New Season, New Start

I haven’t written a blog post for over two months. There have been lots of things happening and not good things. It’s been a range of personal and family problems, including Boots my cat being ill. It turns out he has a thyroid problem and now I’m giving him medication for it.

I’ve been trying not to let it all get to me and I’ve been carrying on with my creative endeavours. I’ve learned over the past two months to be calm under stressful situations and to let it be rather than fighting against the tide. Things are what they are and sometimes you can’t do much to change them. You can change how you react to them though. Some wise words from a friend: will it bother me tomorrow? If not, it’s not worth getting stressed about today. I’m learning to deal with things better, in a much more philosophical way. 

My artistic pursuits might be too much for one post, I don’t want to bore you, so I’ll start with this:

I’ve been doing a lot of knitting recently, having bought lovely 4ply yarn from Crafty Cat Knitty Bits which is hand-dyed. Here is the yarn:

Beautiful colours, aren’t they? It’s BFL and lovely to work with.

I decided to knit a hat for the chiller times in Autumn and for the cold days in Winter. 

I was worried about whether I’d be able to do it because I’ve only knitted with double-pointed needles once before, but the pattern I found on Ravelry was really easy, just rib stitch and then stocking stitch. It’s called the Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure. 

It took a while because I’m not the fastest knitter, but here’s the finished thing:

(Yes, that’s me modelling.)

I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

I’ve got another knitting project on the go at the moment, as well as lots of other things, which I’ll be posting next week, hopefully.

I hope you’re having a good week.

Autumn Leaves 2

As we come to the start of winter, here are some more autumnal pictures!

I found lovely red berries on this bush when I was on a walk recently. I don't know what bush it is, so if you do, let me know.

On the same walk, I found these mushrooms growing out of a tree stump.

I've collected yet more leaves! Cherry blossom leaves which fell from the tree. I've now pressed them. I also found a bunch of sycamore seeds.

While I had a moment, I did a little doodle of...guess what? Yes, leaves. Do you think I'm slightly obsessed? 😉😊

I've been forgetting to tell you that you can now also follow me on Instagram. I joined back in the summer, so it's only taken me about five months to tell you. 😃 You can find me at @rusty_and_boots

Have a lovely weekend!

Autumn Leaves

As Autumn is coming to an end and Christmas is only around the corner, I thought I'd share some more Autumnal photos from a walk I went on.

Some lovely morning sunshine on some trees.

A leafy path.

And here are some leaves I collected. Maple leaves from my walk, cherry blossom leaves and Japanese maple leaves from my parents' garden and a few conker shells I found with their spikes.

It's getting colder here and I think I need the shawl I crocheted a while ago! I'm off to get it before I start sewing on my next piece of work.

Have a lovely weekend. 😊

Late Halloween

I’m back after a slightly enforced internet break. It’s a long story that I won’t bother you with, but I ran out of data to use and had to wait till this week before I could get online again. Who knew I used so much data? I think it was the podcasts for creative people that I discovered last month. Downloading them took more gigabytes than I thought. I must be more aware of that! I found myself missing the internet a bit, but I just about coped. I don’t think I had any withdrawal symptoms apart from the sleepless nights, fidgety hands, nervous tremors…..

So, because of my break, I’m late for Halloween, or Samhain as it’s called in Ireland, which comes from the Celtic name for the time that they celebrated the end of summer, the end of the year and the beginning of winter. The spirit world was very close at that time of year and people could easily wander into it, never to be seen again – or at least until Beltane (May Day) the following year. The spirits could also pass through into our world as well of course.

I had a couple of photos ready to go for Halloween, so although I know it’s a few days late, here they are.

This is my drawing of a lovely black cat with a pumpkin.

And here’s a spooky photo I’ve digitally altered of a graveyard.

I went for a walk here looking for conkers because they’re meant to keep spiders away (you should have seen the three huge ones I found over two weeks in September – eek! They were so big, I named them Goliath 1, 2 and 3. I caught them in a jam jar and put them outside.) But there weren’t any conkers. Plenty of shells laying around but no conkers. The squirrels must have had a good feast on them and stashed a lot for the winter.

