This week’s small pleasures #246

Sunday morning, the sun was shining, the sky was blue…and we both got our first Covid-19 vaccinations. Now if that isn’t a good thing and something to smile about then I don’t know what is. The picture below was taken before I went into the GP’s surgery. Today however the skies are grey, the wind is blowing and there is rain. Ah well…

On Saturday afternoon we went to this year’s Beervana, the annual craft beer fair held here in Wellington. As usual, there were lots of things to taste, from hazy IPAs to sour beers, to porters (including a fabulous stout from Cassels Brewing) to fruity sour beers (not my favourite). Local brewery, Garage Project, were celebrating their tenth birthday with a couple of 10% beers, Boneface Brewing brought along a tank, and Eddyline Brewery had a new beer released at Beervana 2021, American As Pumpkin Ale, which is a beer with pumpkin (no – I did not try it!). This year my nephew came along with us – you can see him and my husband enjoying tasting glasses of something.

Of course, it is important to eat when you are trying all the food, and this year we stopped off at Boulcott Street Bistro’s stall for whitebait fritters (served with lashings of aioli and in between two slices of white bread as is the only way to eat these) for me and my nephew, and for my husband, a porchetta sandwich. We also had to stop off for half a dozen oysters, because one really has to when the opportunity presents itself.

Sticking with food, in the basket this week there were more oranges and a fennel bulb (go so well together), yams (oca), lemons, broccoli, mushrooms and some sheep’s milk gouda. I am planning to make a Peter Gordon salad with the white and orange carrots bought at Wednesday’s market, which is normally topped with manchego, but I will use this cheese as a substitute. I made a coleslaw with the red cabbage, an orange carrot, sultanas, spring onion, apple and mayo that we had with a quiche from Arobake on Saturday evening. The green cabbage will get used up on Monday I think, and I have tangerines for my lunch box this week too.

So those were some of the small pleasures of the week, which also included baking a cake, eating a fabulous meal on Thursday, and enjoying signs of spring in the garden.

What were your small pleasures? Here are some other blog posts from fellow bloggers looking at the good things in life.

• Carol Ann of Fashioned for Joy shares her delights of the week including going to the beach.
• Laurie at Notes From The Hinterland enjoys drinks on her patio.
• Ju Lyn at Touring my Backyard has a large bag of cherry tomatoes to make a galette – sounds wonderful!
• Deb, has to change plans…thanks to you-know-what.
• Natalie the Explorer shares some amazing pictures from a floral trail in Toronto.
• Anne at Something Over Tea introduces to some birds.
• Sanch Writes  manages to find things to be thankful for despite the lockdown over The Ditch. We watch what is happening, concerned the same could happen here.
• Jo at And Anyways shares lots of amazing pictures of whales off the Queensland coast.
• And over at Trent’s World sounds like he had a lovely week. 
• The Nordic Dowager has a holiday before settling down to her new life in Christchurch.

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