Little Cotton Rabbits

February days

Well, here we are on the cusp of another school break. As seems to be the way lately the days have been zipping by in a blur without an awful lot seeming to get done.

There has been a fair bit of baking here and of course knitting. I have also been trying to work on the next pattern but have found it hard to give it the concentration it really needs. It will be top of my list of important things to tackle once the children are back at school. Next week will be all about them, well Toby mostly because tomorrow morning Amy is off to New York on a 5 day school trip. She's spent the week fluctuating between high excitement and extreme nervousness. This will be her first time flying and first time on a different continent, a lot to take in when all of her classmates are old hands at intercontinental traveling. Still I'm sure she'll have a fab time, it's a creative arts trip including a Broadway show, Broadway theatre workshop, gallery visits and lots of sightseeing and culture absorbing. In contrast Toby and I will be having a quiet week and hopefully he'll be up for a few wood walks, though he's still not as keen as he once was.

Well, have a good week yourself, I'll leave you with pictures from the my last weeks worth of knitting, baking and general pottering...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From top to bottom...

• Animal bodies waiting to be finished;
• a new project bag exquisitely embroidered by Olivia at This Handmade Life;
• a day spent starting a new project with some beautiful new yarn - Squoosh Merino Cashmere Lace in 'powder' and baking the first of the new season of beautifully pink rhubarb with honey and orange which is delicious eaten with granola and yoghurt;
• the wild plum tree on the corner of our road in full blossom;
• a happy Sunday morning lie-in with tea toast and yarn;
• baking up a batch of lemony baby bundt cakes - recipe from Nigella Lawson, 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'.

Thanks for stopping by x

 

frosty morning

There are a hundred things that I really should be getting on with today, I've really not got into the swing of things yet this year and am behind with all of my plans and aims. But this morning was a perfect winter morning and much too beautiful to stay inside. So I bundled up in my hat, gloves, scarf, thickest coat, cosy socks and trusty walking boots and set off for a walk.

The countryside is so beautiful after a full frost but it really was cold, the temperature was showing as -4 as I set off (which is pretty cold for these parts). I just walked a few miles, wandering down lanes, across fields, along bridleways and footpaths, past beautiful houses and around the churchyard, but there was much to see. Lots of frosty leaves and berries and a surprising amount of wildlife - robins, jays and blackbirds; a fallow deer (which was too quick for my camera); rabbits and squirrels and a couple of ponies. Here's what a I recorded from my walk, a little snapshot of a frosty winter day in a Hertfordshire village, when the 'earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone'*.

 * From 'In the Bleak Midwinter' Christina Rossetti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I'm home again and warming up with a cup of tea and a toasted cheese scone and although I'll not be able to tick many things off my to do list today I do feel much restored by my quiet walk with it's small delights. Tomorrow I will begin to get organised, see you soon x

 

The most wonderful time of the year

Thanks so much for all the kind comments on the previous post. The news is such an enormous relief and has come at the perfect time, we'll enjoy our Christmas all the more without that dark, ominous cloud hanging over us! I'll be trying to reply to comments over the coming days but since time is short before the school break now I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very good start to the New Year.

 

 

It was peppermint barking making day here yesterday and as usual I over-indulged on the trimmings and ended up with a very messy and sticky kitchen. It is nice though to make something home-made to give as teachers gifts and I do enjoy my little annual bark making session.

 

 

 

You can find a full copy of the recipe I use here (along with a free downloadable label set for printing out and gifting), and the original American recipe that I based it on is here.

This will most likely be my last post for this year, though I'll pop back to wish you a Happy start to the new one. I wish you all the very best for the season with much fun and joy in the company of those you love and a huge virtual hug and heartfelt thanks from me for visiting here and sharing your stories, support and friendship x

 

 

Treasures

Gobsmacked! That is the word that springs to mind as I look over all of the comments left on the previous post for the little Christmas mouse. Thank you all for taking the time to leave comments, so many really lovely and kind ones too. It would be nice to be able to give everyone a prize, but obviously that is impossible with just one of me and so many comments but I will ponder on new free patterns and giveaways for next year and will keep you posted.

The lovely Emma of Silverpebble recently posted a picture on Instagram of some of her collected treasures and when I commented at how lovely they were and that I too had a collection of special bits she asked to see, so here is my treasure collection that I keep in a couple of old OXO tins.

