Little Cotton Rabbits

Late Summer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our summer days have merged into a flow of lazy, mostly at home days and I'm at that point in the school summer hols where I can no longer remember which day of the week it is.

We've been spending lots of time outside; swinging gently in the shade or lazing on a picnic blanket in the garden; walking in the woods and over hills; riding on the little steam train near here and eating lots of ice-cream. It's been mostly relaxing and Toby is coping. He's also beginning to adapt to the lack of pudding that I mentioned in the previous post and though it's still a work in progress it looks like petit filous yoghurts are becoming his new pudding of choice, which is a great relief!

Out in the garden things have been really productive this year. I'm still picking french beans, raspberries, rocket and kale and the cylindrical beetroot that I planted from seed has done really well and is deliciously fresh - seems I'm not the only one to think that either. Everything is still flowering too, the little oregano flowers are attracting lots of bees, hoverflies and butterflies and we've been watching the rapid growth of a surprise self-seeded sunflower.

There's even been a little knitting going on: I've finally finished and blocked a shawl that has been languishing in a bag for a year or more (Dream Stripes by Berangere Cailliau, details here); have quite a few pairs of socks on the go, as I'm clearly still under the spell of the sock knitting fairy (above are Wildflower and Honeycomb socks by Olivia Villarreal, details here) and there have even been a few animals emerging from my knitting basket too (more on that another time).

We've got exactly a week left until school starts again so we're just going to keep things simple here and try to savour the last summer break days, because days of warmth and sunshine are now numbered for this year. Mornings are becoming hazier and cooler, the evenings are shortening noticeably and the leaves in the woods are taking on that late summer dusty green. Autumn is waiting in the wings.

 

PS: I knew there was something I'd forget and that's the pictures of the tiny cucamelons that a kind friend gave to me as seedlings. Incredibly and despite unwanted attention from slugs, snails and squirrels they actually have tiny fruits!

 

 

Early morning sock knitting

 

 

 

Amy is going on a school trip today so we were up at 5am this morning. After dropping her off it didn't seem worth going back to sleep so I'm now sat in bed with a little sock knitting to bide the time until it's time to wake Toby up. For some reason I'm a bit hooked on sock knitting at the moment which is quite a good thing because I have built up a rather large stash of gorgeous sock yarns. It's good to be whittling down my stash a little (and of course it means I can go browsing for a little more once I've made room for a few new skeins). My particular favourite sock yarns are The Uncommon Thread 'Tough sock', Eden Cottage 'Hayton' and anything from The Wool Barn. With all that lovely yarn it looks like sock knitting will be much more common here in future and happily I'll also have some lovely leftovers for bunny cardigans and sweaters.

The patterns I'm working from are 'Lucky me Socks' by Pia Kammeborn (above) and 'Emily's Favourite Socks' by Emily Foden (below) and notes on the yarns I've used etc. can be found on my Ravelry project page if you'd like more details.

Well, I think I have time for a few more rows before I go and rouse Toby with his breakfast tray of toast and gingerbread men, see you soon.

 

 

 

 

June into July

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June brought us a heatwave and it was a bit too hot for me truth be told - I am much happier in cooler weather.  We had 3 consecutive days of temperatures over 30 degrees and as the house felt too warm and airless I sought out the shade in the back garden. It was even too hot to knit so instead I read from a gentle and lyrical book, a perfect read for a shady spot under a tree full of birdsong; 'Birds, Art, Life, Death' by Kyo Mclear. But reading doesn't really help my get-up-and-go as it tends to make me dozy - I think years of reading before sleep at night has conditioned my brain this way. Though I may not have got as much done as hoped for, I am not complaining. That kind of heat is a rare treat and one to be savoured:

I love the start of hot days, with the haziness that appears just after dawn when it's already warm and balmy and you just know the day is going to be a scorcher. It brings to mind my 1970's childhood holidays in Cornwall or Devon and the promise of a long day on the beach building sandcastles, splashing about in rockpools and eating warm, slightly gritty sandwiches, because somehow the sand always managed to sneak into even the most tightly sealed tupperware container. Speaking of food, it's been too hot to eat much so we've been living off salads. Mostly impromtu combinations of avocados, tomatoes, rocket, spinach, french beans, goat cheese and whatever else is lurking in the fridge like a smattering of left-over roasted beetroot. Light and summery food that doesn't involve standing near a cooker, that makes me happy.

I also love the evenings of hot days; the hum of the lawnmower from 2 gardens over; the song of a blackbird (still so vocal at this time of year) proclaiming his right to this patch; the drifting smoke from a barbecue somewhere nearby coupled with the smells of flowers, dusty paving and sun-cream, all mingled into the unmistakable scent of summer. The summer evening sunlight paints my kitchen with a rich gold that is so particular to this time of year. Then there's that magical shade of blue that appears after sunset, before it's fully dark, so luminous and so difficult to capture or re-create. Summer days like these have a magic - probably because here in England they are not so common and so have the power to transport us back years, or maybe it's just me being nostalgic. Either way I have enjoyed them.

