Hot days, markets and nest building

I’m not going to dare suggest that it’s too hot in England at the moment.  It is utterly beautiful and I’m thoroughly enjoying all the sun and warm weather we are being blessed with.  How nice is it to sit in the evenings with all the windows and doors open?

Last weekend a bit by accident we found ourselves spending the whole morning today, dog- and care-free visiting a couple of local markets.  It made me realise that we are both guilty of spending too much time doing DIY and don’t make enough time to just go out and do things together.

First we went to our local farmers market at Abbey Leys where we stocked up on local raw milk, grass-fed Welsh beef mince, real bread, and a bunch of seasonal flowers from my favourite garden gate stall.

Next we decided to try out the Artisan Market in Knutsford – it was our first visit and it was fantastic.  It’s a huge market with lots of craft, vintage and food stalls, the weather was fab, there was a bluegrass style band playing music, and deckchairs for people to sit and listen.

My favourite stall was a lady selling Transylvanian sweet treats called Chimney Stack Cakes.  Her particularly speciality are these chimney stack cakes which are like a spiral of cakey-doughnuty-bread with different flavourings.  She won us over with a sample of her cinnamon one and one made it into our shopping bag.

For lunch we had a pancetta and Gorgonzola wood-fired pizza from a company called Fire & Slice.

It was scrumptious and didn’t last very long.

To my delight we have discovered that Mr and Mrs Blackbird have built a nest in the honeysuckle that grows up the shed at the end of our garden.  I had seen them flying in and out of the honeysuckle, but it was Mr Rigg who discovered this beautifully formed nest is their reason for bombing in and out.

As well as the blackbirds, we’ve been nesting as well.  My lovely baby bump is growing nicely and I can hardly believe I’m into week 32!  I like to forget how many weeks that means I’ve got left as I’m still loving it as a bump, although we are both starting to get excited about actually meeting this little creature.

How funny it is to love something so much when you’ve not yet met it.

Our plans around baby sleeping are to co-sleep using the method with the addition of a cot ‘annex’ to your bed (we also have bought a gorgeous hammock for daytime sleeping).  We decided to go for the cheapest Ikea wooden cot as our plans were to butcher it a bit by taking off one long side and we also wanted to paint it with Earthborn paints.

Seeing it set up on the patio was quite surreal.  For the mattress we’ve had one made by a fantastic company based in Manchester called the Dojo Eco Shop, it’s a gorgeous natural mattress and we hope that it will last for a number of little ones.

Mr Rigg has spent the weekend and evenings sanding all the sides and painting it a lovely shade of green.

For baby, I received these gorgeous knitted booties from a good friend and ordered this beautiful Merino yarn that I’m hoping my granny will knit into some cardigans for us.

At home we’ve been cooking up summery foods – tomato and sausage bake with brown rice and salad…

New potato and salmon salad with watercress, radishes and mustard mayo…

Grilled smoked mackerel with Cornish new potatoes and local salad leaves…

And my new favourite – gazpacho (recipe to follow shortly)…

We have been busy recently on the allotment, or at least Mr Rigg has whilst I observe.  Finally we are at the point where there’s things to munch on – undoubtedly my favourite part.

These blackcurrant beauties had mainly disappeared on our next visit – dratted birds, hope they enjoyed them!

The strawberries have been incredible considering they are completely swamped by weeds.

The bunnies have mainly been chilling out on the lawn in the shade – Daisy looks so cute when she tummy bathes with her paws stretched right out behind her.

Hope you’re enjoying the good weather wherever you are!

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