Soggy but still smiling

April 29, 2012 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)42 Comments

Earlier today Amy and I joined around 180 others for the 10K walk to raise funds for CHIPs (the children’s charity that runs clubs for special needs children that Toby attends). We’d been closely watching the weather forecast all week and it had been getting steadily worse. By yesterday gale force winds and heavy downpours were predicted and it’s safe to say that I wasn’t feeling very excited about the prospect of walking 10K in those sort of conditions. But when we arrived that feeling started to change because there was such a warmth and enthusiasm in the hall where we all gathered to do our warm up. Some walkers had even dressed up especially…

Chips guys

These are some of the lovely CHIPs people who take care of Toby

My lovely friend and organiser Hazel did a brilliant speech and warm up routine for everyone and then we were off, out of the warm dry hall and into the wind whipped rain. I had planned to walk with Amy and we were together at the start but she is young and fit and has long legs so it wasn’t long before she left me behind, (far, far behind).

Walk me

In fact when I finished the walk (rather near the back) I found her and her friends already in the cafe eating cake. The three of them actually finished 3rd overall in a very respectable time of just under an hour and a half.

Girls 3rd

There was such a great atmosphere and despite the awful weather a lot of people turned up to walk. We all gathered for tea and cake afterwards (it was the thought of cake that had kept my legs moving over the last 3 kilometres). There was a raffle, a lot of hugging and congratulating and I was enormously touched to be awarded a trophy for raising the most money.

Trophy

But I can’t claim the credit, because it was you lovely people that did that. So here is the trophy that I accepted on behalf of the kind and generous readers of the little cotton rabbits blog.

Thank you everyone – you are the best xxx

(And as you can see from the trophy picture the sun has come out now the walk is over!)

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Update: Tuesday 1st May

I’ve just used the random number generator to select a recipient of the little spring bunny from all of those that generously donated to our sponsored walk. It’s drawn number 85

Which is Brenda Allen.

Many, many thanks again to everyone for your wonderful kindness x

seeds

April 27, 2012 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)34 Comments

My goodness it's been a wet and windy week here. I had planned to get out in the garden and plant my broad bean and carrot seeds direct into the beds but I'm really not a wet weather person and knitting on the sofa has held a much stronger appeal! Those seeds that I planted back in march and early april are growing into strong little plants and I'm looking forward to getting them into the raised beds in the next few weeks.

Seeds3

I love watching seedlings grow from a shrivelled brown dot into a big green plant – it's truly magical. These broccoli, cabbage and lettuce seedlings have a lot more growing to do but when they're fully grown and tended with care I'm hoping they'll reward me with a tasty summer feast!

On the subject of seeds, I was planning to send a friend some seeds that I collected from my garden last year but the little brown packets that I put them into looked so ordinary and plain and I had wanted them to be more of a gift. So I sat down with a few left over bits of yarn and fiddled about on ideas for a little pouch to hold seed packets. After a few prototypes of different sizes I finally settled on a design which can also hold an i-phone or similar sized gadget.

Pouch 2

I thought I'd write it up as a little pattern, so give me a few days or so and I'll hopefully have it ready to share with you.

Hopefully the wind and rain will abate a little on Sunday as it's the big day for Amy and me and the others talking part in the sponsored walk for CHIPs. The forecast is not looking good though, we'll be looking forward to cups of tea, hot chocolate and cake at the finish line, and coming home to a hot bath!

Stay warm and dry wherever you are this weekend x

crafts & knitting · general stuff

A thank you from the heart

April 23, 2012 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)20 Comments

It’s been an emotional weekend here and I’ve been reduced to tears many times. But they’ve been tears of the good sort, brought on by kind messages from people I’ve never met and the hugely generous donations to the CHIPs fund. There are no words to adequately express the gratitude and sense of wonderment that I feel right now, the generosity and kindness of everyone is quite overwhelming.

Shawl

Today I’m having a quiet start to the week with my knitting. I’m mostly working on bunnies at the moment but the Old Mossy Wall Shawl is also gradually growing when time and inclination coincide. This is about a weeks worth of gentle paced knitting.

Shawl5

Amy calls this the ‘mouldy old wall shawl’ – she is most unimpressed by my colour choices but I think a mother and daughter probably should have different tastes in accessories and I’m quite pleased with how it’s turning out.

Thanks again to everyone for the messages, emails and donations, I am so very grateful and truly moved by the support that everyone has shown.