Missing for a bit

I've been missing for a while because our broadband gave up the ghost and it took a while to get BT out to fix it.  However a very helpful BT man came last week and sorted everything out for us.  He moved our router to a different location so hopefully we will have a more reliable broadband service in future.

On the knitting front, I have been making some preemie blankets.  I used Daphne's pattern from Wye Needlecrafts' collection of preemie blanket patterns (sadly the patterns do not seem to be on their website any more).  I like it because it is simple and also because of the waffle texture it produces:

I will be adding them to some other preemie blankets I have made and sending them off to Cuddles UK, who provide maternity units with burial clothes and blankets for stillborn and premature babies.  It is one of the very worthwhile charities supported by Loving Hands.

I've also sent off a parcel to Loving Hands.  There was a small amount of room in the box, so I quickly knitted a few pairs of children's mittens, which are always in demand for Operation Orphan.

They filled the gap admirably!

Walking in the woods

The estate that our house is on was built in woodlands in the 1930s.  So not only do we have mature sycamore, oak and ash trees as the boundary between us and the homes behind us, but we also look out onto a copse at the front of the house.  The woods themselves are just at the end of the road, too.

They were planted in the 1860s by the Lord of the Manor, and they cover the hillside above Weston sea front.  Lots of the largest trees were cut down a few years ago, to general outcry, but I suppose they were getting to the end of their life cycle.  Most were taken away, but there are still a few fallen tree trunks lying on the ground.  It does mean that there are plenty of young saplings growing up now, although they are rather spindly because of the lack of light.

I love how the tree stumps left behind are being colonised by mosses, ivy and brambles. They must provide shelter for a wide variety of bug life.

Due to the darkness under the leaf canopy, there are not many flowers.  This morning I noticed campions, cow parsley, dandelions and this tiny specimen, which I thought might be a violet, but I could be wrong.

I do enjoy going for walks in the woods.  And although there was no snow, I couldn't help thinking of Robert Frost's poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, in particular the lines:

  "The woods are lovely, dark and deep

   But I have promises to keep

   And miles to go before I sleep

   And miles to go before I sleep."

Not that I had miles to go when I left the woods - just 100 yards down the road!