Little Cotton Rabbits

summer days

Summer has arrived here in this little corner of England. The last few days have been wonderful weather-wise and over the weekend our whole family has been outside  - the sunshine even coaxed Amy out of the teenage stereotype of preferring bedroom living :)

I've been sitting in the shade at the end of the garden and working on some end of term presents for Toby's teachers. I plan to pair each strawberry bookmark with a pretty note book and pencil and wrap them up nicely.

 

Free pattern from Pezdiva (with a few adaptations).

 

Toby has of course been enjoying bouncing, swinging and paddling

 

even the chicken has been enjoying the hot weather with a paddle in her own pool

 

Poor H has been the only one not relaxing or keeping cool - he's still been hard at work building paths and paving around the garden room.

 

I am also working on a little batch of knitted animals. It's been a while since I offered any for sale so I hope to have them finished soon, I'll post some pictures when they're ready.

Talking of knitting, thanks so much to Love Knitting for featuring little cotton rabbits as their blog of the week last week.

Thanks too to all of the people who sent me emails and messages about the book of the week on radio 4. 'The reason I jump' is written by Naoki Higashida an autistic boy living in Japan and takes the form of questions put to him and his answers. It is a fascinating and thought-provoking insight into the world seen from an autistic perspective. My copy arrived yesterday and I'm already halfway through (and scribbling notes to myself as I go). The introduction by David Mitchell is brilliant and any parent of an autistic child will be nodding in agreement and probably like me welling up with tears at reading things that so often go unsaid.

 

The book itself is revelatory and has again made me tearful many times, both in recognition of the huge implications it could have in the way that others perceive those with autism and because current state schooling often deeply underestimates and mis-interprets many autistic children. My head is literally buzzing and I'm trying to think where we go from here in order to give Toby a way of communicating all that is in his head (rather than just his basic wants), because there is a lot more going on in there than most people give him credit for. I'd urge anyone involved with any aspect of caring for autistic people to read this book, it is an eye-opener and has the potential to change lives.

Thanks as always for popping in to visit. See you again soon

 

garden room

Well, half term last week was a bit of a wash out really. The first half of the week was wet and windy and in the second half we all came down with stinking colds. Still, it was impossible to feel downhearted because we now have this at the end of the garden :)

 

It is everything we had hoped it would be, and more. Toby adores it and has been in and out of it constantly, enjoying exploring every inch of it.

 

In fact he was in and out of it even before it was finished.

 

He was fascinated by the activity in the garden when it was being built. And what a mammoth amount of activity there was! The guys from Planet Design were absolutely and completely awesome. They worked hard through all weathers, right through the days of non-stop heavy rain and even a hailstorm didn't put a stop to the construction.

 

They put in three hard weeks of back breaking work but always kept their good humour and they were a pleasure to have around. To be honest I missed them a bit once they'd packed up all of their tools and finished and I think Toby did too. He loved watching them working while he bounced on the trampoline and they were so friendly and kind with him (and very tolerant of his attempts to join in!). We're so thankful to them for building us the room of our dreams.

 

 

There is no way though that this would ever have been possible without the amazing and humbling generosity of our family and friends (and friends of friends). Two and a half years ago H and I were balancing on the brink of despair. At the time Toby was having frequent and extreme meltdowns and I was regularly driving him around in the middle of the night just to get him out of the house so that Amy could get some sleep. We used to talk about things that might make the situation more bearable and ways we could cope long term (because we know that similar periods of behaviour are more than likely in Toby's future). We imagined having a space where one of us could take Toby when things were hard so that the rest of the family could get some peace or where Amy could go to concentrate out of earshot of Toby if he was in the house. The costs involved put it out of the question though and it stayed a distant dream until H's Mum and Dad decided they would like to ask for donations rather than presents for their Golden Wedding anniversary party. All of the guests that came to join them in celebrating were so very generous and the Toby Respite Room fund started growing. Extended family and friends have continued contributing both their own money and money they have raised through sponsored events, runs and raffles and we have been constantly moved by how kind and supportive everyone has been.

We were so very touched when the artist Jim Crouch donated one of his wonderful paintings and the proceeds from the sale of that and of several limited edition prints went into the fund. Both of our sets of parents have been incredibly generous too.

It is impossible to find the right words to express how deeply grateful we are to everyone whose kind heartedness has made building this room possible. It makes the future with Toby a bit less scary as it gives us options in times of stress. We now have a separate space to take him to when he needs calm and quiet and refuge that is quiet and peaceful and 'away' for the rest of the family to use when needed. At the moment there is still a fair bit to do such as paving, planting and the like and inside there is only a beanbag at the moment as we're waiting on furniture. Once it's all furnished and bedded in I'll take some more pictures.

 

Before I go I'm going to give the guys from Planet Design another mention because so often having work like this done on your home can be such a stressful thing (especially with a child like Toby around). But it was clear from the outset that they were completely committed to building us a perfect room, finished exactly on schedule and on budget and this took away all of the stress for us. So thanks Lee, Luke, James, Troy and Tony for building us such a wonderful, hassle free room.

hello again

Thanks for dropping in and thanks for the kind messgages that I've had over the last couple of days asking if things are OK. They are, and I hadn't meant to be away for so long. I had intended to pop my blogging head on again the day the children went back to school but when I looked I couldn't find it! I suppose it's a little to do with getting out of practice but there is also the fact that my head feels stuffed full of thoughts about so many different things right now. The Easter holidays were quite difficult and a couple of different things happened which were unsettling and upsetting. When things are complicated I try to seek out ways to simplify our life here and I'm making lists and jottings in an attempt to order my thoughts, hopefully that will help me feel normal again soon!

