival of each new note, until finally none remained at all and the girl put away her apron, never to bake another morsel for the rest of her life.

Of course this is just a story, but I can't help thinking that if only the girl had just stuck with the baking that she was good at and that brought peace to her heart well, then this story could have had a happier ending. Perhaps not for everyone who didn't manage to buy a cake from the girl, but in my experience not many people get everything that they want in life.

 ;)

mixed fortunes

Toby had a couple of hours of respite on Saturday which went quite well. He's visiting for a few hours at a time and building up to a full day at the end of August. It was lovely to have a little weekend time to myself (Amy was busy writing a story) and I made the most of it by dodging the rain showers and tidying up the fruit and veg beds.

Some things have done really well this year - french beans among them. These are a delicious yellow variety called Rocquencourt and we've had loads.

 

Other things have not grown so well, including my potatoes. I dug up a whole potato sack that I'd planted with 5 tubers back in March and this was all I got for my weeks of careful tending!

 

Pretty pathetic really, my harvest doesn't even fill a small paper bag!

 

Don't think I'll be bothering with tatties next year, unless anyone has any good growing tips?

23!

At last I'm finishing off that big old batch of knitted animals that I've been working on for the last 2 months.

 

There's a lot of hours in each one (between 10 - 12 depending on what they're wearing) and I do prefer listing a bunch together rather than listing each when they're finished, so it does take me a while to get them ready. This is the biggest group that I've ever done and includes bunnies, foxes, elephants, monkeys, pigs, a panda and a mouse so hopefully there's a little character in there to appeal to all.

 

I'm not going to show all of them here but there are photos of all 23 over on Flickr including this one of poor little Pabla who ended up looking a bit yoda-esque!

 

I couldn't bring myself to change her ears because once each animal is finished they adopt a little bit of personality and I get a little bit sentimental about them, so hopefully someone out there will find her appealing!

Thanks again to everyone who's shown an interest in my work. I'll email the mailing list early next week with details of where and when these will be listed for sale and I'll pop updates on my facebook page too.

Happy weekend all, I'm off to watch Amy on stage in her drama group show this afternoon. She's not at all nervous but my heart will be pounding and I'll have my tissues ready too!