Little Cotton Rabbits

woodsy

Happily the half term school break wasn't as wet and windy as I'd feared and in fact we were rather lucky with mild, sunshiney days perfect for lots of lovely wood walks.

 

 

 

Toby is such a happy boy in the peace and tranquility of the woods, he notices lots around him, touching trees, exploring textures and enjoying the different sounds he can make with his feet depending on whether he's rustling through the leaves, tromping down the boardwalks or crunching along the gravelly paths. He does like to keep moving though (you can see his shadow pulling on my shadows arm in the picture above - "c'mon mummy, c'mon"). The only time he does agree to stop is when there is a snack involved. I might miss out on more in-depth looking at things and photo taking when I'm with Tobes, but I do love these peaceful little adventures that we share in the sanctuary of the woods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amy meantime had a great time on stage in 6 performances of the Addams family, though she was quite worn out by the end of the week. It was lovely to see her having such fun up on stage and the show was a great success.

Other than spending time with Toby and driving Amy back and forth I didn't get an awful lot done, so it's nice to have some free time again now he's back at school. I've been settling back into a bit of crochet blanket making.

 

 

 

It has been put aside for most of the summer but it feels right to work on it again now the days are colder and shorter and I'd like to think that I might get it finished to put on the bed before winter truly arrives, though that might be a little optimistic of me. Once it's a bit more finished I'll find somewhere to spread it out and take a proper picture. I'm also working on a small batch of animals that I hope to have ready soon, more news of that when they're ready.

I'll be back soon with that post about the mice pattern making that I mentioned. Til then enjoy the rest of your week x

 

an at home holiday (part 2)

Walking in the woods is a regular activity for us but not something that I ever seem to do on my own. It's usually Toby and me that wood-walk and Toby is always very much in charge. There's never really time to stop and look at things when you walk with Toby. He receives the words 'wait a minute' with the same reaction you'd expect from saying 'never in a million years' and with much anxiety and handbiting so stopping for a moment to take pictures, look at a flower or just soak up the quiet woodsy atmosphere is not usually something I get to do. But yesterday I made the most of a few hours on my own.

 

 

After I dropped Toby off, I took to the woods in the quiet mid morning when the early morning dog-walkers had already passed through and no-one else was around. I did hear voices once through the trees but didn't actually see anyone. Being alone in the woods can be slightly disconcerting but these are familiar and friendly woods and I felt peaceful and calm.

 

 

We are so lucky here to be on the edge of some ancient woodlands that have protected status and while they are small when looked at on a map, the area is one of the largest oak/hornbeam woodlands in the country and you can easily walk for a day without going down the same path twice. Some of the names are fascinating and hint at lost histories:

Mortals wood, Emanuel Pollards, Thunderfield grove, Claypits wood, Bushy Pightle

Some of these give a clue as to what used to be there but I had to look up pightle, which was once a common word in the naming of fields and denotes a small enclosed piece of land for keeping animals, often attached to a cottage.

 

 

 

 

I followed the path around Toby's favourite patch of woodland - Bencroft. It's a well trod path passing beneath a canopy of various aged trees and with drifts of bracken in the more open areas.

Half way round there is a gate leading onto fields and I sat for a while there in the sun enjoying the view across the valley to the grounds of Beaumont Manor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was back through a denser part of the wood, peppered with leafy glades and smaller twisting pathways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lovely peaceful 3 hour walk and nice to go at my own pace and stop frequently to take pictures. Especially since the signs of autumn are appearing everywhere, with the trees laden with budding acorns and the brambles studded with fat, juicy blackberries.

 

 

 

It's made me determined to get out a bit more in the week when Toby is back at school and explore a bit further afield. Mind you it was nice to come back and put my slightly-aching  feet up with a good book afterwards and I had a quiet hour of reading before it was time to pick Toby up again. Usually reading is an exclusively bed-time activity for me and the way that I like to wind down at the end of each day so I did get a bit sleepy and I might have dozed off for a bit too.

