Category: in the woods

countryside · general stuff · in the woods · spring

On finding routine

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)14 Comments


Hello, how are you holding up?

I expect that you’re just like me and are finding that the days have lost their identity and all merged into a constant stream of sameness. Here we have settled into new routine of sorts. Happily Toby now enjoys a long lie in – something he has recently been starting to get rather good at, after many previous years of waking at dawn. So my early mornings do give me a few hours of precious free time and my favourite activities are tea, toast with honey and knitting in bed (currently working on lots of clothing patterns for the small version of my rabbits);  reading (currently The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell, an inspiring and comforting read) or pottering in the garden. Once Toby’s up and dressed and lunch is dealt with we’ve been keeping occupied.  On sunny days we’re outside in the garden which has needed a tidy up and a rearrange ready for summer. H has spruced up the trampoline, which needed a bit of TLC after the winter, and Toby has had fun bouncing with lots of bubbles from his bubble machine. On rainy days we’re inside for some boxercise, yoga or a disco, depending on Toby’s mood. Toby loves music and he’s also really enjoyed watching the music videos on ‘The Singing Walrus‘ – be warned before you listen as I often go to bed at night with the catchy songs still circling in my head! We’ve also been baking, tidying and sorting too and Toby’s got quite good at helping peg out the washing.

Early evening is our time to walk in the woods. We aim to arrive there at around 6ish as this seems to be the quietest time and we usually walk our 2 miles without seeing another human soul. We do see plenty of other creatures though, rabbits, squirrels, woodpeckers, a host of small woodland birds, a sparrow hawk, a red kite and in the last 2 weeks we’ve regularly heard cuckoos. It’s been lovely walking the same route each day and fascinating to see the progression of Spring throughout the wood. Back in March the trees were still bare but now the lanes on our short drive have once again transformed into leafy green tunnels and throughout the wood there’s a gorgeous lime green light created by the new leaves dappling the sun. As soon as the leaves started to unfurl they were besieged by an army of tiny munchers and the lower branches are now strung with silk-suspended caterpillars. When we arrive back at the car we have to brush them off our shoulders. I always come away from the woods feeling deeply grateful that we can walk there. Toby has a couple of meltdowns each day at home but it doesn’t matter what has happened during the rest of the day, our woods walk is always a peaceful and happy time, as you can see from his face 🙂

Then it’s home for dinner and a quiet evening. Toby likes a bath with lots of bubbles and water balloons and then some quiet music until bedtime – hopefully before midnight as I’m usually ready for bed by 10.30, but like most things in our house Toby dictates when we can all turn in. I usually fall asleep with my book in my hand and then am woken up by the hens clucking for their breakfast, ready to start a day of the same again.

What are your days like? I hope there’s a little room in them somewhere for the things that bring you pleasure x

 

 

countryside · in the woods · spring · winter

snowdrop woods

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)40 Comments

 

The first sign of spring around our way is the arrival of snowdrops. They are such delicate little flowers, held aloft on a single slender stalk above smooth, narrow leaves they shimmer in the cold late winter breezes. And yet despite their fragile appearance they are tough little plants, breaking through the frozen earth with their tenacious green shoots and unfurling their pure white petals in patches of dappled sunlight.

There’s nothing quite as uplifting as the sight of drifts of them spread beneath the bare trees, clustered together as though huddling against the cold weather. The February landscape is still dull and brown and appears dormant but snowdrops signal that a change is gradually gathering pace. I’ve been feeling a little low of late and was in need of a little natural pick-me-up, so today I wrapped up warmly in lots of woolly layers and braved the frosty morning and cold winds to go on a snowdrop hunt. There are quite a few places to find them locally but my favourite is a tiny patch of woodland sandwiched between a quarry and the tiny hamlet of Westmill – just a few pretty red-roofed cottages clustered around an old medival mill.

I’ve arrived back home with muddy knees; a few nettle stings around my ankles (I managed to kneel it a patch of them and didn’t notice until it was too late) and cold, red cheeks but I’m feeling cheered and invigorated. I’m now warming up with knitting and a cup of tea before heading out to pick Toby up from his after school club.

If you’re also feeling a little down I hope you find a little something to lift your spirits this week. If you have time let me know in the comments what’s brightening your days at the moment. See you soon with a little of what I’ve been knitting

J x

 

 

countryside · crafts & knitting · in the woods · wildlife · winter

Hibernating

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)16 Comments

The first few months of the year always feel to me like a time for quiet rest and a gentler pace of life. Perhaps it’s the short daylight hours of winter which make me feel a little like hibernating and using less energy. In summer I might walk in the woods in the evening or we’ll be in the garden until after 10pm when dusk falls, but in January and February, with darkness falling before four o’clock in the afternoon, all I feel like doing in my free moments is curling up in a cosy corner by the fire and reading or knitting.

Along with bunny knitting I’ve been knitting lots of mittens. I have lots of wristwarmers, which I wear constantly throughout the winter months, but have been getting cold fingertips on my woodwalks and so it seemed a good plan to knit something a bit more cosy. This was a free pattern that I found on Ravelry and it’s perfect, knitting up very quickly and with such a clever and comfortable thumb placket. It’s called Garnomeras enkla vantar by Maria Samuelsson and I’ve loved knitting these in the ‘silver birch’  organic merino Viola yarn that I gifted myself for Christmas, a beautiful hand-dyed yarn which has so many subtle tones. In fact I love the pattern so much that I’ve knitted a second pair, also in Viola Organic merino yarn, colourway ‘frozen earth’. I have made a few modifications to the pattern (which is written for worsted weight yarn) in order to accomodate the DK yarn weight and I’ve added a little texture too – notes are over on my project page.

This morning there was a spectacular sunrise, which made me want to get up, dressed and out for a walk. So I headed off to the woods to see if the wood anemones were up yet but there was no sign of them, not even the tips of their leaves breaking through the soil. The woods are still deep in winter’s pause, and we’ve not yet had a cold snap so it will be a little longer before the growing season starts again, although tree buds are starting to swell and small bird songs were all around as they start to pair up ready for spring. At least I’m now ready for ice and snow if it does arrive soon, and my hands will stay toasty and warm in my new mittens.