Little Cotton Rabbits

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

 

 

Horsing around

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello Hello, hope you are well. I didn't mean to be away for so long, but as you can see I have been keeping busy! I have wanted to do a horse pattern for such a long time, but every time that I have made a prototype there was something that I felt didn't work, and so back to the drawing board I went. Then at the end of last year I had an equine epiphany and things clicked into place for me, resulting in a flurry of knitting activity and the beginnings of a new pattern. I have been working on it solidly now for 5 months and at last I'm almost finished with the final pattern.

So far I've knitted 33 different heads, including different facial markings for the horses, along with unicorns and donkeys too. I have to tell you that those manes do take a bit of patience, adding a strand at a time, but overall I've had a lot of fun putting this pattern together and am pleased with how it's all looking in the layout. Just a few final pictures to take for the front covers and then I'll be ready to share it.

It's so exciting to almost have it ready. I have adored horses since I was quite little, always clamouring to stop and stroke their velvety noses when out on walks and delighting in donkey rides on beaches and at farms. From about the age of 8 until my mid teens I read about horses, drew horses and dreamt about horses almost constantly. I even tried to convince mum and dad that our very small suburban back garden would be perfectly fine for keeping a horse in, with pledges that I would ride it every day and tidy up after it. Needless to say my pleas did not result in a pet horse at home but they did get me riding lessons. I then started 'working' at the stable, I say 'working' because none of us were actually paid but we turned up on Saturdays or Sundays at 8.30 am ready for a day of mucking out, cleaning tack, lead-reining small children learning to ride and grooming our adored charges. My appointed horse was Sweep, a big gentle grey who was a little bit dim and kept my toenails constantly bruised by frequently standing on my feet when I was grooming him. I was also so lucky to have two week long pony trekking trips away in Wales, we rode every day in amazing countryside and I loved every minute, even the day three saddle sores!

It's been fun looking out my old books, though I'm missing a few - the silver brumby series, by Elyne Mitchell - those were my absolute favourites. And digging out these photos has made me all nostalgic, though I don't think I'm ready to dust off my jodhpurs any time soon!

Anyway, I'll be back with news as soon as the patterns are in finished form, though next time I'm here will be all about the bluebells which are glorifying the woods right now, see you soon, J x

 

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.

 

 

.............................................

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

 

And Winter has arrived

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter is decidedly here. We've had a few days of sub-zero temperatures and the early morning frosts have been beautifully sharp and sparkly. Yesterday Toby and I bundled up and went for a long walk at Panshanger. The ice crystals adorning every blade of grass, twig and seedhead made for a very beautiful landscape and even the barbed wire fences were prettified by the decoration of frost.

And then this morning we've woken to around 15cms of snow!

I'm glad to have lots of cosy woolly jumpers, scarves and mittens and will be wearing my wrist-warmers constantly now until the weather warms. It looks like the rest of this week is continuing to be freezing, so there will be a little more knitting by the fire going on here. I'm now in the final stages of laying out the three new patterns and am lucky to have some lovely people helping me to error check them. Though it will still be a few weeks before they've been thoroughly checked, so I'm aiming to be able to share them in the new year.

Hope you have a good week doing a little of what you love, J x