This week’s small pleasures #189

I think I have had enough of lockdown. On Saturday afternoon, I decided that the new routine of baking, Pilates on Zoom and ballet was not what I really wanted to be doing. Baking, Pilates and watching ballet are all things I really enjoy, and I do Pilates every Saturday as it is, but I just felt I had had enough. Is anyone else feeling the same? I long to get out of the house and spend time choosing vegetables, go to a cafe and browse in a bookshop, but at least I have been on some nice autumnal walks on the many sunny days we had last week.

There were no new confirmed cases of Covid-19 here in New Zealand today. While this is of course great news, it doesn’t mean that we are through with it all yet. As the Prime Minister said today, we not get ahead of ourselves, and we must still maintain all the requirements of the Level 3 lockdown. The path ahead is still unknown of course, but things are looking optimistic at least as I type.

Naturally, food still forms a central part in the week’s small pleasures, with treats galore to keep us going. We are continuing to get some good bread delivered from Arobake (below is Saturday’s haul…with croissants for Sunday breakfast…), and wonderful selections of wine from Noble Rot Wine Bar.

Now that we have dropped to Level 3, takeaway food is now permitted again. We haven’t yet ordered pizza, thinking it wise to wait until the initial rush had died down, but on Friday took delivery of some gorgeous cinnamon and caramel buns from my favourite cafe in town, Squirrel, and collected a three course meal from Tinkaori Bistro, including duck liver pate, olives, cassoulet and tarte tatin. It was a real treat for us in our bubble. On Sunday, I collected some mushroom quiche made from foraged mushrooms, sauerkraut and pickled mushrooms from Hillside Kitchen for lunch. This was so worth going for, despite me getting soaked in the rain on the way home. The quiche was one of the best I have ever eaten, and the pickled mushrooms went will with our chicken at dinner, and were even better on toast this morning for breakfast. The large picture is the first course from Friday, top right the sticky bun and bottom right Sunday lunch.

Talking about mushrooms and walking, at this time of year you can always spot fly agaric fungi in various places. I spotted this splendid specimen during the week. They always remind me of illustrations in old fairy story books for some reason.

So that is it for this week. 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.

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