This week’s small pleasures #206

It is the last day of August, and as the calendar ticks over tomorrow to the 1st September, we properly see us enter spring. At the end of this month, our clocks go forward at the end of the month which will really herald the move to warmer days. The listings for Wellington on a Plate are out, so let’s hope all the events go ahead and are not cancelled due to an upsurge in Covid-19.

Poppies

The first small pleasure of the week is these gorgeous poppies. They were just a supermarket purchase, but such stunning colours and shapes. What is not to enjoy?

Early Saturday morning

I took an early bus to town on Saturday, and took a stroll along the waterfront before my tea, toast and Pilates. It was still a little grey at 8am (the day turned out lovely in the end), but everything still looked quite moody and interesting. There were some interesting cloud formations too.

Good things to eat

There was lentil soup, with added mushrooms and carrots (see this post from last year for my favourite recipe), there was a salad topped with feta for lunch one day when I was working at home, there was smoked salmon toast on Saturday morning and there was a delivery of some rather special Icelandic chocolate from The Chocolate Bar. So far we have sampled the black ‘n’ burnt barley bar. This apparently is technically a white chocolate, made black with activated charcoal and barley malt extract. It is sprinkled with ‘burnt’ Icelandic malt, giving it an interesting crunchy topping. I don’t think I have ever tasted or seen anything quite like it – and yes it was quite wonderful.

Sunday, Martinborough

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day and we took the chance to drive over to Martinborough. We had some lunch and went for a stroll, picking up some wine and local olive oil. The drive over the Remutaka Range is always stunning, and the temperatures just a little warmer too when you get over to the other side.

A new book (or two)

While in Martinborough, we paid a visit to the Martinborough Book Shop, a real gem of a place. I picked up Monique Faso’s book with the same name as her restaurant,a work I know I will never actually cook from but which I am so looking forward to reading, and finding out more about native plants and produce. Check out this article about the restaurant and even my blog post about our visit. This week I also picked up a couple of books at Unity Books, including Ali Smith’s Summer, the last of her quartet of books around the seasons.

Anyway, that is my quick round up on some of this week’s small pleasures. Check out what is making Notes from the Hinterland happy too and thanks to Mani over at A New Life Wandering for the original idea.

So that is it for this week. Wherever you are, take care and look out for those little things that bring you joy. What were your small pleasures of the week just past? 

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