Little Cotton Rabbits

All is quiet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January is often a quiet month for me and I'm grateful to be able to be able to slow right down and take everything as calmly as possible as I make my plans for the year. Especially so this year, because for a little while now I have been been feeling rather down and becoming at times overwhelmed with anxiety, so as a way of trying to cope with that I've decided to start a 5 year journal and record all of the positive and beautiful things to remember from each passing day. I think that I am very lucky because it is so often the smallest of things that do lift my mood and bring me joy, and once you start to actively look for these moments you find there are actually quite a few in every day. But such moments can often get forgotten and overshadowed by everyday life, so recording them is a good way to bring them to mind when I need to feel brighter.

So far I've jotted about red kites soaring over the house, goldfinches and robins in the garden, Toby's laughter, Amy's smile, H's hugs, the taste of a good cake, the delicious feeling of sitting in bed and knitting away a weekend morning, the quiet calm of a gently flickering candle, the glory of sunrises, the delicacy of frost, the gentle balm of music *, and the delight in deciding to finally use a much loved skein of yarn from my stash - this one has been treasured for almost 10 years and is irreplaceable as Asti of Juno fibre arts is no longer creating her beautiful yarns, so I'm enjoying some very careful pondering of what project to cast on.

But above all else there is has been one totally unexpected, unbelievable and utterly delightful moment - the return of Kit the fox!!

It has been over a year since she was last here and I had written here on the blog that she might have died - I secretly feared she had been run over on the main road as there have been a few fox corpses at the roadside in the intervening months. But no, we were joyfully so very wrong because on Jan 13th she sauntered nonchalantly into the garden, as though she had just been here a day ago, sat down by the garden table and looked expectantly at me through the kitchen door. I have never had a jaw-dropping moment before, but I did then. A snack of Toby's cocktail sausages was swiftly found and as I approached her to put them down, still slightly disbelieving that it really was her, she stood up and approached me, confirming without any doubt that it was. You can see from the pictures below that she's a little more scarred about the muzzle than when she was last here but otherwise is looking well nourished and cosy in her thick growth winter coat. I suspect that she is pregnant and has come back because it's been especially cold recently and she's has difficulty finding enough food. She's arrived every evening since, just after darkness has fallen and I am so utterly overjoyed to see her again, and she's featuring heavily in my new journal of happy things :)

I hope she sticks around for a while longer and I'll be sure to bring you further news of her if she does stay around. If you are interested you can see the story of how we became friends and see my previous blog posts of her visits over the last four years here.

 

 

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The 5 year journal was purchased from Mål Paper with some of my Christmas money, (thanks M & D xxx)

 

* my music of choice at the moment is  'Found' by Martin Gauffin which is playing in the background at the moment and I find especially uplifting

 

Early Autumn days

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn has arrived here in this little corner of Hertfordshire. Although the leaves are still mostly green, there's a definite feeling of seasons shifting in the cooler, misty mornings and the lower slant of sunlight and it won't be long before the leaves colour and fall.

A couple of weeks ago I went out to the orchard. It's one of my favourite local places and is at it's best in Spring, when the trees are bedecked with blossom, and in Autumn when fruit decorates every branch, shining out from between the leaves like glowing baubles. I'm always amazed at the wide variety of the humble apple, there are many shades of green from palest milky jade, to bright sunny lime and a range of reds from russet to a deep burgundy. Each one is a thing of beauty and sitting in the middle of this quiet place is a great delight to me and a balm for soothing away any worries to a background hum. I climbed the wooded hill at the back of the orchard where there's a large badger sett, though they were all safely sleeping underfoot, and then headed back past the bee hives and geese to my car and drove home feeling peaceful and refreshed.

My knitting has taken on autumnal tones too. I've been trying to finish off a couple of little bears to giveaway but somehow time is still getting away from me and they still remain unfinished. I'm sure I'll manage it soon, I'll keep you posted and show some pictures of what I'm working on in the next post.

In other news, I'm no longer the mum of teenagers. Toby turned 20 yesterday - 20!! I can't believe he's now 20! And Amy was 22 at the beginning of the month. Time really does slip away doesn't it?

And there's sad news from the garden, it's now been 5 weeks since we last saw Kit the fox, leading me to the unwelcome conclusion that something has happened to her and she's no longer with us. I will miss her and treasure forever the memories of her visits and her trust in us, it was a great privilege to know her.

Rest in Peace sweet Kit xx

 

Many thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so, so much for the host of kind, compassionate and wise comments, messages and emails that you've sent me in response to my previous post. The personal stories and experiences that have been shared help me enormously, and such a kind outpouring of friendship and support from everyone has buoyed me up no end. I will go back and read over the comments on that post, as I often do with the comments on similar posts that I've written in the past, and I know that every kind and heartfelt word of advice, encouragement and support will help me with future challenges too and guide our thinking as we go forward.

What a wonderful thing the internet is in this regard - that it can connect people and provide a space to reach out to one another. Some of the best and most useful advice that I've ever received on parenting Toby over the years has been graciously given in comments here on the blog, and I'm so very grateful to everyone who has taken the time to write. Thank you, thank you, a thousand thank yous xx

Toby remains settled and content with school still underpinning his weekly routine and I'm currently giving myself some time off from things that require lots of concentration, like paperwork and pattern writing, and instead going with what takes my fancy at the time. I suppose it's a kind of holiday-at-home. I've been reading more and listening to music and sometimes just sitting in the garden doing nothing other than cloud watching and listening to the birds. It feels good. 

