Category: countryside

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

signs of spring

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)35 Comments

Firstly thank you so very much for all of the kind messages on the previous post, you really are the best and I am glowing from all the warm comments.

At last it feels like Spring is gathering pace here. Today has been mild and sunny and this cheery bunch of daffs from the market is brightening my table. For the first time this year I’ve hung the washing outside on the line and while doing so saw the first of the bumblebees buzzing around the newly opened plum blossoms. In the last week the trees and hedgerows have gone from bare and tired looking, to fresh with bright green shoots and frothy with bridal-white blackthorn blossom. The snowdrops have been good this year but are already starting to fade and are being replaced with primroses, anenomes and the first of the daffodils.

The best place locally to see a carpet of snowdrops is in the little churchyard of the St John The Baptist church in Great Amwell which is where I photographed these. It’s such a beautiful churchyard set on a wooded hillside and surrounded by the river, canal and water meadows. I like to sit there sometimes as it feels so very peaceful and there are always lots of birds to listen to and watch.

There are also some interesting inhabitants in the graveyard including Harold Abrahams (buried together with his wife) who was the Olympic runner depicted in the film Chariots of Fire and many of the gravestones are beautifully carved and very old. The church is also where Richard Warren married Elizabeth Walker in 1610. Richard was a passenger on the Mayflower in 1620, settled in Plymouth Colony and co-signed the Mayflower Compact. After settling he moved his family from Amwell to Plymouth where he and Elizabeth lived until their deaths (they are both buried at Burial Hill in Plymouth) and they are the ancestors of two U.S. Presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Some of my favourite walks are around the little village of Great Amwell, it’s a quiet and gentle place with lovely countryside…

Amwell village in Hertfordshire, about twentie miles from London, not so obscure in itself (if wee consider eyther aptness of the seate, sweetness of the ayre, delicacy of the soyle, mixture of pleasant hills and fertile valleys, thicke woods and serviceable rivers, both fitly and plentifully enterlaced, all which may yeild both pleasure and profit to the inhabitants) as by reason that it is overtopt by foure towns of note barring it on either side from the eye of observation (Hartford to the west, Stansted to the east, Ware to the north and Hodsdon to the south.

Description of Amwell by Thomas Hassall written in 1631, The Parish Register and Tithing Book of Thomas Hassall of Amwell.

As well as wandering around churchyards getting muddy knees while taking pictures of snowdrops I’ve also been knitting lots. I’m still working on some new patterns and although progress is slow it is steady and I’m pleased with how things are shaping up. I’ve also been busy knitting up bunny cosies for Easter. Hopefully this little batch of heads will have some cosy bodies soon and I have an idea of a little pattern adaptation that I’ll be back to share with you soon. Til then I’m going to tuck them safely back into my lovely new project bag from The Wool Barn and go and start to think about Toby’s tea. See you soon, J x

autumn · countryside · crafts & knitting · general stuff · in the woods

autumn knits and woodsy walks

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)43 Comments

Time seems to be whizzing past faster than ever at the moment and I can’t be the only one who feels a sense of panic every time there’s an advert break on TV, full of Christmas urgency as they are. But I’m not feeling remotely Christmassy yet so I’m thinking I’ll just stick my head in the sand and listen to the radio instead. In my mind it’s still early autumn, a notion helped by the fact that many of the trees here are still in green leaf but it is a little wishful thinking I suppose. Last posting dates for Christmas really aren’t that far away so I’m doing my best to finish off a batch of animals. I am getting there but progress is slower than planned. This is Albie and he’s all ready to travel but his brothers and sisters are still in need of tails and buttons. I hope to have them ready in the next few days and will be sending out emails to my mailing list shortly with details of when they’ll be available to buy.

As mentioned lots of the trees here are hanging on to their green, although there’s a definite shift in the colour spectrum and some are already resplendent in autumn bright colours. It was recently half term break here and wood walks are always a good way to keep Toby busy (happily he’s back to enjoying them again). Being close to ancient broadleaf woods with a network of well trodden pathways is something that I am extremely grateful for and they never disappoint whatever the season but autumn is really the time when they are at their best.

There is something so very peaceful about walking quietly in a wood and it always does me the power of good not least because it’s a truly sensory experience…Your nose is delighted by an earthy blend of growth and decay. In the heart of the wood you can stand completely still and loose yourself in the gentle sounds; the sigh of the breeze moving the leaves; the chatter of small birds; the drilling of a woodpecker somewhere off to the right; the sudden, startled scamper of a squirrel as it looks up from burying acorns and realises you are there. With a kindly wind direction you may even be able to creep up on a muntjac, underfoot moss masking the sound of your approach until you are close enough to see individual hairs on his coat as he browses his way through the undergrowth on tippytoe pointed hooves.

Sadly I cannot capture the sounds or smells here for you but I can share some of the beauty that the woods near us provide.

Woodland pictures: Danemead wood, Ermine Street and Broxbourne Common, late October 2016

countryside · general stuff · summer

An evening walk

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)33 Comments

Since finishing her GCSEs 3 weeks ago Amy has been at a bit of a loose end and it’s been nice to spend a little more time with her. On Thursday evening we went for a long walk together, exploring some of our local countryside around Great Amwell nature reserve and walking the Amwell walkway which follows the course of a dismantled railway branch line. It was a lovely evening and we saw and heard lots of wildlife including rabbits, butterflies, dragonflies, some huge Roman snails (Helix pomatia which was exciting as they are quite rare and endangered here in the UK), a green woodpecker and lots of water birds. I was really hoping to see a barn owl but we weren’t that lucky.

Along the path that runs through farmland we had an uncomfortably close encounter with a herd of cows, young bullocks I think they were. When we first walked through their field they were laying down but on the way back they were drinking and grazing, stopping when we walked past and becoming very curious about us. Disconcertingly they followed us all the way down the field, getting closer all the while and we were relieved to reach the stile and climb over, leaving them on the other side.

Before returning to the canal we climbed Widbury Hill and enjoyed the views across Ware and the Lea Valley. On the way back down, with the rich evening sunlight warming our backs we could hear bells pealing out across the fields as the ringers practiced at the church and it felt like a perfect moment in time.

It’s not easy to remain connected to your child as they navigate their teenage years. Often I feel that my words and advice are not welcome and mostly actively ignored. Spending time with me is often pretty low on her list of priorities, so sharing moments like these with her is a precious thing and I treasure them all the more because of their comparative rarity. It fills my heart with pleasure that despite her usual preference for spending time immersed in the technology of computers and digital communication she can still enjoy and access the simple and rewarding pleasure of being quiet, observant and appreciative in a beautiful place.