Hi ,

Before I begin I would like to thank everybody who contacted me after I wrote about my Facebook being hacked earlier in the month. So many lovely readers sent kind and supportive messages and it seems that I am very much not alone in this experience. Sadly we are unable to retrieve the Bustle & Sew Facebook page. As a result of all of this, I am very wary about rejoining Facebook, and so Bustle & Sew will no longer have a presence on there, for now at least.  We are still on Instagram however, and also Pinterest so please do look out for us there (I will have a lovely free pattern available on these platforms, as well as in this newsletter, next week).

Here at Station House life goes on of course.  It's been so very cold (at least we think so - I know that many readers experience much colder temperatures) and each morning I have gone down to let the chickens out with a jug of hot water in my hand to defrost their drinker. During the cold spell they have taken to sitting on their branch with their feathers fluffed and their toes tucked in to keep warm! That's Poppy and Primrose below....

We've also had a new visitor to the garden - a pheasant whom we've named Humphrey...

His feathers are the exact colour of a shiny brand new conker, and he has taken to foraging beneath the bird feeders to see what the chattering sparrows and quarrelsome starlings have dropped.  He needs to be careful however as Alfie would dearly love to catch him and pull his tail (and probably worse!).  Alfie wears a bell though and so far Humphrey hasn't been caught out by the mischievous young terrier!

Today the weather has changed again - it's milder and a storm is blowing in from the Atlantic. We are promised some very wet and windy weather tonight. But even though the weather is inclement, the days are growing much longer as the month progresses. Indeed, we have gained an extra hour of daylight since the winter solstice back in December!  And from now on we will continue to gain a whole extra hour of daylight every four weeks until the longest day of the year in June.  

The February edition of the Bustle & Sew Magazine reflects the lengthening days with a definite spring feeling....

I have really enjoyed reintroducing spring colours into my stitching and I'm not sure which is my favourite project this month!  I love the woodpecker, whose tap-tap-tapping echoes across the fields between the woods and our house, but then I really enjoyed stitching the Country Gardens Cushion Cover, and had great fun photographing it in Rhubarb, our shepherd's hut....

The February Magazine will be published on Thursday 25 January and if you're a subscriber you should see it arriving in your inbox some time that morning (depending where you are in the world).   

If you're not a subscriber and have been thinking of trying a subscription to the Bustle & Sew Magazine, now is the very best time to give it a go.

I'll be back next week with all the latest Bustle & Sew news, plus much more besides.  

Until then, very best wishes from us all.

Helen x