Little Cotton Rabbits

seaside

Summer has really arrived here - it's turned hot and sunny and Amy and I couldn't pass up the opportunity that came our way last week for a girls only weekend at the seaside. We set off at the crack of dawn on Saturday and arrived with our friends in Walton on the Naze for breakfast.

The day at the beach was perfect and we topped it off with a visit to the pier, fish and chips and an evening at the kids club. It was so nice to get away and relax but lovely to come home again yesterday and see our menfolk who had pottered around the garden all weekend. Although we were only away for 18 hours it felt like a much longer break and I feel very relaxed this morning - hope that feeling lasts a little longer!

and then there were two

Thanks so much for the good wishes for both Amy's ballet performance and for poorly Toffee. Amy had a wonderful time and really enjoyed performing on such a big stage. We were really proud to see her up there giving it her all.

Unfortunately Toffee did not have such a good weekend. I inspected her foot and leg and thoroughly bathed it but there was no sign of cuts, bruises, breaks, nibbles (although  there's no way any rodents could get into our run) and she still had movement in the toes and could just about weight bear on the leg. Unfortunately though she stopped eating the regular chicken food on Saturday and so I put her on the rickets diet that I'd read about - she seemed to enjoy this but was still only eating a little. She wasn't showing other signs of illness so we made her a comfy woodshavings bed and waited to see if rest would help.

Sadly though she died during Sunday night. I'm hoping that the absence of other symptoms means that she didn't have an infectious disease that the others might get but to play safe we've thoroughly cleaned everything and are dosing Mrs Black and Butterscotch up with vitamins. We're so sad to have lost Toffee but it feels a little better knowing that she had a good life here with lots of treats, a comfy home and a little love which is much more than most of her commercially bred cousins can dream of.

weekend stuff

We had a busy weekend with a lot of ballet rehersals for Amy. There's only a week to go before her ballet school perform Cinderella at the local theatre and Amy is Cinderella's shadow (as you might imagine she's very excited!) So that meant a lot of sitting around for me - not too bad when you've got a bag full of crochet to keep you busy! I'm working on lots of different bits at the moment which I hope will one day become a collection of cushions!

There was also a little garden time. Everything is growing like mad and there are loads of strawberries ripening.

We learnt our lesson from last year and picked them quick before the birds or the slugs could tuck into them.

They tasted good!

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PS: the crochet cushions above are all based on the summer garden granny square pattern from Attic24's blog

hello!

Just popping in to say a quick hello.

 

Thanks for the good wishes for last week, Toby's school play went really well and we coped with the change in routine (just about). It's now school half term break and so we're hoping for a relaxed week - so far so good! Enjoy your week wherever you are!

An upside down week

This week is one of the strangest in our family's year. It's the week of Toby's school play which means all routines are stood on their head. From tomorrow he'll go to school from 4pm til 9pm instead of the usual 9am - 3pm and he'll take part in the annual school play each evening. It's challenging to him to say the least but last year he coped pretty well (fingers crossed for this year being the same!) and the play that the school put on is amazing especially when you consider the diverse and very severe disabilities of all the students. Everyone takes part from the youngest in the nursery at 3-4 years to the oldest at 18 -  19 years old and they all do their best according to their abilities. I'll take my tissues as usual and be prepared for the stinging hands that follow all the clapping!

I'm hoping that the sunny weather that joined us for the weekend will continue so that Toby can happily play out in the garden during the daytime and I can sit and watch him while finishing off my crochet bag - just the straps and trim to go now.

I'm pretty happy with it although it's going to need lining and my join is very scrappy - still crochet seems to be more forgiving than knitting in that sense and it doesn't really notice (from a distance at least!)

True to form I've also kicked off another crochet project (on the basis that you can't be a proper crochet-er without having a few granny squares under your belt) I hope to add to these from this pattern and make a cushion somewhere down the line.

I'm really enjoying getting to grips with crochet but my first love will always be my knitting! Talking of which I'm off to make the most of the last quiet day of the week and finish off a bunny or two. Enjoy your week wherever you are.