Category: in the woods

countryside · general stuff · in the woods · winter

Winter Walks

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)10 Comments

 

 

The countryside is currently drab and dormant and much given over to mud, so most of the pleasure in a winter walk comes from the promise of what awaits on returning home. Coming back home after a chilly walk in the murk and mist is a delight; closing the door on the cold; peeling off layers of damp, muddy clothes and changing into warm, comfy and cosy things; cupping your chilled, weather reddened hands around a mug of hot tea and snuggling down by the fire is blissful.

But there is still beauty and colour to be found out there, even in the depths of Winter:

  • The beech leaves holding fast to the trees and bright with the colour of a polished copper kettle;
  • the red ember glow of the holly berries still held deep in the dark, prickly heart of hedges;
  • the vibrant green skirts of moss that the trees wear in wet, wintry weather;
  • and the sky, a constant shifting canvas of colour, most spectacular at dawn, but beautiful too when the watery sunshine pierces pearly cloud and outlines the skeletal forms of the bare branched trees.

This scant scattering of colour is not quite enough though, so I am eagerly anticipating signs of spring starting to show, and hope to find the first snowdrops soon as a sign that the greening of the woodlands is coming.

In Little Cotton Rabbit news there is not yet much to tell from here, but there are exciting goings on happening at Lucy Locket Land. Lucy had the brilliant idea to create some special kits throughout this year which mix my animal patterns with her own wonderfully imaginative and creative additions.

 

In January she had the mice dressed as Arfur the Handymouse and Martha the Mousekeeper  and these kits proved to be so popular that they are currently sold out. Februarys kits will be the pigs, so it will be exciting to see what they’ll be doing and I can’t wait to see what other creative fun Lucy comes up with for the other animals over the rest of the year. Here’s a link to her instagram where she’s posting teasers for future kits, and a link to her shop where the kits are sold.

 

 

Images copyright Lucy Locket Land and used with permission.

 

autumn · countryside · crafts & knitting · in the woods

the golden hour

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)24 Comments

The shortening days are making me appreciate how precious light is and I take time to notice how magical the daylight is at this time of year. Here at the beginning of December the sun only rises to around 16 degrees above the horizon and so even at midday there’s a low light shining through the windows (I am doing my best to ignore that this highlights the dust on all the surfaces).

Early in the day the dawn highlights droplets captured on spider webs, condensed from the early morning mists.  And on clear afternoons from 2-3pm there’s a wonderful honey gold light which glorifies the last of the autumn leaves still clinging to the trees and makes even the tv aerials shine as though burnished with precious metals.

This golden afternoon light glows through the hedge outside my window here at home and traces lacey patterns on the curtain. Out in the woods it is cut into thick lambent wedges by the tree trunks and illuminates the ferns and fallen leaf carpet to flaming tones, and the setting sun blushes great ships of cloud sailing across the autumn sky.

The colours that I see out in the woods prompt me to rummage out from my yarn stash all the colours of peaty earth, golden toadstools and sunlit leaves and I’m enjoying playing around with these colours in some gentle paced making.

I feel so thankful to live somewhere that has seasonal changes and contrasts and deeply appreciate how they give a rhythm to my year. At the moment that rhythm is encouraging me to slow down a little and conserve energy, a muted form of hibernation if you will and I’m planning on having a quiet winter, a much needed pause before the springtime planning that we need to do for Toby’s future. Today I’m curled up here by the fire, knitting and feeling grateful to be warm and safe, I hope there’s something making you feel grateful this week, J x

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

Autumn in the woods: part 2

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)17 Comments

 

There’s a line from a Mary Oliver poem, which resonates for me…

“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much”

 ‘How I go to the woods’ from ‘Swan: Poems and Prose Poems’

For only a handful of people have ever come to the woods with me, and all of them are my most loved people.

Going to the woods is usually something that I much prefer to do on my own (except for walks with Toby of course), because being alone in a wood is a wonderful sensory experience which is greatly diminished if you’re chatting with someone else.

Alone you can walk quietly, listening to the forest sounds and concentrating on noticing small details: the curl of a leaf; the glint of a toadstool in the dark of a hollowed out stump; a leaf reflected in a small pool of silvery water cupped in the cap of a toadstool; the patterns in a decaying tree.

The woods feel safely enduring and impervious to the anguish and perils of the human world, and although this is of course a fanciful illusion, I am happy to embrace that feeling for an hour or two and let the woodland peace dissolve my disquiet.

Back home knitting is proving soothing too and I have a finished pair of socks and a few scarves still on the go.

I hope that you also have fortifying activities that gently reinforce hope, optimism and joy for you in these troubled times.