Counting chickens...

Okay, you'll have to excuse me a big pun on this one, but I couldn't resist! You see, we treated ourselves to a lovely breakfast at Low Sizergh Barn this morning en route to Kendal (shoe shopping, yarn shopping and haircut!). We've still to get around to the Farm Trail, but had a little visit to the chickens on our way in.

Those chickens were, of course, fully hatched and ready for counting, but I do have a bit of a superstition about counting chicks of the human baby kind until they are safely here e.g. I don't like making things for the new arrival until they have arrived. My way around it is to make stuff for 'non specific babies who may just turn up'. Just now there are a couple of these imminent, not to mention our own, so I've been indulging in rather too much purchasing of Debbie Bliss Eco Aran and Eco Baby. I'm really enjoying knitting with soft but vibrant colours and yarn that feels gorgeous. Won't say anymore about what and for whom, but keep your fingers crossed for those hatchings!

Gratitude (part two)

Definitely, definitely much gratitude for sunshine and warmer weather. As well as lifting the spirits it's also really opened up our 'outdoor classroom' (not that we're exactly aiming on education with a nearly-two-year-old, but every day is learning when you're that size!)
So we've had music...at Grizedale Forest, where he's finally got the hang of banging on the different sized wood blocks to get different sounds...


Imaginative play and a bit of Botany as he and his little pal discover 'treasure' in the form of pine cones, dry leaves and sticks in their own den at Tarn Hows...where a certain amount of Science came in too (from a stream to sticky mud, where does liquid become solid? And what happens if you sit in it, or go in deeper than your wellies?)



Back home, another warm evening saw a little Horticulture- the home move is still up in the air, but wherever we are this summer there will surely be space for pots and tubs of tomatoes, courguettes and squash...



...and lastly some Cookery, as we had our first outdoor-cooked meal of the year- not our first meal eaten outdoors though! That honour must go to some slightly chilly picnics while on walks.

Gratitude (part one)

Yep, it's Wednesday again and having to have a steroid injection this morning wasn't exactly a good way to make me feel better about my least favourite day of the week. So I'm doing my best to concentrate on gratitude for the good stuff! This is part one, more later I hope. I don't always find being a stay-at-home mum (I love my wee man, but I also love teaching and really miss it at the moment) the easiest but when you get to take time having a leisurely breakfast with your little boy, including having leaf tea from a proper teapot, and the sun streams through the window it has to be admitted that there are perks.
PS I've posted a pic of my quilt on the V&A's 'Quilt of Quilts'. Much gratitude coming to you if you go and rate it here!

Quilt Pictures

Ta-da! It's been worth all the careful cutting, pinning, machine and hand sewing. We haven't started trying it to sleep under just yet, as I think that'll have to wait until we've got a better bedroom set up for him (roll on that house move). He's already making it his own though.