This week’s small pleasures #255

This week’s small pleasures comes to you on the Labour Day holiday, which also kind of heralds the start of warmer weather. It is, of course, always lovely to have a public holiday, and this one is particularly welcome with it being ages since the last one. I had hoped to get out and do some gardening today, but it is raining this morning. Ah well…the forecast indicates it will clear up later.

Anyway, first up is a duckling update. You can see how much bigger they are, and are also getting more independent of each other. There was an incident during the week, when someone tipped some white paint into the water that flows into the pond. As you can see, the water is now crystal clear after a clean up, but it was a really horrible thing to have happened.

And so to food…there was lunch at the newly renovated Egmont Street Eatery on Wednesday (slow cooked eggs, house baked beans with harissa and black pudding – what a combination!), a lovely spaghetti carbonara at local Italian restaurant Cosa Nostra on Thursday, and a basket full of good things on Saturday, from purple asparagus, spinach, cabbage and kale to oranges, lemons and shallots. I have a menu planned for the week which I will report on on Wednesday.

On Sunday there was a trip to the cinema to see Julia, the new documentary about Julia Child. Having read a fair bit about her over the years, I didn’t feel I learned a lot of new details, but it was still quite an interesting film and lots of interesting clips and some modern footage of classic recipes (which made our mouths water).

And so to flowers which always bring a smile to my face….from this pretty little peach coloured rose, hanging over the fence of a neighbours’ garden to the clivias (bush lilies, Natal lilies) in the Botanic Gardens (and yes there are the deep orange ones too Anne!).

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 her week including a trip to the beach and some really interesting art works.
• Ju Lyn at Touring my Backyard goes to Bukit Brown Cemetery.
• Natalie the Explorer shares autumn colours, What’s on Your Bookshelf and this Weekend’s Coffee Share.
• Anne over at  Something Over Tea shares scenes of life where she lives in South Africa.
• Jo at And Anyway shares spring in Melbourne.
• Deb’s World’s A Yellow Swing & a Tree: looks forward to things opening up again.
• Trent’s World shares coffee with us and also shares a photo of his cat, Alexander.
• Little Pieces of Me‘s Grateful Fridays: treasures time with Tucker on the trail.
• Laurie over at Notes from the Hinterland all brings us pictures of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere (and also does the What’s on Your Bookshelf challenge).
• Scribble and Scran has a holiday and enjoys reading cook books.
• Check out Still Restless Jo‘s An Idyllic Day.
• I’m too early for Sanch Writes weekly gratitude post – but have a look at her blog in any case.

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