Little Cotton Rabbits

March: blossoming, birdsong and buds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re in that odd in-between time of year where one day it feels like Spring has arrived bringing sunshine, blue sky and warm breezes, and the next winter has reasserted dominance by sweeping back in with chilling frosts and squally sleet showers. There are however signs that Spring is really just around the corner:

• the treetops are a-twitter with small bird song, not yet at the full glory of a May dawn chorus, but certainly building towards it,
• the plum tree in our garden is in full blossom, drawing in the first bumble bees and a few butterflies emerging from their hibernation in the woodpile,
• the days are often warm enough to hang out washing on the line again, I do love gathering in line-dried washing, it smells so fresh and clean,
• blackthorn is just beginning to blossom out in the hedgerows, with the frothy white flowers so pretty against the bare branches
• trees are starting to bud, not yet turning green but poised and ready to begin
• and it looks as though Katsue the little fox is pregnant, she’s grown very rotund around the middle and I’m pretty sure it not just all of the cocktail sausages she’s been eliciting from me

Back inside I’m really excited to be working on a new 9 inch animal pattern again, but progress is unfortunately woefully slow. Having Toby here for most of the time means that I’ve had to adapt to a new way of working and basically snatch what time I can between taking care of him. It makes for very sporadic and haphazard progress, but I’m pleased if, at the end of each day, I’m able to say that I’ve moved forward a little. It’s too early in the process to show you anything just yet, but I’m really looking forward to reaching the point where I can share some progress pictures with you.

As an antidote to the brain taxing business of pattern writing I’ve been spending the bookends of each day knitting simple things, (that is to say the early mornings when I’m not fully awake, and the late evenings when I’m dozing off again). I’ve made a few of these small bandana type scarves now, it’s a lovely easily remembered pattern, perfect when when you’ve run out of concentration capacity. The pattern is called 'Sorgenfri Torkle' by Guri Pedersen and I'm knitting it in Cardiff Cashmere Classic yarn in shade 518 Piombo

Well that's all of my news for this time, I hope to have some more details of the new animal pattern soon, thanks as always for visiting with me, see you in April, J x

January frosts & home comforts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The days between Christmas and New Years Day are an annual gift I give myself, a peaceful pause in the march of days when no ‘to-do lists’ are allowed to intrude. Instead there is just a gentle drifting, a pottering and flitting between things that feel right at the time. We walk with Toby every day out in the quietly dormant countryside, and then it’s back home to warm up by the fire and put cosy indoor clothes on. Afternoons and evenings are spent reading or watching films and knitting, of course.

However, now that the year has got going I'm finding it hard to pick up the pace, so we're still in hibernation mode here and gradually easing back into routines. Toby is back at his two activity days and I plan to start pattern writing again next week, hopefully picking up where I left off before Christmas if I can gather together all of my notes and remember where I got to.

As always, walking in the countryside remains a big part of our week. The woods in January are cold and still and quiet, shrouded in drifting mists and carpeted with mud and damp leaves and the overhead branches make filigree frames around patches of leaden sky. There’s no birdsong, just the cawing of crows and chattering of magpies, all of the smaller birds have flown off towards back gardens where food is more plentiful. Mice, shrews and hedgehogs are all tucked up and hibernating and the squirrels spend weeks slumbering high up in their cosy dreys before rousing from their torpor on warmer days and coming out to forage. 

Not that there have been many warmer days of late. Last week was bitterly cold here, with deep frosts so we were bundled up in extra layers and our walks were brisk affairs, rather than the leisurely strolls of summer. It was so beautiful out there though, every surface shimmering with a diamond dusting of tiny ice crystals.

Back home I curl myself around a cosy hot water bottle and nestle down under a warm blanket and knit socks. There is peace and quiet and comfort and I feel immensely grateful to be right here, right now.

I hope that there is cause for a little gratefulness in your January days too, J x

March

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March has been full of extra challenges here, a two-steps-forward one-step-back kind of month.

Amy went into hospital for surgery on her complicated wisdom teeth, which required a general anaesthetic and, for someone with quite intense anxiety issues, this was very difficult for her. We're proud of her for coping, and she's now recovering well.

Planning for Toby's life after college has been an adventure in stress management, and as yet is still unresolved. My mind is a cacophony of worries about his future and the impact that has on all of our lives as H & I grow old. And Toby has been struggling to cope recently and has had to stay home from college a couple of times after injuring staff. With all of this to juggle any hope of me being able to concentrate on a task like pattern writing has completely gone out of the window. In fact I can't seem to concentrate on anything fully at the moment. I can't even choose a shade of green to finish my Spring lamb and instead have managed to start a rabbit and a bear, flitting around with my knitting too.

