This week’s small pleasures #309

The sky is blue, the sun is shining and we are being woken each morning with a loud dawn chorus. There was time to sit in the garden and read on Sunday (when the featured image was taken) surrounded by the fragrance of lavender and rosemary. There was time to spend in the kitchen, making new dishes and old ones. There was Pilates, sunshine and wearing dresses and best of all, Charlie’s eye is now looking healthy. Now we just need to wait for his voice to return to its normal. And New Zealand won the women’s rugby world cup in Auckland, beating England 34-31.

Flower of the week

I treated myself to a small bunch or peonies on Sunday. Expensive, but a once a year treat that can’t be passed by. These gorgeous deep wine coloured ones are a real small pleasure.

Parcels

I have long been an admirer of Kylee Newton’s books, and was absolutely delighted to see that some of her products were available from Herne Bay Foodstore. The two jars I ordered arrived intact – a truely amazing orange and campari marmalade that I tried with Sunday breakfast (on opening, there was a star anise, nestled into the top) and some gin pickled cucumber I will save for Christmas Eve. I also received our first Christmas card and a lovely Christmas tree decoration from my niece in the US, which she was unable to send in 2021 as the post office claimed no post was going to New Zealand thanks to Covid disruption!

Eating out and eating in

On Wednesday, I had a second breakfast or very early lunch at August café. I enjoyed Istanbul eggs (poached eggs, Greek yoghurt, aleppo pepper butter, dill and sourdough toast) with a good sized pot of tea. I can’t believe this was only my second visit to this great wee place.

Still on food, we met friends for dinner at Damascus, which has now relocated to the city centre (we first went there back in March). The hummus and baba ganoush were excellent, especially the latter which had a gorgeous, smokey flavour. The falafel, zeitun salad and lamb dishes were also good, and I even had dessert – a gorgeous crème brûlée with rose water and orange blossom served with a piece of tahini shortbread.

In the shopping bag this week – more asparagus because we might as well enjoy it while we can, garlic, another grapefruit, a crisp red capsicum, blood oranges, broad beans and the new season’s strawberries. I made an old favourite Baked Pork Bolognaise from Dish magazine for dinner on Sunday, leftovers for Monday.

Finally…good news…my dear husband is now a Professor! From the 1 January 2023 he will be Professor of Public Administration (NB – the title professor is used in NZ the same way as it is in the UK and Europe, not as it is in the US ie a professor is someone who has been promoted to the highest academic grade for their scholarly achievements).

So, 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. 

• One of my favourite bloggers, Carol Ann over at Fashioned for Joy has so many small pleasures to share with us as well as celebrating 31 years with her husband – congratulations!
• Ju Lyn at Touring my Backyard enjoys her happy place and happy space and great pictures of otters.
• Natalie the Explorer shares more wonderful pictures from the Bay of Fundy.
• Anne over at Something Over Tea enjoys the patterns of nature.
• Share a coffee over at Trent’s World and hear about his week.
• Popsicle Society gives us great motivation for Monday.
• Green Dreams shares a lovely moody, misty picture in her weekend coffee share.
• Over at  Southern Patches  a scarf is being knitted and other Friday Favourites.
• Retirement Reflections eats turkey!
• And Deb gets out a well loved little black dress.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

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 or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.org