I did have a few laughs when I discovered a brilliant blog written by the dad of an autistic boy. He wrote a wonderfully funny piece for the BBC website about the dreaded school holidays which I completely identify with, it's a good read if you have time. I also read a fair bit of his blog My Son's not Rainman over the Easter break and it helped me hang on to my sense of humour which was in danger of becoming a bit threadbare.

 

It is good to be back in term time again and have a little time for peace and quiet. I am currently enjoying pondering plans for this basket of recently acquired malabrigo. I'm also busy making hedgehogs for the next class I'm doing at the Creative Sanctuary in May. There are a couple of spaces left if anyone is interested in coming along, booking details are here.

It's nice to have some warmer weather at last too, happily Spring now seems to have properly arrived and over last weekend Toby was joyfully reacquainted with bubbly bouncing time on the trampoline! There are blackbirds nesting in the clematis outside the back door and the bluetits are checking out the bird box on the plum tree. Luckily neither of them seem disturbed by the work going ahead in the garden. H has worked like a horse over the Easter break carting barrowloads of our old patio away and taking down the shed.

 

There is now a flat space ready for the garden room though first the herb wall needs to be finished and the fences replaced. It's coming along though and Toby is coping suprisingly well with the changes. I think it helps that he loves his new swing chair and I feel better at the loss of the climbing frame when I see him spinning and rocking and squealing with delight!

 

 

Well, it's nice to be here again and I'm looking forward to catching up with what everyone has been up to but for now I'm off to do some more thinking and list writing. Will be back soon, hopefully with a clearer head!

Sociability

My friend Hazel calls me a hermit and it's not an undeserved or unkind label because most of the time I am! I do spend most of my time at home and in truth I am perfectly happy pottering around doing a little cooking or gardening and of course a lot of knitting. Before having the children I had a busy work and social life in London but since they came along I have become a homebody.

 

 

It's not that I'm unsociable but more that I often feel a bit tongue tied or lost for words in social situations these days. I don't do a whole lot with my time other than look after the children and knit, so I don't often feel that I have much to contribute to cosmopolitan conversation. I also frequently feel a bit worn out and my brain definitely doesn't work as fast as it used to - it's not uncommon for me to think of something to add to a conversation around 10 minutes after everyone else has moved on to a new topic!

Over the last week however I have been uncharacteristically sociable. It started on Saturday with a wonderful meet up of blogging friends: Ali  Alice  Emma  Kristina  Monica  Nancy  Penny  Sue  Tessa  Tracy  Val

There was a great deal of laughter, chatter, good food and handmade present exchanging.

 

 

I came away with this superb basket (made by the fair and skilled hands of Val at Dottycookie), these divine handmade socks (so beautifully and expertly made by Kristina), and also a full tummy, a big smile and warm heart.

 

 

On Tuesday I had my second workshop teaching session and like the first workshop I was amazed at how friendly, willing and wonderful everyone who came along was. The work was fiddly (we were mattress seaming and stitching egg cosy bunnies) but everyone was really cheerful and chatty and I had a great time, hopefully everyone else did too. Thanks to Elaine, Esther, Iolanda, Jane, Sue and Peggy for coming along.

Then on Wednesday I went to visit a community garden run for adults with special needs by a group of wonderfully dedicated and caring volunteers. Hopefully somewhere like this will feature in Toby's future and it was heartwarming to see how sensitive and dedicated all of the volunteers were. It also gives me hope that Toby will still be occupied and having fun after he finishes school.

All in all it's been a busy social whirl compared to my typical week and hopefully I held my own in conversation. I am happy though to be spending today quietly alone with my knitting and am thinking that a little of both is a good thing.

What about you, are you a happy homebody or a companionable conversationalist?

a request for help

Earlier in this cold and snowy week I received a heartwarming email which I'm going to share here because it says everything so perfectly and shows in such an inspiring way the power of friendship.

 

Dear Julie,

I write to ask for your help. One happy day, when I happened upon your blog, I also saw a post for a raffle being organised by Saving Rare Breeds. It was a happy day, not just because I found your blog, but also because since then, I have become more involved with Saving Rare Breeds and the work that they do.

Unfortunately, Stephen and Tracy who are Saving Rare Breeds are having a really rough time at the moment. Frankly, I don't know where they find their strength. They are struggling in lots of ways. This week, they have lost a number of their animals to a mystery illness. They describe it as their worst week ever.

They are presently trying to do two things. Firstly, they are running a 1000 club (http://www.savingrarebreeds.org/). The take up has been slow to say the least. Secondly, they are trying to raise votes through the following link - http://www.facebook.com/FeelGoodPark?sk=app_440439032678865. I understand that if they get enough votes, they will get a much needed donation. Sadly, despite this second option costing nothing, again the take up has been slow.

As your blog is so widely read and as you have helped Saving Rare Breeds in the past, I wondered whether you might be able to post a link to the 1000 club and the Animal Friends vote. If all of your readers took the time to vote, they would easily reach their target.

I have become extremely fond of Stephen and Tracy and humbled by the work that they do. I am desperate to help them in any way that I can. I am also very grateful to you for leading me to them!

 

It has been such a cold few weeks here in the UK and for anyone working the land or caring for livestock it must be a challenging time. I don't know if any of you are able to help, I know that there are so many worthy causes to choose from but if you are able to help in even the smallest way either by

giving a few moments of your time to vote for Saving Rare Breeds here

or by donating a few pounds to support their work here

I know that Stephen, Tracy and their animals would be incredibly grateful. Thanks so much x

 

image copyright: Olive & Harry