frosty morning

January 19, 2016April 29, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)61 Comments

There are a hundred things that I really should be getting on with today, I’ve really not got into the swing of things yet this year and am behind with all of my plans and aims. But this morning was a perfect winter morning and much too beautiful to stay inside. So I bundled up in my hat, gloves, scarf, thickest coat, cosy socks and trusty walking boots and set off for a walk.

The countryside is so beautiful after a full frost but it really was cold, the temperature was showing as -4 as I set off (which is pretty cold for these parts). I just walked a few miles, wandering down lanes, across fields, along bridleways and footpaths, past beautiful houses and around the churchyard, but there was much to see. Lots of frosty leaves and berries and a surprising amount of wildlife – robins, jays and blackbirds; a fallow deer (which was too quick for my camera); rabbits and squirrels and a couple of ponies. Here’s what a I recorded from my walk, a little snapshot of a frosty winter day in a Hertfordshire village, when the ‘earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone’*.

* From ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ Christina Rossetti

Now I’m home again and warming up with a cup of tea and a toasted cheese scone and although I’ll not be able to tick many things off my to do list today I do feel much restored by my quiet walk with it’s small delights. Tomorrow I will begin to get organised, see you soon x

autumn · countryside · general stuff · in the woods · wildlife

Autumny things :: out & about

October 30, 2015May 29, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)38 Comments

The woods in Autumn are one of my most favourite places to be. It’s such a sensory experience – a wonderful rich smell of damp earth; a rustling sigh as hundreds of leaves part company with the trees at the slightest breeze and a sparkling quality to the light as the low-angled sunlight is shimmered through all of the leaves still clinging fast. There are good things to eat too. I’m not confident enough to gather mushrooms but a handful of sweet chestnuts or blackberries instantly evokes childhood memories of autumn Sunday afternoons spent foraging in the woods with my Mum, Dad and brother. I do love being out in the woods on a bright autumn day.

Sadly though Toby seems to have gone off wood walks at the moment. He’s been getting rather agitated when I’ve shown him the PECs card for the woods and biting his hand a lot (you can see it’s badly calloused in the picture below). I did manage to coax him out with custard cream biscuits for one rather short stroll over this half term break but he was keen to get back to the car.

Amy walked with me on wednesday afternoon, both of us with our cameras in hand as she’s preparing her coursework for her photography GCSE. We took a lot of pictures because there’s lots going on in the autumn woods. We saw mini beasts; snails, butterflies and beetles, tiny fairy-tale porcelain fungus and toadstools and out on an open stretch a muntjac deer was crossing an autumn-sown field and stopping every now and then for a quick nibble of the fresh, green shoots. There was a fair bit of good-natured elbow barging between us over the best position to photograph from and lots of her shots came out better than mine. It was a memorable afternoon out with my lovely girl.

Back at home the late afternoon skies have been crossed with migrating flocks of birds. I love watching them heading south to keep ahead of the colder weather and wonder how far they are journeying.

Autumn is in full flow here and I hope to make it out to the woods lots more before the leaves are all on the ground. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep tempting Toby to come out with me and he’ll re-discover his woodland mojo.

Pictures taken at:

Amwell nature reserve, Hollywell Lake with the dragonfly meadows and Amwell walkway, September 26th

Bencroft wood, Hertfordshire, October 26th

Panshanger Park and Osprey lake, October 28th

countryside · general stuff · winter

calmer

February 13, 2015April 30, 2026 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)59 Comments

Thanks so much for all of the kind and lovely comments on the previous post. This week has been a lot less dramatic and Toby has been happily at school without incident. For me there has been a lot of knitting, for in knitting my heart knows calm; some tea, cake and laughter with friends and a lovely peaceful woodland walk amongst the snowdrops which are just beginning to break bud.

I took 133 pictures on my wood walk (and got very muddy knees in the process) and there were just too many of them that I wanted to show you, so I made a little film.

Note: To see the snowdrops at their best it’s worth cranking it up to HD which you can do by clicking the little thing shaped like a cog and moving the slider to 1080p HD at the top, after a moment you should get a little HD in red by the cog and then you can re-start the film with better quality.