Little Cotton Rabbits

An autumn fungi walk

 

 

Firstly thank you all so very much for your kind and thoughtful comments, emails and direct messages wishing Toby a happy birthday. He had a lovely afternoon full of the simple pleasures that make him happiest; balloons, cake, lego, sensory toys, curry for dinner, salted caramel ice-cream for pudding and a 'disco' in the evening - he likes dancing by himself with the lights off and the disco ball on. I popped a couple of pictures of him taken on his birthday at the end of the previous post.

Talking of simple pleasures, I indulged in one of my favourites earlier this week when I took myself off for an autumn wood walk. Because we've had a lot of rain here recently I thought that it might be a good year for fungi and I was not disapointed.  I have never seen quite so many different types out in the woods and spent a very happy 3 hours wandering around with my camera and getting wet, muddy knees at Danemead wood, Broxbourne common and Cowheath wood. There's a mix of habitats there: deciduous woodland with oaks and hornbeams; a large area of pine woods and small areas of heathland and it was very peaceful with just the sounds of birdsong and the breeze ruffling the treetops and persuading the dying leaves from the branches.

I tried to name all the different funghi but have given up because it's so hard to identify most of them. A few though are easy - like the yellow staghorn which looks like a fairy campfire glowing in the undergrowth; the false deathcap that has a weird almost luminous greenish glow and the iconic fairytale fly agaric with it's white spotted bright red cap. Each is beautiful in their own unique way, even though some are very poisonous!

There are also some great pictures I'd like to show you of the fox, who is still a regular garden visitor, but I think with all of these woodland pictures I've run out of space here today, so I'll save those for next time. Have a great weekend and if you get time please leave me a comment below and let me know what seasonal delights you're enjoying in your part of the world.

 

 

Eighteen

 

 

He may not be able to speak a word, dress himself, understand dangers or resist custard creams.

He may be awake each and every night, badly bite himself when stressed, strip all the beds 5 times a day and put everything he finds on the floor in his mouth.

He may need constant, vigilant supervision just to keep him safe and, due to the severity of his autism, will never be able to live independently, build a career or find a partner to love,

but,

He is one of the worlds truly innocent and gentle souls, free from malice, free from duplicity and wholly loveable and it is my greatest privilege to be his protector, his advocate and his mum,

Happy 18th birthday sweet Toby

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

Thank you all so very much for your kind and thoughtful comments, emails and direct messages wishing Toby a happy birthday. He had a lovely afternoon full of the simple pleasures that make him happiest; balloons, cake, lego, sensory toys, curry for dinner, salted caramel ice-cream for pudding and a 'disco' in the evening - he likes dancing by himself with the lights off and the disco ball on!

Thank you again for all of your kind good wishes x

 

 

 

Doughnuts!

 

 

 

 

 

A new free pattern for tiny doughnuts :) link to download is here.

The original idea for this doughnut pattern was to make something small enough to fit into the pocket of my dungarees pattern, and although it is a little tight, it does just fit. I tried so many prototypes, trying to reduce the size further but they didn't work out as circular, so this was as small as I could go and therefore the pattern is recommended to be worked with very thin needles 2.25mm (US 1) in order that the doughnut made fits into the dungaree pocket.

If you prefer you can use the doughnut as a stand-alone item, size is then less important and you can knit it in DK weight yarn with 3mm needles to give a larger size.

I hope you have fun with the pattern, it knits up quickly and infact the thing that took the most time and patience was sewing those tiny, fiddly, easy-to-drop-and-stab-your-finger-with-the-needle beads on! If you give it a go please come and share your project pictures over in our Ravelry group so everyone can admire them - I'm looking forward to seeing what you make.

See you soon x