This week’s small pleasures #103

I confess this wasn’t a particularly good week…I was on jury duty.  While aspects were interesting, I found the whole thing a bit stressful, particularly the deliberations.  Anyway, it is over now and I have done my turn.

But there were still a few small pleasures of course. So let’s take a look and see what they were.

Some good weather

We were treated to some lovely weather this week (see the colour of the sky in the featured image), and I managed to escape the court room and take a couple of walks along the waterfront.  In fact it really felt like spring is just around the corner.

A scone

To recover and wind down from the week before, I had a cheese and spinach scone along with my spiced chai tea at Ekor Bookshop and Cafe on Saturday morning before heading to an excellent Pilates class.  This combination was the perfect antidote to the week before.

New Zealand International Film Festival

On Saturday afternoon, we went to see Leave No Trace, directed by Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone).  The film stars the young New Zealand actress Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie as Tom, a teenager who has been living off the grid with her father, Will (Ben Foster), from an early age. Living in a forest outside Portland, they are lo-tech survivalists.  Tom has been educated by her father, and it is clear that they have a very strong relationship.  Of course, they are discovered, and though there is an element of running from authority, the film focusses on Tom’s shifting view of the world.  When they meet a whole community of backwoods dwellers, the kindness and understanding shown to Will and Tom, eventually builds up to a satisfying and natural ending.  Highly recommended.

Bread

I always love our Sunday breakfast, with good bread and whatever we feel like piling on top.

Thanks to Mani over at A New Life Wandering for the original idea.

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