routines

September 16, 2019November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

Monday morning. It’s nicely quiet and calm here and I’ve just finished my favourite breakfast of poached egg (thankyou Mrs chickens) on hot buttered toast with a pot of tea – a good start to any day. I had planned to be back here on the blog sooner but it has taken a little longer than expected to get Toby settled back at school and Amy moved into her new uni digs. At last though we are back into familiar routines – to some that might sound boringly monotonous but here routines are a welcomed necessity and help our little family function.

Toby is now in the sixth form at school and so doesn’t wear uniform. As someone who takes great comfort in the visual clues that different outfits bring to his life, he has had a little difficulty adjusting but we’ve settled on familiar school shoes and black jogging bottoms paired with a colourful T shirt (previously strictly weekend wear) and a new grey hoodie, and he’s now adapting. Amy has had some challenges with settling into her new digs after a summer of living at hotel mum & dad but is now (I think and hope) happy to be back at uni and ready for year 2.

Now that I have time to myself again I’ve been tidying the house and sorting out paperwork relating to Toby’s transition from child to adult social services – lots of reading and research to do and a lot of planning too. Once I’m on top of the paperwork and have caught up with emails I’ll be joyfully turning my full day-time attention back to knitting and pattern writing – I can’t wait! I have so many ideas bouncing around my head and hastily scribbled in notebooks over the last 3 months and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you. A sneak peek of one of the free patterns I’m planning on sharing is above.

I’ll be back soon with more knitting news, ’til then thanks for dropping in to visit with me,

J x

countryside · crafts & knitting · garden stuff · general stuff · wildlife

Scenes of Summer

August 14, 2019November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

Hello! And sorry it’s been so long. I just wanted to pop in briefly and say I am still here – it’s just that here the school summer break is full on Toby time, and he remains my focus until school starts up again on September 4th. Even so I have had my camera handy and have captured some favourite moments from the last month…

countryside walking – finding breathtakingly fabulous fields of jewel-bright poppies;
sky watching – for clouds, techni-colour sunsets, vintage planes and the red kites that have recently moved into the area;
bug finding – newly emerged ladybirds, hoverflies and swallow-tail moths;
knitting – mostly socks because they are undemanding, but there are a few more things on my needles that I’ll share soon;
pic-nicing with Amy, revisiting Hatfield house (after our first visit this time last year) for a lovely day together;

Today it’s pouring with much needed rain, so Toby and I are having a lazy day – he’s watching cbeebies shows on tv and I’m writing this. If the weather is better tomorrow we’ll be off on a welly-boot woodland adventure – it’s good to get him out and about but overall he’s coping pretty well with the lack of routine. I do think though that we’ll both be ready for when school starts up again 3 weeks and once he’s back into routines I’ll have time to call mine again so I’ll see you then with some updates on what I’ve been working on. Hope the rest of August is good for you xxx

foxes in my garden · garden stuff · general stuff · wildlife

An early morning encounter

July 11, 2019November 5, 2025 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)25 Comments

Some mornings I wake early and can’t get back to sleep. Sometimes I read, sometimes I knit and sometimes I open the blind and watch the sunrise sky. A couple of weeks back I was leaning out of the bedroom window just after the sun had risen and was sleepily daydreaming as I looked around our garden below. A flash of orange caught my eye, peeking out between the tangle of ivy overgrowing the chicken run and I probably frowned in puzzlement, but it soon became clear that the plastic mesh netting that keeps the chickens safely contained in their run makes a rather comfy hammock for a sleepy fox.

She was completely unbothered by me opening the window and taking pictures of her and carried on dozing in the warmth of the early morning sun for 20 minutes before stretching a little, grooming a little and then setting off on an impressive balancing act along the top edge of the run – which is a good 9ft above the path. She stopped for a quick sniff and a wistful glance at the now empty bird box that the blue-tits used to raise their family in, before a lithe leap back to the ground and a silent, sure-footed and typically foxy vanishing act.

She still arrives most evenings and some mornings for snacks. We’ve only caught a brief glimpse of one cub and that was a few weeks ago, and though the mortality rate of urban foxes is pretty high I’m hoping they’re safe somewhere and she’s just keeping them well hidden. I’m still thrilled to have the great privilege of her visits, she’s still completely wild, intently alert and intelligently wary of us but she does seem to appreciate the snacks!