With July cooler days have arrived again and it's a more comfortable knitting temperature which is good because I'm busy auditioning yarns for the next pattern. I'm sure you can guess from the yarn colour which kind of animal I'm working on :)  

I'll keep you posted on progress, but with the summer holidays approaching it is likely to be early autumn before it's ready to share.

 

 

On being outdoors

 

 

 

This week has been all about being outside. Summer is really here now and it's been so lovely to throw all of the doors and windows wide open and let the breeze blow through the house. It's meant a bit more housework as it's blown lots of little dust bunnies out from their hiding places under sofas and chairs but I suppose that having more fluffy dust than most people is an occupational hazard for a knitter!

Yesterday Toby had his school sports day and surprised everyone by how fast he ran. He would have won his races easily if he understood the concept of competition and the purpose of the running, but true to form he ran when it felt good to him and stopped when it did not, so his races were a series of spurts of speed and dead stops with everyone then shouting 'keep running Toby'. He seemed to cope better this year with the event and all of the waiting around between races and after enjoying some evening chill out time in the garden he slept better than usual, not all night through but not far off!

 

 

I'm enjoying knitting in the garden and have all sorts on the go at the moment; my WIPs (works in progress) include 2 pairs of socks, 3 shawls, 2 crochet blankets and the pair of mittens above that I'll  be hopefully finishing off over the weekend. The pattern is a free one; Small Flower Mitts by Pinneguri and I'm knitting them with Ysolda's Blend No.1 and Jamiesons Shetland Spindrift  - you can see project details here.

Well, that's it from me today and I'm heading back out into the garden for a little more knitting time. Just wanted to wish all of the Dads out there a very happy Father's day this Sunday, especially my own lovely Dad and Father-in-Law who is very poorly at the moment and is in our thoughts all of the time.

Until next time I'll leave you with some views of the sky over our garden which this week has been full of lots of varieties of beautiful clouds - mostly the high wispy kinds of ice crystal cirrus clouds which look like wonderful great brush strokes painted across the sky. See if you can spot the angels wing in one of them...

 

 

June catch-up

 

 

Well, here we are at the start of the school summer term. Happily it's a long 7 week one so I'm really hoping to get a lot of things ticked off my to-do list before the summer break starts.

The half term hols went well here with lots of warm sunny days for Toby to enjoy bouncing and bubbles in the garden. I also tried to get him to help with a spot of gardening but it didn't go to well - too much goes in his mouth for him to be a good gardener! But nevertheless our little patch is looking good with all the herbs, beetroot, kale, rocket, beans and spinach all growing well.

 

 

I'm trying wherever possible to involve Toby a bit more in household chores, though it is very difficult for him to grasp the purpose of such tasks. We have one eye on the future here as it is our hope to continue caring for him at home once he leaves school - something that is fast approaching and is a really daunting prospect so we are trying to take small steps now towards a meaningful, enjoyable and busy weekly schedule for him. Over the school break l've involved him in pegging out washing on the line which, as long as the items are small, he is getting quite good at, though he has yet to understand the need to stretch things out and to use 2 pegs for some things. We're not doing quite so well with clearing the table after dinner. He has a very strongly defined sense of order and is good at knowing where things belong; cutlery in the draw, glasses in the cupboard, plates on the shelf etc. but he has yet to understand the concept of clean and dirty and so will tidy away any dirty spoons or plates that he comes across. We are working on the idea that dirty things go in the dishwasher or by the sink and hopefully he will eventually start to understand and be able to do some of these household tasks semi-independently with just some verbal prompts and simple supervision. Later this year he will turn 16 and so begins the transition over to adult support services. There is so much paperwork involved that I already feel exhausted and we've not really started, it will be a case of a day at a time and hopefully things will fall into place.

In knitting news I am currently finishing off a small batch of animals so will pop back with an update when they are done. For now I'll leave you with the pictures I took a month ago (and have been meaning to post ever since) from a visit to a local orchard nature reserve. It's a wonderful place full of ancient apple trees buzzing with busy bees who are based in the hives on site. There is a flock of very grumpy geese who hiss and posture as you walk past their enclosure and up in the woods there is a large badger sett - I hope to go and visit one evening as there is a viewing hide where you can see them quite clearly from. 

Thanks as always for taking the time to visit my blog, I appreciate you stopping by and so enjoy reading your comments x

 

 

Tewin Orchard, Early May 2017