The other day I sat down with a notepad in front of me a tried to write a list of things that would promote some calm happiness in my life and all I had on my list was 'going to the woods'. Going to the woods is enough for now, those quiet solitary interludes help me to top up my batteries just enough, but in truth I long to have something more exciting to look forward to with eager anticipation. It would be so liberating to wake up in the morning and think to myself, 'what shall I do today...?'; to do something on a whim without meticulous planning to fit around other people's schedules; over even simply to choose what time I go to bed at night, when to take a bath, or just to be able to sit and concentrate on something, anything, without constant interruption in order to meet someone else's needs.

But that is not my lot, and so I must choose to either wallow in self-pity or try to embrace the gifts that each day can bring if you look hard enough. I'm coming to realise that since I cannot change my circumstances the thing that I must change is my mindset and have started reading 'A Book for Life: 10 steps to spiritual wisdom, a clear mind and lasting happiness' by Jo Bowlby and I really hope it delivers on that tantalising title.

Happily being out in the countryside always does bring me pleasure, and there are many small joys out there now that Spring is arriving: the gradual building of bird song each morning, each week a little louder and with a few more voices, gathering towards the full beauty of the dawn chorus that comes in April; wild daffodils and wood anemones nodding in the spring breezes and the field boundary hedgerows now clothed in cloud-like blackthorn blossom. And I am grateful for the small sustaining pleasures of seeing the beauty of nature.

I hope that you're finding some moments of peace and pleasure in your days too, J x

 

 

Spring, maybe?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's been so wet here, rain has fallen for weeks on end and many of our familiar pathways through the woods are now well beyond muddy and are completely flooded and impassable. It's been mild too, we've only had a few frosts here this winter and everything now seems to be sprouting and proclaiming the arrival of Spring. Hopefully it's not too soon and there are no snow storms just around the corner.

The old plum tree in the garden is currently in blossom, though with all the rain it's been hard to get good pictures. Usually I post with pictures of it's beautiful frothy white blossom against bright blue skies, but this year it's rain soaked blossom. It's still a lovely sight though and has been a magnet for the growing local population of green parakeets, who've been enjoying feasting on the unopened flower buds, sometimes 6 of them in the tree at a time.

We've also had daily visits from Squidgy the squirrel who now scrabbles at the back door to get our attention each morning and who loves Brazil nuts best of all. Up until a couple of weeks ago Kit was also visiting frequently and always in daylight. Now however it seems as if we have a new friendly fox, who always visits in the dark. It's so unusual for a wild fox to tolerate being visible to humans, usually as soon as they see or hear you they disappear into the shadows and are gone. But this new fox is much bolder and, like Kit, stays in the garden when we come out of the house, she sits a safe distance away, ready to run if the need arises but looking hopefully for a snack of one of Toby's cocktail sausages, which I'm more than happy to share with her. Amy has named her Kira and she's been visiting every day for the last week. I'm not sure if that means Kit has been turfed off her territory again (a while back she disappeared for many months) and we are wondering, because of the bold behaviour, if Kira is actually one of Kit's cubs that were raised in our garden in 2020. No way to know of course, I'm just delighted to be able to see these beautiful wild creatures up close.

In between planning for Toby (hopefully we're nearing the final stages of that all now) I have of course been knitting. I've been wanting to knit a lamb in spring green colours, I'm so drawn to green as a colour at the moment, but am dithering about what shade to knit in, I find it's one of the more difficult colours to choose tonal shades in. Hopefully I'll reach a decision and finish a spring lamb soon.

Hope that you're finding small joys in your days, J x

 

Winter Walks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The countryside is currently drab and dormant and much given over to mud, so most of the pleasure in a winter walk comes from the promise of what awaits on returning home. Coming back home after a chilly walk in the murk and mist is a delight; closing the door on the cold; peeling off layers of damp, muddy clothes and changing into warm, comfy and cosy things; cupping your chilled, weather reddened hands around a mug of hot tea and snuggling down by the fire is blissful.

But there is still beauty and colour to be found out there, even in the depths of Winter:

• The beech leaves holding fast to the trees and bright with the colour of a polished copper kettle;
• the red ember glow of the holly berries still held deep in the dark, prickly heart of hedges;
• the vibrant green skirts of moss that the trees wear in wet, wintry weather;
• and the sky, a constant shifting canvas of colour, most spectacular at dawn, but beautiful too when the watery sunshine pierces pearly cloud and outlines the skeletal forms of the bare branched trees.