 

 

So, we are almost at the end of the school Summer break and I'm now out of Toby-free days. I didn't manage to tick everything off my wish list - I missed out on a picnic (unless you count chomping on an apple in the woods) and visiting somewhere new, but 3 out of 5 isn't too bad and I really enjoyed what I did fit in.

See you soon - once we've settled back into term-time routines again (Toby goes back to school next Wednesday) and thanks as always for dropping by to visit.

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PS: thanks to all of you who asked how H is - he's perfectly fine now thankfully!

 

all is well

If you've popped in here for a visit over the last 5 days you may have been greeted by a blank page and been wondering what has happened to me and the little cotton rabbits. Last thursday Typepad (who host my blog) were targeted by a rather massive and sustained distributed denial of service attack which knocked out all of their services and since then they've been working round the clock to get up and running again. Fearing for it's safe return has made me realise just how much I love my blog and the contact it gives me with others who like woolly stuff and similar things and I'm very happy to have it back.

Anyway, I'm getting back into the term time swing of things here, catching up (albeit rather slowly) with an email backlog that built up over the school Easter break, settling back into pattern tweaking and writing for those seasonal sweaters that I promised and generally just enjoying having some time to call my own instead of Toby's. This morning I've been on a bluebell walk as the local woods are full of them and we have a lovely sunny morning here today so it would be daft to sit inside all day.

 

 

I always think of April as the month of unfurling and those bright chartreuse green shoots emerging everywhere from little brown tree buds are quite magical. The most magical sight of all though is the carpet of bluebells.

 

 

For just a couple of weeks each year the woods are transformed into a place where you can really believe that fairies exist. When you sit quietly on a mossy log in a bluebell wood, troubles fade away for a while and you feel a sense of timelessness and peace, at least until a dog comes bounding up to lick your face as one did to me earlier! Still, it's a lovely way to escape from modern world stresses and I have resolved to go walking in the woods on my own more regularly, and of course it is the regular weekend activity with Toby – the woods are his favourite place to be.

Hopefully if you pop in again you'll find everything in it's place but if things do go wobbly again please don't give up on me as I will definitely be blogging here for a long time to come :)

wood walks

It's school half term break here - it hardly feels like enough time has passed since the Easter break and I'm not at all prepared.

 

 

Luckily both Toby and I share a love of quiet, woodland places and since he's so hard to entertain at the best of times, we'll be having a daily jaunt to the woods to help keep him occupied.

 

We walk along in silence, enjoying the sounds of the birds and the wind in the leaves and sometimes we get rewarded for our quiet strolling by a glimpse of a deer or a fox. Toby has a favourite wood walk with ancient contorted trees (a legacy of coppicing) and a brook running through the centre.

 

It also has Ermine Street, an ancient Roman road running through it and I like to think of all of the people who have passed this way through the ages, apparently including William the Conqueror and Oliver Cromwell and now Master Toby...

 

Toby usually loves paddling in the brook (and occasionally peeing in it!) but at the moment it's completely dry thanks to the lack of spring rain.

 

Despite that everything is verdant and cool and so very peaceful. I hope that peace will keep us company the rest of this week as we're still waiting to hear about dates for respite care and Toby has been particularly unmanageable over the last few weeks. Hopefully the woods will work their magic on him and help to keep him calm, he usually is when we're there.

I love this picture of him strolling along ahead of me, he looks for all the world like any other nine year old boy. Seeing him like this does me the power of good!

I won't be back this week but hope to be back with some knitting updates next week. Hope you have a peaceful week where you are and thanks for dropping in to visit.

Bluebells

One of the nicest things about having children in different schools is that the inset days are usually different. This was the case yesterday with Toby going back to school a day earlier than Amy, giving us the chance to spend some extra time together. After breakfast we headed off to the woods where the bluebells were out. Sadly they were a little past their best but still scented the air and made the woods more magical than ever...

 

And then we came home to make (and eat) a cake together

A peacefully perfect day to finish off the Easter break.