The pictures above are a little selection of things from the last month here:
I've been working on several new patterns: clothing patterns for the small animals, including dresses, sweaters and dungarees; more small versions of my animal patterns; a regular sized badger and there are a few other ideas that I'm also playing around with.
Spring has been arriving in our garden and the countryside around us, with blackthorn blossom, catkins and the blossoming of our plum tree.
Kit, our foxy visitor, has been coming almost every day. Back in January she seemed to be getting into lots of fights and was quite injured one morning - you can see in the pictures above her patches of missing fur and scrapes but she also had a bad limp and a broken canine tooth. She spent a day licking her wounds and curled upon top of the chicken run - the ivy-covered netting forms a comfy hammock and happily the chickens seemed oblivious and carried on life as normal! More recently I noticed that she was pregnant - she was distinctly plump around the middle and I think that she had her pups on the 2nd or 3rd of March as she didn't visit on those days and when she arrived on March 4th she was back to her skinny self. Since March 12th she's back to visiting every day for food and her teats are now clearly visible, so her cubs must be thriving. And yes, I am keeping a fox diary :)
The last month has seen unprecented times arrive around the globe and I think we’re all at least a little afraid right now. I'm trying not to shut out that fear and instead embrace it and let it guide me to socially responsible and sensible decisions. We're keeping Toby off school for now as he's vulnerable and we're practicing 'social distancing', going for our wood walks but avoiding other people. That's something we all need to be doing - not just for ourselves and our loved ones but also for the wider community. If you can go out into busy spaces less then do choose to; wash your hands often and keep compassion and kindness to others as your goal - you never know when you yourself might be in need of the kindness and compassion of a stranger.
Please let's all stay safe out there and keep others safe through our actions xxx