New bird on the block No. 23 and a visit to the farmers market

{Wonderful hand-made soap from Susan Parks at Rich Valley Farm in Stafford Springs, CT. It has a fresh, spicy scent and rich, creamy feel thanks to all the goat milk from Scooter and Olive (pictured below) and their friends.}

On Sunday, Marie-Louise from Cottage Industries and I went to the Coventry Farmers Market, a festive and busy weekly organic extravaganza on the bucolic grounds of the historic Nathan Hale Homestead (as in "I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country"). We tried not to gorge ourselves on the best kettle corn in the world (it even says "Caution! Highly addictive substance!" on the package), bought veggies, fresh blue-ribbon pickles, big bunches of dahlias and homemade fudge. We also visited with Heather of Beauty That Moves and Paula of The Beading Tree; Marie-Louise will be blogging about them and their gorgeous handmade wares sometime this week. I did buy one of Heather's stylish dog collars for my neighbor's golden doodle Boddington, and admired all her pretty bags and pouches made from modern and vintage fabrics -- you can see some in her Etsy shop.

I love handmade soap and spent a good deal of time sniffing and savoring the delicious products at Susan Parks' booth. All her soaps are made with a goats milk or the hard-to-find egg yolk base, and use plenty of shea butter, soy and beeswax for silky rich lather.

{I'm a sucker for pretty packaging too, and all Susan's soaps are wrapped in white parchment with charming labels featuring unique and whimsical woodcuts.}

{Olive and Scooter were not at the farmers market but back at Rich Valley Farms enjoying the sunny day.}

{Top photo by me, all others from Susan's website}