This week’s small pleasures #230

I started getting this post together on Sunday, and had to change my planned intro, as at 7pm we heard from the Prime Minister that Auckland was to move up to Covid Alert Level 3 from midnight, and the rest of the country to Level 2. There are three confirmed cases in the community, and so a lockdown is necessary. For us at Level 2, it means masks on public transport (luckily I walk to work), large gatherings of more than 100 will be cancelled and back to social distancing. Ah well…only for three days at the moment. The first batches of vaccine have just arrived, with frontline border workers, such as those working in the managed isolation facilities, getting vaccinated first. I know for most of you this is very different to what most of you are experiencing, but it is a big thing here in New Zealand.

Anyway, this post is about the small pleasures of the week past, and top of the list comes a chance to walk along the waterfront in the evening sun on Thursday. I managed to capture the ferry that goes between the North and South Island, which you can see in the featured image at the top of the post, and some of the beautiful blue skies by the water. Thursday was also when we dined at Shed 5 which was also a small pleasure- review here.

Moving on… and in our shopping basket this week there was sweetcorn which is still good, courgettes (zucchini), capsicum, cherry tomatoes, baby fennel and green beans. There were Tatura belle golden fleshed peaches and blackboy peaches, the latter of which I roasted for dessert on Sunday to have with ice-cream.

Sticking with food, we decided to go out for brunch/lunch on Sunday – well it was Valentine’s Day – so we headed over to one of our favourite places that has featured many times in this blog, Field & Green. Karl had the fish finger sandwich, two thick slices of bread with posh fish fingers (I think fish sticks in the US?), tartare sauce and rocket. I had the rye crêpes with smoked salmon and herb cream cheese topped with a dill and golden raisin butter. I couldn’t help but have pink lemonade (raspberry and lemon) from local producers, Six Barrel Soda, given the day.

But perhaps the biggest small pleasure (even ahead of my first radish) was a surprise parcel containing this fun looking jigsaw. My dear husband had spotted a picture of a friend on Facebook doing this jigsaw, and with a bit of careful tracking down thanks to Google, he managed to get one and have it sent in time for Valentine’s Day. What a lovely thought and just…well..special! I now have to finish the one I am still doing of a picnic (a few pieces a day) in double quick time.

So those are my small pleasures this week. What were yours? Here are some other bloggers with their favourites from the past week. Please free to join in!

• Check out Ju-Lyn’s happy place, happy space: love in Singapore.
• Deb’s World’s Shoutout Saturday: shares things enjoyed during the week.
• Laurie Graves‘ Friday Favourites: shares a surprise present of fudge and a mini Alicia Keys concert.
• Little Pieces of Me‘s Grateful Fridays: enjoys doughnuts and the outdoors.
• Natalie the Explorer‘s Beaver Tails & Red Roses: introduces us to some Canadian pastries
• Sanch Writes‘ Weekly Gratitude: enjoys cricket and writing.
• And Trent’s World‘s The Weekly Smile: thankfully finds his phone in the snow

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