This week’s small pleasures #266

Today saw our return to work after what has been a lovely long summer holiday, that included Christmas, New Year and a lovely trip up to Hawke’s Bay. It has been another gorgeous summer day, so being stuck in the office was not ideal – so even more important to remember the small pleasures of the past week!

In Friday’s post, I mentioned going over to Lake Ferry. On our way there, we met a herd of young cattle being moved from one field to another. For some reason, my mind turned to Something Over Tea’s stories about the urban herd which lives near her, though this was of course quite different! Anyway, you can see how our progress was slowed down, and more pictures of one of my favourite places.

And so to food….and there was a smoked salmon toast for Friday lunch at Squirrel, a prawn risotto at our local Italian restaurant, Cosa Nostra and a basket full of pasta, feta, avocados, plums, nectarines, shallots and ginger as well as a pot of baby sorrel. I made Pasta alla Norma during the week for dinner that I must say was rather good. There was a lamb curry on Sunday night and a charcuterie board on Saturday night – lots of small pleasures on the table this week!

And so to Sunday, when we drove over to Mākara, taking a walk up to the remains of Fort Opau (part of World War 2 defences) for a wonderful clear view over to the South Island. Below you can see the walk past a wind turbine (there is a big wind farm up here which you can see a bit of in the middle picture), the amazing view we had and all only 20 minutes drive from home…..

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

• Do check out Carol Ann of Fashioned for Joy and her weekly delights.
• Ju Lyn at Touring my Backyard shows us Singapore at night.
• Natalie the Explorer shares wonderful pictures from Budapest Park in Toronto.
• Anne over at  Something Over Tea reminds us that we can gain new experiences near to home.
• Jo at And Anyways finishes writing a book – congratulations!
• Deb’s World shows us a summer whiteout.
• Laurie at Notes from the Hinterland takes us to a lake in winter.
• Have a coffee with Trent over at Trent’s World in a New England winter.
• Scribble and Scran has his BBQ over turned in the wind and makes a list of good things to cook.
• Sanch Writes shares the things she is grateful for this week.

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