This week’s small pleasures #186

So here we are again with another round of lockdown small pleasures. These can be as simple as a fun discussion on a podcast (The Mystery of the $13,500 Melon on Milk Street Radio), listening to Charlie snoring while lying curled up asleep on his favourite fur throw or going for a long walk in the autumn sunshine as we did today. Here are a round up of some of the others.

I spotted the new colourful additions to the beehives in the Botanic Gardens on one of my daily walks. Beetopia indeed! They brought a smile to my face at least.

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Getting bread deliveries has been a real small pleasures. We’ve had some excellent produce from Arobake, ranging from croissants for Easter Sunday breakfast, to a caraway and rye sourdough for our Easter lunch and these lovely semmel rolls, served warm with soup.

I have been really enjoying doing Pilates classes over Zoom and seeing some familiar faces also joining in, and also picking up a couple from one of my teacher’s on YouTube. I think I may even be doing more than I do normally! Using tins of beans instead of weights is kind of fun too. On Saturday afternoon I watched the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which was as lovely as I remembered it. It is a nice way to spend an afternoon and I am looking forward to next week’s production.

Sunday was of course Easter Sunday, and we went ahead and celebrated with a veritable feast. We missed the friends who would normally be with us, but we still ate Janssons frestelse, meatballs, smoked salmon, three types of herring, potatoes, bread, devilled eggs and salad, all washed down with beer and snaps. All I can say is that this was followed by an afternoon nap!

Finally, on Friday I spotted this gorgeous fantail, flitting in and out of the trees. He seemed quite keen to get his photograph taken, and stayed still just long enough for me to take his picture.

So wherever you are, take care and look out for those little things that bring you joy in these strange times. What were your small pleasures of the week past? 

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

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram@thistleandkiwis.  As for Twitter….am totally inactive these days.  If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com