a spot of gardening

May 7, 2012May 2, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)28 Comments

Typically for a British bank holiday we’ve spent the long weekend dodging rain showers. Luckily there have been some dry spells that were long enough for Toby to have some bouncy time and for me to potter around the garden. I had bought some new herbs to replace those that have been in situ for a few years and gone all woody and now they’re happily bedded into my little herb wall.

In between the herbs I’ve planted a few little violas – they were on sale and are so pretty that it would have been unkind not to give them a home. There were a few too many to fit into the wall and as the herbs will probably crowd them out, I’ve popped them into a pot.

Since the weather isn’t yet good enough for us to be spending much time outside I’ve brought them inside so that I can appreciate their delicate prettiness all the time.

It’s nice to have a little taste of spring inside the house, though I hope that Toby isn’t tempted to literally taste them – I’ve not had fresh flowers in the house since the peony munching incident!

crafts & knitting

back to knitting

May 3, 2012May 2, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)55 Comments

Well, after braving Sunday’s weather on the 10k walk I’m not feeling at all guilty to be curling up with my knitting (and truth be told I was aching just a little bit at the beginning of the week!) I have lots of animals to finish off, so at the moment I’m trying hard to resist casting on a couple of new ones in these gorgeous yarns…

Shilasdair’s Luxury DK (10% Cashmere, 10% Baby Camel, 40% Angora and 40% British Merino Lambswool) is produced on the Isle of Skye and dyed with natural dyes like madder and onion skins. I’m also finding the thought of trying out a few bunny dresses in the Quince & Co ‘sparrow’ (100% organic linen) rather tempting. I will resist (for now) and press on with finishing off because there are lots of spring dresses to sew up and lots of heads and limbs to be attached to fat-tummied bodies!

Enjoy the rest of your week and if you have any excess sunshine with you please could you send a little this way – the constant heavy rain here is getting a bit repetitive!

general stuff

Soggy but still smiling

April 29, 2012May 2, 2026 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 – 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). 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.

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.

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