Category: wildlife

autism · wildlife

January, beginnings

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)35 Comments

Well here we are again at the beginning of a new year, I hope it has started well for you.

We’re doing quite well here, Toby coped with going back to college yesterday and the much earlier start to his days and I’ve been slowly but steadily ticking things off my to do list. At the moment all of my focus is on preparing for the cliff edge that we currently face at the end of June when Toby’s college placement finishes. That will mark the end of his 20 years in ‘education’ and a humungous change for our family. I’m spending all of my available time trying to put in place support and community activities for him so that he can have some meaningful activities in his life outside of his home here and that I can continue to have time in which to work on patterns and earn a living.

We’ve had no support of any kind since he turned 18 and so have had to begin all over again with preliminary assessments. If you have ever gone through the process of getting a care assessment and putting in place ongoing care for a loved one you will already know about the mountainous burden of paperwork and the enormity of the continuing task, from setting up new bank accounts to manage direct payments; accounting for every penny spent; interviewing, screening via DBS checks and training personal assistants to manage his needs; researching, visiting and engaging placements for day care. It is all down to families to undertake and organise and is utterly daunting and exhausting. This week has been all about recording on paper the struggle that Toby has with every day life, and it’s really laid me low to bring into sharp focus and put into words everything about his condition that limits his life and the enormous impact that has on our family.

So I am trying my hardest to just concentrate on one small step at a time, and have had to make a very conscious effort to focus on the small positives that have come my way so far this year. I’m sharing them here mostly to remind myself that often it’s the small things that lift a moment from despair to delight.

  • I have a new garden friend, Bob D. Robin, who flies down to the garden table each morning at dawn when I’m preparing breakfast for the chickens, he gets a pinch of sunflower seeds as a thank you for brightening the start of my day with his beautiful song, sung from the topmost branch of the old plum tree.
  • Kit the fox is still visiting, very sporadically over the autumn but a little more frequently these last couple of weeks, though mostly after dark so it’s been hard to get pictures of her. She looks well and has a thick and fluffy winter coat. It’s coming up to mating time so it will be interesting to see if she has a litter this year and whether she visits more frequently if she falls pregnant.
  • Sunrises and sunsets, closer together at this time of year with the short winter days, always have the capacity to bring joy and the vibrant colours splashed across the sky are captivating to watch. I often stand outside with a cup of tea in hand and just enjoy the unfolding spectacle.
  • The weather here has been so mild, wet and windy so far this winter but the coming week sees a change to colder, brighter days so I’m hoping to get out with my camera and find the first snowdrops. The anticipation of seeing their beauty is a small joy at the moment too.
  • Looking back over the pictures that I took during 2023 has brought a lot of pleasure too, the first picture above is a mosaic of a few of my favourites

I hope that you are finding some small joys in your days too and if you’re fearful about impending events in your life this year, I hope that you’re finding ways to move forward with a hopeful heart,

See you soon, J x

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.

 

 

countryside · in the woods · wildlife

Autumn in the woods: part 1

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)18 Comments

Autumn has arrived here, with wet and windy weather and a sudden profusion of fungi out in the woods. I head there at every opportunity, savouring the soothing peace and quiet that flows between the trees.

It’s been a good year for the hedgerow fruits of hips, haws and berries and the woodland creatures will be well provisioned this winter. Tree nuts have been abundant too – chestnuts, beech nuts, hazelnuts and acorns have covered the woodland floor, though most are now hidden away in the winter larders of squirrels and jays. And now the holly trees present their harvest and are heavy with scarlet berries. I hope to see the first waxwings, but am not lucky this time.

There is such great beauty in the natural world, but sometimes you have to get dirty knees and elbows in order to see it. Luckily for me the woods are mostly deserted on week days, so there is no-one to see me lying on my tummy in a soggy patch of moss in order to capture the close up delight of a toadstool and home is only a 10 minute trip in the car so I’m soon warming up in a hot bath after getting damp and chilled on my adventures.

Then it’s back to knitting, for now just a little gentle-paced making rather than the more intense pattern writing. A pair of socks, a couple of Sophie scarves and quite a few pairs of very simple ribbed wrist-warmers are all currently on my needles and I’m enjoying just flitting between whatever takes my fancy at the time. And with each new project I begin to feel a re-kindling of my love of knitting, which I’ve recently felt has been ebbing away from me a little. Perhaps being so focussed on the end product, as is necessary when writing patterns, has diminished my enjoyment, and I just needed a little simple  ‘process knitting’ time to find my joy again.

Hope you find a little joy somewhere in your week, J x

PS: it’s been wonderful to see so many cows appearing on the facebook group and on ravelry, thanks so much for sharing pictures of your lovely projects 🙂