weekend round up

Happy Monday, friends! Our weekend was full of fun, food and hard work.

{1} I started off Saturday morning with a run and a smoothie packed with Summer flavours (fresh orange juice, strawberries, mango and greek yoghurt). It was a refreshing start to the day, and a great way to get a good fruit boost.

{2} I spent Saturday afternoon with two of my favourite little people, Rachel and Annabel. We took a trip to a local farm, which Rachel was very excited about. There's a lot of amazing art around our city, and the tunnel on the way to the farm was no exception. Rachel was particularly interested in this life size drawing of a small boy and his teddy. I knew our time with the animals at St. Werburgh's City Farm would be limited, as the skies were heavy and grey, threatening rain for much of the day. Sure enough, the heavens opened with Summer rain, and we allowed ourselves to get drenched before finding shelter back at the car.

{3) While the rain continued to pour down outside, we returned to my house, and Rachel selected a book for us to read from my ever growing collection of children's stories. It turned out that 5 month old Annabel was far more interested in this book than Rachel, desperate to turn the pages and attempt to eat them, on occasion.

{4 & 5}Baking is one of my favourite things to do, and baking with children is no exception. So, Rachel and I whipped up a batch of gingerbread hearts and men. Rachel was quite the brilliant baker, simultaneously cutting hearts, and attending to Annabel to ensure that she was happy.

{6} The work on our desert of a garden has continued in earnest this weekend, and we were blessed with the help of John's Dad and brother to shift tonnes of rocks and bring a little bit of life to the ground with a tonne of soil. John's brother had travelled over from Paris, and kindly brought us some Parisian macaroons which look too pretty to devour, but I am sure we'll manage somehow!

{7} I mentioned on Friday that I have been thoroughly enjoying making bread from scratch recently. The Bacon & Cheddar bread in Paul Hollywood's How to Bake sounded good enough to make my mouth water, so I baked a loaf of this on Saturday morning, and it turned out beautifully.

{8 & 9} By the time Sunday came around, the sun decided to shine beautifully again, just in time for the annual Bristol Harbour Festival. My talented friend Lydia performed with her trio Just3 Harmony on the BBC Radio Bristol stage. The DJ's from BBC Radio Bristol took a photo of us for their Facebook page, and I just made the cut (see here for the photo - I'm the one in the bottom right hand corner)!

The weekend began and ended with having friends around for dinner, which is perhaps one of my favourite things to do. I hope your weekend was refreshing and restorative too.