While there, I found this hole in a tree.

What do you think lived in it? A small bird? A fairy? I’d love to know, but at the same time, it’s nice to have a mystery. If you have any thoughts – real or imaginary - I’d love to hear them.

Have a great weekend!

The Cheshire Cat Moon

I hope everyone is all right after the storm we had here last week. I saw some terrible pictures on the news from Ireland and West Wales. There was an eerie pink and then yellow light in the sky last Monday morning. I didn’t manage to get a photo of it though.

On Tuesday morning, however, I was up early and saw this in the eastern sky:

The waning crescent moon, which apparently is a time to slow down and rest before you return to using your energies again with the next waxing moon. I thought it really looked like a smile in the morning sky, like the Cheshire Cat gradually vanishing.

As you may know by now, I love the moon. It seems to have a magical quality and I thought I’d look up some quotes on it, so I’m sharing them with you. Here are two I’ve found so far which I liked.

‘The moon will guide you through the night with her brightness, but she will always dwell in darkness, in order to be seen.’

Shannon L. Alder

The moon, like a flower

In heaven’s high bower,

With silent delight

Sits and smiles on the night.

William Blake

I‘ve also taken some more photos of the hydrangea skeleton petals because they had droplets on them after the rain and you know how much I love droplets!

I think things like this are good for me, to see small details in a big world. A tiny, shimmering droplet can be like a gift of nature and noticing them gives me moments of happiness because happiness isn’t always about the big things in life, like going on holiday or celebrating something special. It’s about finding small moments of beauty in everyday life, little things that make you smile, appreciate nature and remind you that there are other things beyond yourself.

It may be droplets, or the moon, or stars, or a bird flitting by, a flower, new shoots sprouting in the spring, dry, brown leaves in the autumn…..  It doesn’t matter what anyone else likes, it’s about what you like, the things that are unique to you.

Another thing I love is the different colours that can be found in the evening sky as the sun is going down. This is a photo of the sunset one day this week.

I love the gradation from amber to rosy pink to the beginnings of violet in the top left corner. The world works in a wonderful way and I wish we looked after it more.

On a slightly different subject, I’ve been wondering about a change to my blogging. I normally write one post a week, but I’ve begun to think maybe I could do two a week. If you have any thoughts on this, whether you’d like to hear more from me or not, please let me know.   

Have a lovely weekend.

Autumn Crochet

I've finished my crochet shawl! It's all done in time for the colder weather ahead. Here are some photos of it. (In case you're wondering, I'm modelling. 😃)

Here's a side view.

And the back...

These photos don't really show the colours very well though. I think the light affected them on the day I took them and they look paler than they actually are, so here are some more shots which I hope show the colours better...

The way the wool worked as I crocheted, the colours seemed to naturally fall in a graduated effect, so that one side is full of pale, muted shades, while the other has more bold, deep shades.

I had to make over ninety tassels to create the fringe on the edge. 😣 But it was worth it and didn't take as long as I thought it would.

The wool itself is acrylic and very soft. I'm sure I'll love wearing it in the winter, all snug and cosy! It was lovely to work with too, so there may be more crocheted items on the way. 😊

Enjoy the weekend. 💗 There's meant to be a mini heatwave here so I probably won't need my shawl, but then a storm is forecast, so it may come in handy.

Moons and Skeletons.

Just a short post this week to show you my photos of the harvest moon from last night. It was so bright! 🌝

I couldn't quite get a good shot with all the markings you can usually see on the moon - the craters and everything, but I love the halo effect here.

Here's one with the silhouettes of leaves.

I love looking at the moon. There's something magical about it which seems to make me feel calm. Perhaps it's that the light is a reflection of the sun's light and so is more gentle.


I know we're coming up to Halloween, but the "skeletons" in the title of this post are not what you might think! 💀 😃

As I was in the garden today, I noticed that the hydrangea petals had turned to skeletons. All the colour and membrane have been worn away and all that's left is the weathered veins.

