Category: garden stuff

countryside · garden stuff · in the woods · spring · wildlife

Properly Spring

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)52 Comments

Well, it’s been a long time coming but Spring has arrived at last. Although the weather has still seemed a little undecided at times, the countryside around us here has been pressing ahead with new growth and everything is now transformed from dull, twiggy brown to bright acid green. I headed out to the orchard at Tewin earlier this week and there found beauty in many forms; blushed pink pear and apple blossoms; drifts of forget-me-knots shimmering in the breeze and ramsons (wild garlic) pungently carpeting the woodland all around the badger sett. Some of the ancient apple trees are covered in lichens and moss and look almost fossilised, creating an amazing contrast between the boughs and the delicate newly emerging leaves. The whole orchard was alive with birds and bees, everything busy with various stages of raising their next generation and it was the perfect tonic for the positivity problems I seem to have been struggling with lately.

It seems that many of us are feeling a little anxious and stressed so I know I’m not alone – the times we are living in seem to be full of peril, duplicity and deceit. For my own part I’m steering clear of the news for a while – and instead knitting, listening to music and reading more and just trying to appreciate some of the small and simple things. Recently the biggest mood improver for me has been a pair of robins choosing to nest in our garage. The nest has been built on top of some bottles of car wash and oil and we watched it grow, expertly crafted by the female alone while her mate provided her with food to keep up her strength. That was around a month ago and since then 5 or 6 eggs have been laid and at the beginning of last week they hatched. Because I’m a softy I ordered some live meal and wax worms and both the adults now fly down whenever I go out into the garden – they know that I have some tasty treats and it’s such an incredible privilege to be so close to them. Hopefully the chicks will fledge in around a week and will be safe in the garage for the few days before they find their wings so to speak – robin chicks usually leave the nest a few days before they learn to actually fly. I’ll let you know how they get on.

Sorry to be a bit down, I’ll try and be a bit more upbeat when I come back next time. I’ve had some gorgeous new yarn recently and have lots of knitting plans, so that will help!

Hope your days are happy this week x

crafts & knitting · garden stuff · spring · wildlife

blossoming time

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)14 Comments

Thank you so very much for all of the kind comments on the previous post, I am still processing the amazing win and happily my wrist seems to be completely back to normal now, so knitting is back on the menu.

After another cold snap bringing snow our way last week things have turned more spring-like here. Not much is flowering in the garden yet (the plans I had for autumn bulb planting remained as an un-ticked line on my to-do list) but the plum tree is, as usual, heralding a change in season. I know I do it every year but I can’t resist taking photos of the blossoms. They are radiant in the morning sun and at night are illuminated by the light of the moon and their delicate beauty is so short-lived that I feel the need to capture their fleeting charm before they are gone for another year.

The birds have been answering the call of their seasonal instincts by jostling for territory, paring up and becoming more vocal. These last few mornings when I’ve gone out to let the chickens out I’ve been greeted by a tuneful robin. He has a twinkle in the black bead of his eye and when he cocks his head to watch me from the tree above it seems like he is asking for some breakfast – and I’m happy to oblige with a handful of dried mealworms and sunflower hearts.  I love it when the dawn is full of birdsong, it’s an enchanting start to the day and it will build now until May, when it reaches it’s most choral.

It is nice to be knitting again and although I’m behind a self-imposed schedule I am still working on a new pattern and full steaming ahead with a finished batch of bunnies – though they won’t now be ready in time for Easter. I’ll send out an email to my mailing list when they are ready but it will be a good few weeks yet.

Lastly, but not leastly, I’m very excited to be taking over the instagram feed of Love Knitting tomorrow. If you’re on instagram pop over and say hello – I’m going to spend the day sewing together bunny bits and sharing photos as I go and it would be nice to have your company.

Thanks again for all of the congratulations and compliments on the previous post, I feel truly privileged to be on the receiving end of such kindness.

 

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

Late Summer

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)15 Comments

Our summer days have merged into a flow of lazy, mostly at home days and I’m at that point in the school summer hols where I can no longer remember which day of the week it is.

We’ve been spending lots of time outside; swinging gently in the shade or lazing on a picnic blanket in the garden; walking in the woods and over hills; riding on the little steam train near here and eating lots of ice-cream. It’s been mostly relaxing and Toby is coping. He’s also beginning to adapt to the lack of pudding that I mentioned in the previous post and though it’s still a work in progress it looks like petit filous yoghurts are becoming his new pudding of choice, which is a great relief!

Out in the garden things have been really productive this year. I’m still picking french beans, raspberries, rocket and kale and the cylindrical beetroot that I planted from seed has done really well and is deliciously fresh – seems I’m not the only one to think that either. Everything is still flowering too, the little oregano flowers are attracting lots of bees, hoverflies and butterflies and we’ve been watching the rapid growth of a surprise self-seeded sunflower.

There’s even been a little knitting going on: I’ve finally finished and blocked a shawl that has been languishing in a bag for a year or more (Dream Stripes by Berangere Cailliau, details here); have quite a few pairs of socks on the go, as I’m clearly still under the spell of the sock knitting fairy (above are Wildflower and Honeycomb socks by Olivia Villarreal, details here) and there have even been a few animals emerging from my knitting basket too (more on that another time).

We’ve got exactly a week left until school starts again so we’re just going to keep things simple here and try to savour the last summer break days, because days of warmth and sunshine are now numbered for this year. Mornings are becoming hazier and cooler, the evenings are shortening noticeably and the leaves in the woods are taking on that late summer dusty green. Autumn is waiting in the wings.

 

PS: I knew there was something I’d forget and that’s the pictures of the tiny cucamelons that a kind friend gave to me as seedlings. Incredibly and despite unwanted attention from slugs, snails and squirrels they actually have tiny fruits!