Category: winter

crafts & knitting · wildlife · winter

Where are you Spring?

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)20 Comments


When spring suddenly seems a distant dream, thanks to the arrival of bitterly cold winds and drifting snow, the best option is to snuggle and I’m doing just that. Knitting in more of these pretty spring colours helps too and I’m slowly working my way towards a little batch of spring dressed bunnies and lambs.

It has been really beautiful outside though. Unusually the snow has come in very localised showers and at times we’ve had bright sun light shining through the flurrying snow as it whispers it’s way to the ground. Thanks to the sub-zero temperatures it’s been that dry fluffy kind of snow rather than the slushy wet stuff that is more usual here and that’s created the perfect canvas for stories to be written across – stories written by the fox that trotted up the driveway in the night on silent and slender paws, circling around the car and searching for some supper, and stories from the birds who are up at dawn to begin the busy task of breakfasting, leaving a delicate trace of their dartings here and there. Finding these tracks in the morning when I go out to let the chickens out of the coop is one of my favourite things about freshly fallen snow.

Well, hope you’re keeping warm where you are and enjoying what the seasons are bringing your way. I’m off to do some more knitting and snuggling 🙂

 

countryside · in the woods · winter

snowdrop spotting

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)27 Comments

We’re very lucky where we live because although we’re in the middle of suburbia, we have very easy access to beautiful countryside. This time of year is snowdrop spotting time and it’s a delight to see carpets of them spread out beneath the bare-branched trees, the first cheerful herald of spring. One of the best places locally for them is around Westmill near Ware, which isn’t even a village but just a small handful of houses clustered around an old mill. The little path that leads past the houses and up alongside a quarry has great drifts of flowers on either side. I got cold muddy knees yesterday afternoon but it was worth it to get right down amongst them, close enough to see the dew still sparkling on their stems and their little bells silently shivering in the cold breeze.

The old mill straddles the River Rib and parts of the building still standing are said to date back to Elizabethan times, though there has been a mill on the site for at least 1,000 years. It’s a beautiful old building with wonderfully crumbly brick walls around the gardens and lovely views out over the water meadows. There’s a coat of arms in the middle of the front wall which appears to be the lesser coat of arms for the city of London, odd considering that we’re 20 miles from there and I wonder what the significance is but suspect that the facts have been lost to time. It is fascinating to live in a landscape that has so much visible history, Ware in particular as it is one of the longest continuously inhabited towns in Europe, so there’s a lot to discover.

The flowering of the snowdrops signals that spring is on the way (although winter has yet to loosen her frosty grip), which is a nice thought on a cold, dark and rainy early February evening. At this time of year I can’t help daydreaming of long-off summer afternoons with knitting in the garden and the snowdrops are a nice marker that we’re on our way back to those.

Be back soon with some knitty news, see you then x

 

crafts & knitting · general stuff · winter

snow day

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)27 Comments

Firstly please let me say a huge thank you for all of the kind condolences that you left in the comments on the previous post. Such warm and loving support is a comfort in sad times and I deeply appreciate it. My father in law’s funeral is on Wednesday but Toby and I will not be attending – it’s beyond his comprehension and he’ll not cope with such a busy and solemn occasion. My father in law was a well loved and much respected member of the community and for many years a senior teacher at the local secondary school so there will be many coming to pay their respects and honour him. I wish I could be there as Amy is reading a poem for her Grandpa but I will quietly light a candle here at 10.30am and be with them all in my thoughts.

Well, the weather forecast for yesterday was accurate and we did indeed get snow. Quite a lot of it as it happens, well at least compared to what we might usually expect here and even the birds were too perturbed to fly.  It was a nice quiet and lazy day. Whilst we were far from being snowed in we decided not to venture out in the car and instead orbited the cosy zone in front of the fire, occasionally braving the outside chill to bring in more wood and fill the coal bucket. Toby was so excited to see the snow and wanted to go outside but didn’t want to put shoes on (in his mind shoes are for going out of the front door only) and so he was outside for only a couple of seconds in his socks before, shrieking with excitement, he came leaping back inside leaving wet footprints all over the kitchen. It was worth having to clean up just to see his delight at the white stuff and I made sure he had cosy, dry socks to warm up in.

I cosied up for a spot of sock knitting (pattern: Laule’a by Cabinfour) and reading. Rather aptly I’m really enjoying Snow by Marcus Sedgwick at the moment and also dipped into some favourite seasonal books; Four Hedges by Clare Leighton and The magic apple tree by Susan Hill (thanks to Niki at the cottage for the recommendation, she has great taste in books and a wonderful eye for a beautiful photograph, check out her instagram feed and you’ll see for yourself).

I’m also reading The Almanac: A seasonal guide to 2018 by Lia Leendertz, which I pledged to last year on the crowd-funded self-publishing platform Unbound, it’s lovely to be a part of making an idea come to life and feels good to support individuals who are following a dream. Another lovely read and dream-made-real is Creative Countryside, a new quarterly magazine self published by Eleanor Cheetham. It’s full of thoughtful articles and beautiful imagery and I’ve taken out a subscription so I’m looking forward to a copy for each season popping through my letterbox throughout this year.

So, that was our lazy snow day Sunday. I wonder if there will be more snow before the winter is out and if there is I’m not sure how I feel about it. The first flakes do create a stir of excitement but I think a prolonged period of snow cover would become tiresome rather quickly. How about you, are you a fan of snow or would you be happier to live without it?