This week’s small pleasures #193

It is the first day of June, the Queen’s Birthday holiday here in New Zealand (complete with a 21 gun salute at noon) and also the start of winter. As appropriate for the season and the fact that it is a public holiday, it is a bit grey here today, but that just means it is time to make some tea, listen to some podcasts, read, blog….and make a warming lentil soup for dinner. There have been no new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand for 10 days in a row, and there is just one active case in the country. This is very good news of course, and with everything else going on in the world, a little beacon of hope.

The small pleasures of the week began with going to the hairdresser on Tuesday. What else can I say? On Wednesday, I went to the dental hygienist, and while you may think this isn’t exactly a pleasure, it was because it actually felt like normal life was returning.

While shopping is still a bit of a chore – you need to sanitise your hands when you enter, check in, sanitise your hands when you leave – I still treated myself to some hand creams (because who isn’t using twice as much as normal right now?) from Occitane, the latest edition of Frankie magazine which has finally arrived, and two lovely linen tea towels that look and feel too nice to dry dishes with from Small Acorns. I also carved out a bit more reading time, usually with a mug of tea (current favourite – Red Baron chai from tleafT, a blend of rooibos, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves).

• 

• 

Of course, no this week’s small pleasures post would be complete without a mention of food. There are so many good seasonal things around just now, from Brussels sprouts to parsnips to Jerusalem artichokes. I picked up some more celeriac on Saturday, along with kumara and parsnips, all good things for this time of year.

On Thursday, we had dinner at at our local Italian restaurant, where I enjoyed a good carbonara. We had bread delivered again on Saturday from Arobake (just look at those loaves below…), and on Sunday, had lunch at Brac and Bow over in Featherston. The smoked fish and sweetcorn chowder was just perfect on a chilly, grey day. And of course there was my usual Saturday toast!

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 and unprecedented times. What were your small pleasures of the week just past? Stay safe wherever you are…

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