peonies

June 7, 2011 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)31 Comments

Well, another school break is over with and once again the relative calm of term-time reigns here. It wasn't a bad week – the usual ups and downs associated with life with Toby, a few more downs than ups, but there you go. I even learnt something new – though I'd rather not have learnt it in the way that I did…

Up until last week I was blissfully aware of the potential poisonousness of peonies. They've always been one of my favourite flowers both in their fragrance and the abundance of those velvety soft petals and so when I saw bunches of them at the checkout I popped one on the conveyor belt.

Back home I did my standard flower arranging technique of bunging them haphazardly in a vase and plonked them on the table to enjoy when I swept past. Later in the day I noticed Toby taking an interest in them and thought he must like the texture but as I looked on he plucked a handful of petals and stuffed them in his mouth! It was one of those slow-motion moments when you can't seem to move quickly enough and before I could hook them out they'd been swallowed – obviously Toby likes peonies too! After dumping the flowers outside I flew to the computer in a panic but was relieved to read that they're only poisonous in excessive quantities and as 5 or 6 petals seems less than excessive, I settled for observing him for the rest of the day while poised to dash off to casualty if he showed any signs of illness. Luckily he stayed well and we got through the rest of the week without any more heart-stopping incidents, I have however resolved to stick to fabric flowers from now on!

wood walks

May 29, 2011 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)42 Comments

It's school half term break here – it hardly feels like enough time has passed since the Easter break and I'm not at all prepared.

Luckily both Toby and I share a love of quiet, woodland places and since he's so hard to entertain at the best of times, we'll be having a daily jaunt to the woods to help keep him occupied.

We walk along in silence, enjoying the sounds of the birds and the wind in the leaves and sometimes we get rewarded for our quiet strolling by a glimpse of a deer or a fox. Toby has a favourite wood walk with ancient contorted trees (a legacy of coppicing) and a brook running through the centre.

It also has Ermine Street, an ancient Roman road running through it and I like to think of all of the people who have passed this way through the ages, apparently including William the Conqueror and Oliver Cromwell and now Master Toby…

Toby usually loves paddling in the brook (and occasionally peeing in it!) but at the moment it's completely dry thanks to the lack of spring rain.

Despite that everything is verdant and cool and so very peaceful. I hope that peace will keep us company the rest of this week as we're still waiting to hear about dates for respite care and Toby has been particularly unmanageable over the last few weeks. Hopefully the woods will work their magic on him and help to keep him calm, he usually is when we're there.

I love this picture of him strolling along ahead of me, he looks for all the world like any other nine year old boy. Seeing him like this does me the power of good!

I won't be back this week but hope to be back with some knitting updates next week. Hope you have a peaceful week where you are and thanks for dropping in to visit.

food and Drink

sticky fingers…

May 20, 2011 Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)28 Comments

…is what I have right now from having spent the afternoon making chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream for Amy's school spring fair tomorrow.

Luckily there were 3 that wouldn't fit into the cake boxes; one for Amy, one for H and one for Toby and me to share. He'll lick the buttercream off and I'll be left with the cakey bit, which suits me fine right now as I've already licked the spatula and the bowl and the thought of more buttercream is a little sickly right now!