Category: foxes in my garden

countryside · crafts & knitting · foxes in my garden · in the woods · wildlife

Early Autumn

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)20 Comments

It still feels like Autumn is waiting in the wings here, poised but not quite ready to make the dramatic entrance that the season is so loved for. There are inklings though of what will come; whisperings in the treetops, rustlings in the hedgerows, glimmerings in the undergrowth. The leaves are losing their vibrant summer green and are becoming dry and brittle. Each breath of wind sets free a flurry of seeds that twist and dance on the breeze until feathering gently to the woodland floor. The birds are gathering too, preparing for long migratory journeys, skeins of geese honking over the house in the first light of morning and flocks of finches that come looping and twittering into the garden, 30 or more at a time, and empty the bird feeders in a matter of minutes.

I’ve been out to the woods a few times on my own, hunting for photogenic fungi. As yet I have found very little, but I have enjoyed the quiet peace under the canopy and visiting the friendly red poll cattle that graze the woodland and a sweet, scruffy pony that lives in the field at the edge of the wood. And I came home with pocketfuls of beautifully fat and glossy chestnuts, I’ll be sharing some with the friendly squirrel that visits our garden and roasting the rest later. Our other friendly visitor has been here frequently too, beautiful Kit the fox.

Here we are still settling in to term-time routines, it always takes a while for Toby to adjust and we have had a few wobbles, which have resulted in him being home a little more than expected or planned for. And the older I get the longer it seems to take me to settle in to concentrating properly. There’s been a lot of knitting of course. I made a little rabbit for my friend to auction off at a charity masked ball that she organised to raise funds for the wonderful, inclusive playscheme that our sons both attended when they were younger. There has also been some simple weekend and evening sock knitting, as a welcome contrast to working on the patterns, which is at times fiddly, frustrating and takes a well-rested morning brain to tackle properly. I’m planning more simple wristwarmers and socks with the lovely autumnal coloured yarns bought from The Knitting Shed (I might be just a wee bit obsessed with their yarn at the moment).

My ‘work-day’ knitting is still all about my cow pattern, and I will show you more of how I’m getting on with that soon, but above are a couple of Highland cattle that will be making an appearance.

I’ve also spent a few months updating some of my existing patterns and have hopefully now sent out notifications of these changes to all Ravelry buyers. Below is a list of which patterns have been updated and in what way. If you use Etsy and you’d like a new revised copy of any of these patterns you’ll need to message me via your Etsy account, as Etsy does not provide me with a way of sending you an automatic update in the way that Ravelry do. It’s a very good reason to buy via Ravelry if you are able to, as I am planning a few future updates and extras to some of my other patterns. I’ve also added revision notes to the bottom of every pattern page on Ravelry so that you can quickly check when each pattern was last updated and what the errata/revisions were.

  • Small 7 inch mouse pattern: Correction to Page 15, row 12, there was an extra P1 at the start of the 3rd line, which has now been removed
  • Both 9 inch Horse patterns: Page 21, rows 9, 11 & 13, Ktog should read K2tog
  • 9 inch ‘boy’ patterns for fox, elephant, mouse, monkey, bear, cat, and sheep: All now have a revised version of the shorts that includes a ribbed waistband.

Well, that’s all from me for now, but see you soon, J x

autism · countryside · foxes in my garden · wildlife

Spring into summer

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)32 Comments

The last few weeks have been even more of a roller-coaster ride than usual here. There have been quite deep lows; Toby’s challenging behaviours have been gradually worsening for a while now and the episodes of his self-injuring and violent behaviour have been escalating. He’s been sent home from college on 3 separate occasions for injuring staff and I currently have multi-coloured grip bruises on both of my forearms to add to my growing collection. Like many other families caring for offspring with severe learning and behavioural difficulties, we live with the constant distressing threat of domestic violence from our own child. Working out what is happening with him is an almost impossible task and we’ve spent so much of our recent free time filling out ABC (antecedent, behaviour, consequence) charts and forensically unpicking details of incidents. On top of that I’ve had food poisoning, though happily short-lived and thankfully in the past now.

But it’s not been all bad, we’ve had big highs too, the biggest being Amy passing her driving test first time. We are delighted for her and the newfound independence this gives her. She’s now driving herself to work each day, which has made my early mornings so much easier and has given her such a confidence boost.

And as always nature is such a balm for a troubled heart so I’ve been out and about soaking up the peace and calm that it always brings me. Hawthorn blossom and wild roses, white nettles and cow parsley, buttercups and butterflies and so much green, more shades than have ever been named or mixed on a painter’s palette. May and early June are abundant with much appreciated beauty.

I’ve also been visiting the long horn cattle regularly, study field trips for my in progress cow pattern, but also delightfully entertaining as they are all such characters and there are 5 beautiful calves this year.

And seeing kit the fox is always a big high for me, she often seems to turn up when I’m feeling low and the privilege of her visits lifts me enormously. And yes, she did sniff my camera lens!

There’s one more week until Toby finishes college for this academic year and then he’ll be off for just over 2 months so we’re planning very calm and predictable routines which we’re hoping will help him find a calmer place within himself. I hope to be back periodically over the summer months, but as he’ll be my main focus I might not get as much chance to hang out here as I’d like.

Until next time I hope you have a good July and August and that you too find ways to temper any challenges you are facing with something that brings you joy, J x

 

 

countryside · foxes in my garden · in the woods · wildlife

Early April, mostly in pictures

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)31 Comments

 

Words have been eluding me a little lately. Toby has been going through a bad patch behaviourally and I’m feeling a little tired and depleted. Happily Spring is now in full swing and the progression of colour throughout the countryside is providing many small delights. Being out with my camera always lifts my spirits and I hope these photos are a pleasure for you to see too. And Kit visiting again is such a joy. She’s been here once or twice a week and is no longer pregnant so hopefully there are some healthy growing cubs hidden somewhere safe nearby. You can see in the second picture of her that part of her belly fur has gone, I’ve been trying to read up on whether it’s related to her recently giving birth – maybe kind of a ‘brood patch’ as the cubs can’t temperature regulate for the first 3 weeks of life. If anyone knows the answer please do let me know.

Progress is being made with the horse pattern but it’s slow going at the moment as we’re now in the Easter break from college so I’m not getting much time to work on it. Hopefully I’ll have something ready to show you in a few weeks time.

Hope that you’re finding some small delights in your days too, J x