 

 

 From top left corner:

• 2 silver bracelets which were my christening presents;
• a heart shaped stone found on a beach on France on my first holiday with H;
• a 1922 Belgian 5 cent coin with a hole punched in it (from my great Grannys sewing box). I'd love to know why there is a hole in it - perhaps it was given as a keepsake;
• a collection of shells from various beach holidays;
• a rat tooth that reminds me of a holiday when I was 14. I'd gone up into the sand dunes for a bit of kissing with a French boy who was my holiday romance and we found this skull. We both kept a tooth as a souvenir and now I can't even remember his name!;
• a little hand sewn leather wallet that belonged to my Great Grandmother with a cross and prayers (see below)
• broken pottery shards from our garden - our soil is full of broken pottery bits of indeterminate age;
• in the little tin are some lumps of amber, an old 3 penny bit, another old key and a feather from Berry the blackbird who we raised years ago
• along the bottom are other finds from digging in the garden: a knapped flint and various fossil like rocks. The next town from us is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in Northern Europe and whenever I find bits in the garden I wonder how many people have stood on this spot in the past;
• a pretty feather found in the woods;
• a squashed locket that 10 year old me found in the road - it had been run over by a car and inside has a faded picture of a baby and a lock of hair. I made a 'found' poster and stuck it to the Post box nearby but sadly no-one ever came to claim it;
• a curl of fur brushed from Poppy, my beloved cat who I adopted from stray on the streets of Hull when I was a student. She lived with me there for 3 years and used to sit on my lap and look out of the window on the long train journey from Hull to Reading in the holidays. When I left college she came too and lived with H and I in our first flat in Ealing. She was a much loved and pampered old lady cat until her peaceful death in her sleep 4 years later.
• a little black bakelite cat that I stole when I was 18 from the cluttered attic of my first landlady. I'd gone off to art college and lived with my best friend in one attic room with only cold running water. We were  allowed to have one bath a week each (by appointment only), cooked on a 2 ring table-top stove and had no heating. We liked exploring the other end of the attic - which was stuffed with loads of old clothes, furniture and even a real tiger skin rug :( 
• my great Grandmothers wedding ring;
• two very old keys, whatever they fitted has long since been lost (again from my Great Grandmothers house)
• a silver sixpence from 1956
• a little green glass monkey that was my mothers until I badgered her to give it to me when I was about eight or nine. I have kept it safely ever since Mum  :)

 

 

This little wallet is a mystery. It was returned by the undertakers with all of my great Grandmothers effects after she died and until that point I don't think another person had ever been aware of its existence. Clearly it was hand made and she had worn it about her person for most of her life. It contains a medal from Our Lady of Mount Carmel P.F.U., a crucifix, a 'Battleship Prayer' cloth badge from 'The League of The Sacred Heart of Jesus' B.O.W British made and a little handwritten pledge which reads:

????...  God because Thou art so good. I am very sorry that I have sinned against Thee and I will not sin again.

 

 

It feels a little sad to know so little of her life but she was my great grandmother so I only knew her as a slightly cantankerous old lady who smelt a bit funny and she died when I was 12. I would love to know what this little wallet means but that is no doubt lost in time now. I keep it as a poignant reminder that everyone was young once and becomes old and unless they pass on their story it is lost forever. Perhaps this blog will survive in some format when I am long gone and be all that is left of my story - that is a nice thought.

 

Do you have a treasure collection or an object that you keep for the memory it conjures up? I'd love to hear about it if you have time to leave a comment.

 

Weekly roundup

Last week brought a change in the weather here - it's been getting colder and we've had such strong winds that most of the beautiful autumn leaves are now in puddles on the ground.

 

 

Friday was a bright day and I made the most of it by getting out into the garden to plant some spring bulbs - narcissi, muscari and bluebells and some hawthorne whips which will grow into a hedge to replace the overgrown leylandii conifers that we had taken out a few months ago. The front garden has looked very bare ever since but hopefully these new plants will fill in the gaps and provide lots of shelter and food for wildlife.

 

 

There's been knitting of course - bunnies as usual...

 

 

...and another pebble beach shawl in a paler shade of Walk delicate merino - a yarn that lends itself really well to wispy shawls. I'm only on row 20 but am not in a hurry so it will continue to grow slowly in between other projects. Here it is next to my lovely new mug which I bought this week from a talented potter on Etsy.

 

 

This week has seen me taking lots more pictures than usual because of joining instagram - my page is here. I've really been enjoying snapping away at whatever takes my fancy without necessarily having to think of words for a full blog post. Not that I'll be giving up blogging (this will always be my first home) but I'm wondering whether to do a regular blog post like this one, which is a kind of hodgepodge summary of my week using images that I uploaded to Instagram. The thing I can't decide on is whether  people will be bored seeing the same images in both places. It probably depends on whether you look at both - if you have an opinion on the matter I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Well, have a good week, and Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday to everyone in the USA x