Little Cotton Rabbits

garden tidying

For the last few days I've been dodging the showers to be out tidying up in the garden because most of my harvest is over for this year. If I'm lucky I'll get a few more handfuls of raspberries from our canes and maybe 2 more pullings of carrots. Funnily the carrots have done really well this year - just when I had decided that I'd not bother growing them again they decide to prove that they are a worthwhile crop, so they will be on my list of seeds to buy for next spring afterall.

 

 

The beetroot is also still going well and is such a pretty crop. This year I gew a variety called Chioggia which has pink and white rings when you cut it. It doesn't stain your fingers as much as the full-bodied red kind but is just as sweet and earthy to eat.

 

 

It's time to tidy up the beds and fix the protective fronts and backs - back in spring I was lazy and didn't seal up the gaps and so the cabbage white butterflies have feasted on my cabbages and broccoli - that will learn me!

 

I do love growing things in my garden and it's a bonus when you can eat them too. I've roasted the beetroot I picked earlier and will shortly be peeling them, tossing in some balsamic vinaigrette and eating them with some goat's cheese, salad and crusty bread for lunch.

 

Do you grow things to eat and if so what are your favourites?

 

1,193 different kinds of happy

Though actually when I was reading through those 1,193 (!!!) comments on the giveaway post it struck me that they weren't all so very different because there's a commonality in what people find happiness in: family (both the human and animal kind), time to yourself to spend as you like, making things and other small and simple pleasures. I've genuinely enjoyed reading all of those comments, smiled at so many of them and nodded in recognition lots of times. Thank you all so very much for taking the time to share your happinesses. I will go back and read through them whenever I need a little pick-me-up, they are a wonderful reminder that happiness can be found all around when you can take the time to notice it.

 

 1. saffron, 2. sunny, 3. delfine, 4. elspeth, 5. ellamae, 6. jemima, 7. danica, 8. rowley, 9. abner, 10. sylvie, 11. dorrie, 12. beatrice, 13. Alouette, 14. ethel, 15. Violette, 16. winsome, 17. fayette, 18. maelie, 19. aurelie, 20. christabel, 21. merry, 22. didi, 23. florissa, 24. clarise, 25. brodie

Anyway, the draw has been done (I still can't believe how many comments were left!) and the random number generator picked comment number 611, which was Ellie.

She gets to choose from the batch above which are all finished and their photos uploaded to flickr now (click on the name links to see any of them in detail).

 

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to comment, I truly appreciate your kind words about the things that I love to make. Thank you x

 

a give-away

Well, the animals are now fully armed (though not dangerous in the least little bit) and they have their tails and buttons attached in the appropriate places too.

 

So to celebrate the start of my 7th year of blogging I'm going to give one of them away. To enter just leave a comment below. Any kind of comment will do but if you have time then I'd love to know what little things make you happy (as you probably already know, for me it's my knitting and a bit of peace and quiet). I'll draw a name at random next tuesday and then the rest will be up for sale (I'll email details to the mailing list and keep facebook up to date too).

I'm off now to start on some more animals. I'm feeling drawn to browns and reds and oranges at the moment - it must be the start of autumn which explains why I have a few hedgehogs on the go too. I've also been playing around with a few nordic ideas for my traditional christmas bunch, though I'm reluctant to start thinking too much about that time of year just yet. I also hope to catch up with emails and my blog reading. Things have been a little intense on the family front lately and I've fallen behind with a lot. Hopefully everything will be back to what we call normal soon.

Enjoy the rest of your week x

In print

Thanks so much for all of the feedback on the pouch pattern. I've drawn the two winners and have posted the details at the end of the previous post. As promised I am planning another little giveaway (of a knitted animal) to celebrate the start of my 7th year of blogging but I've not quite finished the batch that I'm working on, so they're not quite ready for their close-ups yet.

 

I'm really hoping to finish them next week, so I'll post about the giveaway then.

In the meantime I am sitting here feeling rather happy because I have the latest copy of Crafts Beautiful next to my cup of tea and it has a feature about my knitting in it (thanks to Natalie for the lovely write up). It's the Christmas special issue and it's full of great ideas and some fab freebies too, so I'm off to have a read in the last hour of peace before the start of a busy weekend.

 

Hope you have a great weekend, see you next week with news of that giveaway.

 

a little pouch pattern (at last)

I was looking back at the post where I mentioned the little pattern for a phone case/seed pouch I was planning to write up. I'd breezily written "give me a few days" but I'd forgotten that as soon as you commit to something all manner of events come together to conspire against you actually making good on your rash promise! I had also forgotten how unappealing something can become as soon as it is something you 'ought' to be doing - self-imposed pressure is such a passion killer.

Anyway, it wasn't a few days or even a few weeks, in the end it was a few months but at last it's done and it feels good to be able to tick it off my list of things to do.

 

In the process of pattern tweaking and testing I've managed to knit up 7 pouches of varying sizes - some of them I've given to friends but I thought I'd give two of them away here. So, if you are interested in becoming the owner of one of these two pouches please feel free to leave a comment below and I'll draw a name at random next week.

 

 

 

If you're a knitter and would like to make your own, then the pattern is now available as a pdf file either as an instant download on ravelry (no account required) or on Etsy where you may have to wait a little while for me to email it.

I'll be popping back next week with news of another giveaway to mark the start of my 7th year of blogging. Crikey - that makes me feel old, doesn't time go quickly when you're having fun?

Thanks so much to everyone who left a comment or emailed with such a warm welcome back. It's nice to be settling back into routines again.

......................................................................................

 

Update September 14th:

I've just used the random number generator to pick two winners of the two pouches:

Who are:

Tina, The Quiet Homemaker & Marguerite Coan

Thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a comment.

 

quiet time again

 

Here in my little corner of the world there are few things that I prize more highly than time that is completely and utterly my own. Over the 6 weeks of the school summer break such time has been in short supply, for although Toby has had 11 days of respite and 4 days of CHIPs summer club, I've spent most of those days either with Amy or doing householdy chores and necessities. The rest of the time I have been Toby's constant companion both day and night as I've fed, bathed, dressed and comforted him; fetched things he can't get for himself; fixed toys; loaded dvds and videos into their respective players; removed things from his mouth and generally kept him content and safe from the various harms he often seems intent of inflicting on himself.

 

It's not that I begrudge any time spent with my children you understand, it's just that the absence of quiet time on my own makes me appreciate all the more what today has brought my way once again. Because today brings the return to school term-time routines for the children and for me it brings 7 hours and 15 minutes of time to mostly spend in any way that I choose. So while I do feel slightly guilty for looking forward to my children returning to school, it's mostly outweighed by the pleasure of the current peace that has settled on my home.

Right now the only sounds that I can hear are the ticking of the kitchen clock; a similar ticking noise from the kettle which is cooling down having just been boiled for tea; a chinking of pebbles from the chicken run as they are scraped aside in the hunt for unsuspecting worms and the twitterings of two small birds in the bush outside the window. There is however mostly stillness and quiet and at this moment I feel overwhelmingly content.

Once I've finished writing this, I plan to settle myself in the garden with a good strong cup of tea, my radio, a basket of bunny heads waiting to be given faces, a copy of the wonderful Four Hedges by Clare Leighton which I'm currently reading (thanks to Emma @ Silverpebble for the excellent recommendation) and a copy of the newly released Three Good Things by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall which contains the recipe for pasta with tomatoes and blue cheese that I'll be making for lunch today.

 

 

 

Thanks for coming to visit with me here despite the lack of anything new from me for a few weeks. If you're around later in the week please pop back again as I'll have news of that little pouch pattern and a giveaway or two.