We share our garden with lots of visitors and I take a lot of pleasure from their visits. In the past we've had orphaned hedgehogs, blackbirds, friendly robins and more recently a couple of squirrels, a family of blue-tits and our resident fox, Kit. She's really made our garden her personal space and though she doesn't visit every day, she's often to be found waiting for me first thing in the morning, either sitting outside the back door, napping on top of the woodshed or stretched out sunbathing on the garden table. I feel very privileged to have been adopted by her.

I have been knitting a little too and making bodies for many of the dog heads that I knitted up for the pattern photos. I'd like to have a giveaway with some of those, so I'll be taking some pictures and posting about that soon. And tomorrow I'm off to Surrey to spend the day with Amy - she went back to her uni accommodation last month after spending the winter lockdown here with us while she finished her final pieces for her degree. While she's waiting for her results she's getting herself sorted out for the next stage in her life, which will hopefully include a job soon.

Thank you again for allowing me to share a little of life beyond the knitting here, I'm never fully sure before I click 'publish' on such a post how it will be received, and am quite overwhelmed still at the enormity of the kind response, you have my deepest gratitude x

 

springtime

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning I went out into the garden in my pyjamas with my early morning cuppa and walked with bare feet on the dew damp grass. Because I'm trying to conjure up a romantic image I'll gloss over the fact that I had to look very carefully before stepping, in order to ensure I didn't tread in any fox poo! The point is that the morning was warm and inviting enough for me to want to walk barefooted on damp grass and that's because at last Spring has arrived here. One of my favourite Spring things is the dawn chorus and to stand rooted in stillness and listen to the liquid golden sound of a robin or blackbird singing in daybreak is a joyful way to start any day.

The blossom on the old plum tree has been spectacular this year (I'm predicting a deluge of plums later in the year) and has been a magnet to bees, hoverflies and a few butterflies emerging from hibernation.

I've been knitting, oh so much knitting, but I can't show you most of it just yet because it's all for the new pattern that I'm working on and is not yet ready to reveal. Though I have also been trying to make a little lamb to celebrate Easter this coming weekend - hopefully I'll get her finished in time. Her dress colours are inspired by these beautiful tulips - I don't often buy cut flowers but found these irresistible.

Lastly, the reason I have to watch my step while walking on the grass has been our usual daily visitor. We've not yet seen any sign of Kit's cubs for this year but she's taking food away each time she visits, so I'm convinced that at least some have survived the very cold snap that was here when they were born. She remains as wild and cautious as ever but is content to sit 6 feet away from me and let me photograph her while she's waiting for a snack.

I hope life has been kind to you this last month, and that the feeling of hope that has been creeping into my heart with the advancement of spring has found a home with you too xxx

 

On the cusp of spring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year it has felt like winter has lingered longer than usual, but there is at last a feeling of seasonal change here. Spring is definitely in the air, which has warmed appreciably from two weeks ago, when there were still traces of snow on the ground, showing up the tracks of Kit the fox all around the chicken run. On my walk today the touch of the breeze was pleasant rather than painful, with no need for bundling under woolly layers to keep out the chill and the bright sun was warming and very welcome. Although the woods are still wreathed in browns and greys and remain bare twigged, the leaf buds are starting to swell and it won't be long until they burst open with joyous green.

Birdsong is building in the early mornings, which is a lovely way to greet the day and is usually started by high clear notes from the robin. The pigeons bill and coo along the length of the fence and the bluetits are darting to and from the nest box, not yet bringing in nesting material but definitely behaving like prospective buyers.

Spring feels especially welcome this year and I'm daydreaming about the longer days to come, picnics, knitting in the garden, wearing short-sleeves and enjoying the feel of the sun of bare skin. Winter hasn't been all dull and dismal though, the skies have provided lots of splendid colour; whether it's been tightly focused in the curve of a rainbow or splashed across the whole sky in technicolour sunsets. And there is always colour inside in my knitting bag. I'm working on lots of new patterns at the moment, cabled sweaters, new animals and a few other ideas are being played around with. As always I'll keep you posted with more details once they're all further along and ready to share.

Lastly there's foxy news from the garden. Kit has had her third litter of cubs. We don't know where her den is but it must be close by as she's popping in daily for snacks. I knew that she was pregnant as I saw (and heard!) her mating in the early morning light on December 19th and throughout February she has grown obviously and progressively more bulbous around the middle. It's most likely that the cubs were born between February 10th-14th as she didn't come to visit at all on those days and when she arrived on the 15th she was no longer looking pregnant. It was the worst possible time of the year as Feb 10th was the coldest night for quite a few years with temperatures down to -7. I'm hoping that the cubs have all survived and are flourishing now the days are warmer and I'm wondering if we'll get to meet them later in the spring once they're old enough to venture out of the den. I shall make sure that I have my camera battery fully charged and ready, I'd love another morning like the one I had last year when Kit brought her cubs to visit for the first time :)

I hope there's a little in your life right now to lift your spirits and that you have a good weekend ahead. See you soon xx