The arrival of winter always brings a desire to slow down, to cosy up, to hibernate a little. Winter storms have rolled in bringing cold winds, lashing rain and grey skies but here inside it is quiet, and still, and warm, and there is comfort and peace in the simple pleasures of reading a book or knitting a pair of socks. I’m up early each day to catch the sunrise, or at least a lightening of the gloom, and the quiet moments in between Amy going off to work and Toby getting up are a favourite part of my day, as I enjoy my early morning cup of tea and the freedom to spend a little time on anything of my own choosing.

Out in the countryside all of the Autumn leaves are down, dashed from the trees in the recent early winter storms and now lying damply underfoot. There are always a few weeks at the end of Autumn when you really need to know the route out in the woods as the pathways are hidden under deep drifts of leaves, so it’s easy to loose your way. There is mud too, so much mud, and Toby and I slip about almost like skaters as we make our way along our familiar pathways.

The outgoing migrant birds have flocked and flown for warmer places far away. The birds that over-winter here are just arriving. All summer long there’s been no sight or sound of a blackbird in our garden, but all of a sudden there are six of them, all squabbling over ownership of the topmost branches of the plum tree.

The foxes are back in our garden too, after spending the summer months elsewhere. A sure sign that the weather has turned and that they need extra supplies to grow their thick winter coats and bulk up a little to better cope with the colder weather to come. For the first time we are winning the trust of a dog fox, he accompanies Katsue (the small vixen with the injured foot who started visiting in springtime) and every day gets a little bolder and comes a little further from the bushes. We’ve called him Kai and he is very handsome, hopefully I’ll get some more pictures of him once he’s more relaxed.

Well, I’m going to sign off here until the new year. We’re having a very quiet and simple Christmas, the tree will go up tomorrow and then there will be good food, quiet candlelight and lots of cosying – plus plenty of sock knitting.

Thank you so much for visiting here with me, it’s lovely to have your company and I deeply appreciate all of the kind comments and messages that you send my way. I hope that you have a peaceful few weeks, and that you’re able to spend time with those you love best. I wish you and yours a merry Christmas (if you are celebrating), and a very happy start to the New Year, J xxx

May has been a beautiful month here, with just the right mix of sunshine and rain showers to provide perfect growing conditions. As a result the countryside is now abundantly green and lush with new growth. At the orchard I was a little late to see the apple blossom in all it’s glory this year, by the first week of May most of it was just confetti on the grass, but the forget-me-not carpet under the trees was in full bloom and in the small wood the wild garlic was at it’s pungent best.

Back at home we’ve had some new garden visitors. Most days we see a couple of red kites but on one day this month there were 20 or more of them circling directly overhead, it was quite a sight. We’ve had lots of small birds on the feeders, the robins busily feeding their family, along with blue and great tits, sparrows and goldfinches. This little blue tit fledgling was resting in the bush after the exertion of leaving the nest, hopefully he made it.

I’ve embarked on a ‘befriend a crow’ project and it’s going well with this intelligent bird now recognising my signal for food and flying down to claim it once I’m back in the house. We’ve named him Edgar Allan Crow and I’m interested to see if he’ll eventually trust me enough to fly down whilst I’m still outside.

And, most excitingly of all, we have 2 new foxes visiting daily. Though this is tinged with a little sadness, as it does mean that Kit is no longer around, either having been ousted from her territory again or having passed away, I would not like to say for certain which, seeing as I have already once written a eulogy for her only to have her reappear. These two new vixens are youngsters, their muzzles as yet unscarred by fighting and catching prey, (Kit and Kira both had quite scarred muzzles). They are either den mates or perhaps sisters, as they arrive together and mostly tolerate each other in the garden, though there is often some loud squabbling over food. The larger and most beautiful of the two is Kenzie who has a very sleek, glossy coat and light golden eyes. Katsue is the smaller vixen, with a sweet quizzical expression and a cheeky personality, though sadly she does seem to have a damaged leg which she cannot bear weight on but otherwise this does not seem to trouble or impede her. Obviously I have taken about a million pictures of them, so I will most likely write a blog post about them in more detail soon.

It’s been half term week here this week and now there are only 3 weeks until Toby finishes his ‘learning for living’ college placement. We’ve still not managed to fully fill his week going forward, but we have found 2 fabulous outdoor settings specifically for adults with learning disabilities which have welcomed him with open arms, one on a community allotment and one on a small holding, plus there is one other setting which is prepared to offer him a 4 week trial period. I’m so grateful that we at least have these to help fill his time now that college is finishing.

See you soon with probably too many fox pictures 🙂

PS: I’ve updated the previous post with details of the winner of my lamb giveaway (number 213 which is Gretchen), I’m not able to concentrate well enough for pattern writing right now and instead I’m enjoying making finished animals so I do hope to have more giveaways this year, I’ll keep you posted, J x