This week’s small pleasures #132

I’m a day early with this week’s small pleasures, as I am off up to Hamilton tomorrow, Monday. As I mentioned in my last post, the weather has changed, from bright, sunny days to grey, overcast skies. Our clocks went back too, so that is us officially into autumn and winter.

Still, I was able to capture the sunlight through the coloured discs on Tory Street (behind this plywood wall is what used to be a car park that was demolished after the last big earthquake). I just love the colours and patterns made by the sun.

Enforced rest at home has meant a lot of reading. I particularly enjoyed Astrid Lindgren’s War Diaries, her personal account of life in Stockholm during the WW2. It is a really interesting read, and full of domestic detail as well as news about what was happening during the war. If you are trying to place her….you may well know her best for her series of books about Pippi Longstocking.

I’m following Pick up Limes 7 Days of Slow Living, and Saturday was about food, and I just had to try this soft, and fluffy brioche bun with my pre-Pilates tea. It was just the thing, and I savoured every mouthful! Today’s task was cleaning and tidying…well, both were done to a certain degree, and I did find a cook book I had mislaid.

I’ve managed a lot of rest this weekend too, and we have started to watch a Swedish drama on Netflix Quicksand, which centres on a school shooting. Not as morbid as it sounds, as the story unfolds we learn a whole lot about the protagonists and what brought about the incident. We’re half way through and still unsure about the outcome. Line of Duty is back for Series 5, and that is also keeping us on the edge of our seats. I think the first four series are on Netflix if you haven’t seen it.

This week for the ‘what was in my shopping basket’ I’ve picked four things. First up, some oregano and lemon olives from Hawke’s Bay which I have had before and which are as good as they sound. Next, some Horopito Hit seasoning from Attitude Foods. Horopito is a native plant with a hot, chilli pepper like ‘hit’. I haven’t tried this out yet, but think it might go well on top of roasted veggies perhaps. You can read more about horopito here. Next to that we have some coffee from Good Fortune Coffee Co, roasted in Petone (just outside Wellington). You must admit, the packaging is great, and it is Fair Trade, and it tastes good. Finally, local peanut butter manufacturers Fix and Fogg have come up with the Everything Butter, containing all sorts of nuts and seeds. I’ll be trying it out on my breakfast toast and reporting back.

That’s all for this week – what were your small pleasures?

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

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