They are now just skeleton petals on the stem, looking like little, pale ghosts in the garden. It's quite sad but also quite beautiful.

I've nearly finished my shawl and my barn owl, so there'll be updates on them soon. Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying the sunny autumnal days, even if it has turned a little bit chilly.

Autumn Equinox

“Autumn days when the grass is jewelled…..” Anyone else used to sing that song in school?  🍃

Before I get into autumn, an update on my barn owl wall hanging. (Although it does have a certain autumnal feel to it anyway with the colours.) I’ve completed the machine embroidery wheat.

Now I need to do the hedgerow behind the owl and some sewing on the owl himself.

As well as that, in my spare time I’ve been crocheting a shawl with the yarn I showed you last time and this is how it’s coming along.

I absolutely love the colour changes and I’m hoping to get it done by the time the weather starts to get colder.

But for now, we’re definitely in autumn. Today is the Autumn Equinox and you can feel the shift in the season. I love the subtle light of these days, it’s paler, not so intense as the summer sun. A bit more gentle. The cooler air is lovely too, making you need just one extra layer maybe, the start of wrapping up for the winter. It all has a kind of fragile feel to it, like nature is vulnerable at the turning points of the seasons, in a transition from one thing to another, shedding her skin or her bright summer cloak. The leaves on the cherry blossom in my garden have begun to turn colour already; a few are now that amber-yellow shade.🍂🍁

It all makes me feel a bit wistful, though I don’t know why. Maybe because the warmth and colour of summer sped by so fast, especially as it rained a lot in August which it seems to do every year now. I’m sure August used to be warm and sunny.

It also feels like a time of new beginnings, probably because school starts in September and that always brought new books, pens and uniform to go with the new school year. It seems to have stuck with me even though I left school a long time ago.

I think it’s connected to nature as well. As she is going through a time of change, withdrawing and preparing for winter, it seems to make you think about things, to re-evaluate where you are and start to plan again. To get back on any path you wandered off. The berries are already out on my holly tree, so nature is definitely thinking ahead. The birds will have food, but I feed them anyway, so they’d never go short. 🐦🍒

Happy Autumn to you. I hope you enjoy some wonderful colours on display on the trees. Stop for a while and really notice them.

Autumn Wall Hanging

I've finished my Autumn version of my Wild Nature wall hanging. You can see the Spring/Summer version here if you haven't seen it: Wild Nature

With this one, I've used the rich ambers, browns, reds and golds of autumn leaves and tree bark. I've tried to evoke the warm tones of the natural world as the year draws to a close and nature begins to prepare itself for winter with its shorter, colder days.

I began with strips of amber and brown fabric.....

.....then sewed on them with decorative machine stitching.

I printed the amber and yellow toned leaf pattern on to organza, layered it on top of the strips and stitching, then embroidered the swirls and leaves by hand.

I created a string with the same colours to hang it.

Here's a close up of my hand stitching:

I machine embroidered leaves on gold organza with brown and gold coloured thread.

Then I sewed them to the wall hanging and put it all together. Once finished, it looked like this:

I'm very pleased with the result and really like the colours. I think the leaves being different in colour to the main body provide contrast and a bit of depth.

As we've come to February and the 1st being Imbolc and the 2nd being Candlemass, hopefully Spring will be here soon. I came across this old rhyme today:

If Candlemass Day be fair and bright

Winter will have another fight.

If Candlemass Day brings cloud and rain

Winter will not come again.

It was cloudy and rainy here, so fingers crossed! 😃

Autumn Colours

Here are some photos I've taken of leaves with their Autumn colours and some work in progress which has been inspired by them.

Some lovely sycamore leaves......

Some astilbe stalks.....

Some astilbe leaves.....

Some cherry tree leaves.....

Finally, this is the work in progress I've started which is inspired by the colours of Autumn and is another version of my Wild Nature wall hanging.

So far, I've cut strips of fabric in amber and chestnut and used machine embroidery over them. There's more work on the way! 😊