crafts & knitting · general stuff

Happy Easter

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)36 Comments

Where did March go? I don't know how the last couple of weeks have been with you but here they have fairly flown by. I had meant to write more posts about the knitting I'm doing and about the chickens (who are settled in nicely now) and about garden stuff but time has run out and there are just a few short hours until the school Easter break starts, so those will have to wait until the children are back at school at the end of the month.

Until then I thought I'd pop in briefly with some spring-feeling photos…

 

Posie

 

Nesty

 

The plum tree is in blossom but we had some really high winds at the beginning of this week so some of the smaller branches and twigs have snapped. A few of these blossomy twigs paired with a handful of muscari from the garden are brightening up our table and happily the tree is still looking beautiful in its frothy white finery.

 

Snowytree

 

The tree blossoms look pretty at sunset too when, caught in the warm glow, they turn peachy.

 

Blossoms

 

Moon and venus

 

After sunset we've been planet watching as Venus has been especially bright just above the horizon to the west and the first visible star in the evening sky (seen here above the fingernail moon). I love star gazing – it makes me feel so small and humble in the face of the mind-boggling enormity of space. I find it a good way to hang on to a sense of perspective when life feels a little overwhelming.

Do you like the little knitted nest above? I am so happy with it, made in just under an hour this morning from scraps of yarn and using Annie's lovely and generously-shared free pattern (scroll to page bottom on the link). I'm not sure how long the little candy-covered chocolate eggs will stay in there though!

 

Nest

 

Nesteggs

 

Well, I'm off for a quiet cup of tea and some precious knitting time (and maybe one or two of those chocolate eggs) while I can enjoy the peace and quiet. Hope you have a lovely Easter, see you soon x

 

Happy easter

 

 

chicken stuff

Hattie, Hetty and Bluebell

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)56 Comments

Thanks so much for all of the kind comments about the blanket and all the great paint suggestions.  I'm looking forward to changing the bedroom colour but I suspect it will take us while to get around to painting – the thought of having nice new grey walls is lovely but the reality of getting them is less lovely. In the meantime I have something else that is lovely and grey in my life. Meet Hattie, Hetty and Bluebell…

 

Girls

 

Come on girls, turn around and say hello. They are more interested in pecking the fence than having their photo taken, in fact they are more interested in pecking than doing anything else.

I collected them on Monday afternoon and they are slowly getting used to their new home. They've been very twitchy and nervous, jumping at every new sound – the lawnmower a few gardens away caused lots of consternation and when a plane went quite low overhead on it's way to Stanstead airport they went completely to pieces – watching them reminds me of the story of Chicken Licken who thought the sky was falling.

They became a little calmer this afternoon. Earlier I spent a couple of hours outside with them, weeding the veg patch and all the while making warbling happy chicken sounds and cooing at them to get them used to me (the neighbours will now think I'm completely batty). They still need assisting in and out of the hen house, as the ladder clearly terrifies them right now but having had chickens before I know that they'll be doing it on their own in a few days. It won't take long before they'll have settled enough for their individual personalities to emerge – they are already starting to size each other up and work out the pecking order.

They are all hybrid hens bred from Marans crossed with other breeds – Hattie is a Speckled Ranger

 

Hattie

 

Hetty is a Speckled Humbug

 

Hetty

 

and Bluebell is a Bluebell

 

Bluebell

 

They came from Handpecked which is a lovely family-run local business with a good range of hens and supplies.

It's so nice to have chickens in the garden again. They are such fun to watch and having freshly laid poached eggs for lunch is delicious, though it will be a month or so before they begin laying so I'll have to be patient. In the meantime I am enjoying being a chicken keeper again 🙂

 

Chicks

 

crafts & knitting

cosy (part 2)

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)82 Comments

 

Bedb

 

It has taken me ages to write this post, partly because the days have been dark and dingy and so no good for indoor photography but mostly because my bedroom was a complete pig sty and I was too ashamed to take photos in there before I'd tidied up a bit. Now however I have shifted the pile of washing that was beside the bed, gathered up the errant lego bricks and hoovered up the biscuit crumbs that Toby leaves everywhere in his wake and for a short while I have a neat and tidy room.

 

Misty2

 

Misty3

 

 

Misty5

 

The 2nd misty blanket has turned out well and I'm enjoying snuggling under it at night. I ended up making 11 x 11 squares so a total of 121 which is a good fit for a king-size bed. I've used more structure in the placement of the colours than I did with the first misty blanket that I made – alternate rows of pink and orange centres interspersed with aqua, green and teal. Each square has 4 rounds of mixed neutral grey, cream and beige tones and is topped off with one round of charcoal grey. Then the whole thing was ringed with 5 rounds of charcoal and finally 3 alternate single crochet rows of silver, cream and silver. It's big, pleasing to my eye and definitely cosy.

 

Misty

 

Misty bed

 

Bedroom

 

Having the blanket on the bed however has made me realise how much I want to change the paint colour in our room. H finished painting in there a few weeks before Amy was born so we've had this deep blue for nearly 16 years now and I'm tired of it. I'm feeling that a lovely soft, dove grey colour would be calm and perfect, anyone have any paint suggestions?

Happy weekend all, it looks like being a warm one here so I may have to go and take my blanket off again!