This scant scattering of colour is not quite enough though, so I am eagerly anticipating signs of spring starting to show, and hope to find the first snowdrops soon as a sign that the greening of the woodlands is coming.

In Little Cotton Rabbit news there is not yet much to tell from here, but there are exciting goings on happening at Lucy Locket Land. Lucy had the brilliant idea to create some special kits throughout this year which mix my animal patterns with her own wonderfully imaginative and creative additions.

In January she had the mice dressed as Arfur the Handymouse and Martha the Mousekeeper  and these kits proved to be so popular that they are currently sold out. Februarys kits will be the pigs, so it will be exciting to see what they'll be doing and I can't wait to see what other creative fun Lucy comes up with for the other animals over the rest of the year. Here's a link to her instagram where she's posting teasers for future kits, and a link to her shop where the kits are sold.

 

Images copyright Lucy Locket Land and used with permission.

 

Summer's end

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer is drawing to a close here and we're preparing for next week's return to term-time routines. Looking back over the last 2 months I have to say that this has been a good summer. The weather has been perfect, not hot enough to frazzle tempers or cause restless nights, but warm enough to make being outside a joy. And, unlike last year, the frequent rains have kept the countryside green and bountiful. It's been a wonderful growing season and the hedgerow harvest is going to be a bumper one, with masses of blackberries, rosehips, sloes and acorns.

We've walked every single day and, much as I have loved walking daily with Toby, it's been necessary for his happiness to go at the pace he sets, so I am looking forward to being out and about on my own, with the luxury of the slower pace that brings, and the freedom to stop and notice small delightful things. Back at home Toby has had his inevitable meltdowns, but they've been less frequent than I expected and the good times have been more numerous than I'd dared to hope for.

I'm also looking forward to the peace of being on my own in the house and the quiet that allows for proper pattern writing concentration. I have fiddled with my new cows pattern over the summer, but it has been a half-hearted affair, and so full of interruptions that I suspect that my notes are full of errors. It will be good to be able to sit here and make some more meaningful progress over the coming weeks.

Well, I just wanted to say hello again, I look forward to being here a bit more frequently as the autumn arrives. Thanks as always for visiting me here, J x

 

Pictures above are from:

• my annual sun-rise solo walk at Waterford marsh where there had been a heavy dew which delicately decorated the silken strands of spiderwebs hanging from the fences. And where I saw geese, kingfishers, egrets, a kestrel, and deeply enjoyed munching a croissant whilst listening to the early morning birdsong from deep in the river-side willows. A heavenly start to the day;
• bubbles in the garden, so many bubbles, much to Toby's delight;
• feathers (buzzard, owl, goldfinch, jay and greater spotted woodpecker) and snail shells, treasures found on our daily walks;
• beautiful new yarn from  The Knitting Shed, at the moment I'm just admiring it, whilst pondering autumn knitting projects;
• summer sunsets in all their technicolour glory;
• the super blue moon on August 30th, slightly obscured by cloud but brightly beautiful all the same.

 

Summer days

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, we're half way through the long summer break here and have settled into a comfortable daily routine. Mornings are calm and quiet as happily Toby enjoys quite long lie-ins, so I usually have a couple of gentle hours to call my own, either reading or knitting and sometimes having breakfast in bed when the mood takes me. Once he is up we head out for a walk, usually walking around 3 miles and stopping for a picnic snack along the way. Toby is good company as a walking buddy, he so enjoys the peace and quiet of the countryside and looks all around him as we go along. He's still not keen on me stopping to take photos of things but is getting gradually more tolerant, just as long as I'm quick.

It's a wonderful thing to be able to share a love of nature and the outdoors with him, and our walks together are often the best part of the day. We've seen so much wildlife: lots of muntjac deer, a stoat, rabbits, buzzards, red kites, kestrels, storks, egrets and so very many insects, bees, dragonflies and butterflies, it's been a great year for them and I've seen such a variety. It looks like being a good year for blackberries and hazelnuts too, with a bumper crop ripening in the hedgerows and we've seen a lot of early fungi too, doubtless sprouting well because of all of the rain we've had recently. Not that I'm complaining in any way, I'm so grateful this year for the cooler temperatures and wetter weather and so is the greenly verdant countryside.

There's not much progress on anything knitting related at the moment. I've been knitting quite a few scarves from the 'Sophie Scarf' pattern by Petiteknit as it's a beautifully simple and uncomplicated knit, perfect for picking up whenever I get the chance for a few rows and putting down again when Toby needs something. As far as my own pattern writing goes I do now have a cow pattern finalised, though still in the form of scribbled notes which need a lot of work once the next college term starts in September.

I hope you've had a good month and that August is kind to you, J x