What gorgeous weather we have had these past few days – it almost feels like summer has returned. Now that is a small pleasure in itself! I had a good stroll around after Pilates on Wednesday, doing a bit of shopping, a bit of browsing along Cuba Street before returning home to cook dinner. The weekend was good too, and now the first day of the working week is over.
Food and eating
I had lunch at The Oatery (pictured above) on Wednesday, enjoying this smoked salmon toast. I worked at home on Friday, and made the burrata and courgette salad from Nigella Eats Everything which was just lovely. On Saturday, I made a celeriac and potato gratin with added spinach which turned out beautifully (but I forgot to take a picture).
There wasn’t a whole lot of things in the basket this week as we have eating out plans and left overs from last week, but I did pick up a head of broccoli, some spinach, a capsicum, limes, chillis, pears and this dill goat cheese from The Drunken Nanny.
Saturday baking
With some plums needing to be used up, I made the quick and easy cake I’ve made a couple of times now. The plums were sharp and the cinnamon and brown sugar topping made a lovely contrast. I listened to a ‘cosy crime’ novel I had borrowed from the library at the same time – what a great way to spend part of the afternoon.
Simple things
- Buying a new lipstick in a beautiful case and some beeswax candles
- Appreciating sitting in the sun with a cup of tea and a slice of cake on Sunday afternoon.
- Having a ‘date night’ of a pre-dinner drink at Little Beer Quarter and then Indian food at Great India.
- Spending time reading.
- Enjoying a gossipy lunch out with work colleagues to celebrate two birthdays.
- Hearing my bulbs have been despatched.
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.
- Deb at Deb’s World anticipates her forthcoming travels.
- Jo over at And Anyways tells about her trip to Narvik in Norway (and do check our her companion blog Brookford Kitchen Diaries).
- Natalie the Explorer goes on seven fun outings.
- There are some wonderful bird pictures over at Tootlepedal’s Blog.
- Sit down and share a morning coffee over at Trent’s World.
- Anne over at Something Over Tea has lots of things to fill her with cheer.
- Nigella Eats Everything makes a wonderful sounding goat’s cheese and onion tart.
- And Popsicle Society motivates us on Monday.
- Green Dreams celebrates a silent Sunday.
- …and all the other lovely bloggers out there.
Also entered in The Weekend Coffee Share hosted by Natalie.
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. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com
Thistles and Kiwis 
We are also enjoying summery temperatures and a ‘lift’ came in the form of a variety of birds keeping me company while I breakfasted outdoors this morning.
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Your cooking and meals always look tasty, but, I’m hungry and that slice of plum cake looks divine!
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I, too, am hungry for a slice of plum cake. Absolutely perfect with a cup of tea on a warm fall (or spring!) day.
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I have to say it was good…and so nice to be able to still sit outside too.
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Your opening shot has me drooling! It should come with a trigger warning 😉.
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🙂
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Nice to see the plum cake!
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Thanks – you can see why gardening was abandoned…
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Our plum blossom is looking promising so I might have to consider your plum cake recipe when the time comes.
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Enjoy the balmy weather Barbara, it’s always a bonus at this time of year! We’re currently in Canberra babysitting and after a cool start the days have been lovely with a top of 22 today.
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22C is a good temperature – warm but not hot.
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That plum cake looks the business – and I’m bookmarking this burrata recipe (for when I can hunt some burrata down…)
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Hope you find some burrata!
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me too!
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Love that you list the small things that add up in the gratitude basket.
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Thank you Bernie.
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Lovely to hear that you’ve had good weather … and many occasions to enjoy it!
That plum cake looks spectacular. I love these bakes which encourage using up seasonal fruit. I just made an upside down apple cake (Dorie Greenspan’s fall fruit cake) to use up tired apples that cannot be eaten as is.
https://doriegreenspan.substack.com/p/a-sweet-parisian-upside-down-cake-22-10-07
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Oh that looks so good! I am very tempted to try that out – looks lovely.
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That smoked salmon toast looks delicious, and I don’t know if I said it lately, but I really appreciate reading about your small joys. It really makes me pause and reflect about my own day/week. Thank you
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And thank you for stopping by!
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The coffee and the pastry makes my mouth water.
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What a lovely week! Your plum cake looks so good and to have a slice with tea is definitely a pleasure. Thank you for the mention and your weekend coffee share.
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The autumn days have been lovely here too. I would love a slice of that plum cake. The celeriac and potato gratin sounds like something I’d like also.
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Hi Barbara,
Your coffee shares always leave me not hungry per-say, but really wanting to try some of the treats you describe. Today you left me thinking about our plum tree.
Its fruit are just forming and are far from ready for harvest – but I can see the tiny bulbs of sweetness beginning to grow. This year I finally tracked down a treatment for what here is called curly-leaf. It’s a mold – I think – that attacks the whole tree, but only displays its damage on the leaf by twisting them, causing the tree to struggle with normal growth. This is the first year that we have no curled leaves but I’m pretty sure I should have also fertilized the ground around the tree as we’re not going to get much fruit. The one recent year when I did fertilize, the tree produced maybe 200 fruit – all of which were wonderful, but it was way more than we could consume. This year we may get 20-30.
I need to find a happy mid-point somehow.
You mentioned your Indian restaurant. We’ve missed good Indian food here for years. There was one that opened in a nearby town, but by the time we stopped by to try them out – the business had failed and so was locked up tight, awaiting for someone to come by and pick up the furnishings. Bummer!
But then one day about 2 weeks ago I went to try another restaurant, a simple American venue – and they were out of business too. Come on! I thought. I was ready to turn around in the parking lot to leave, but there, only 2 doors from the closed place was a brand new Indian place – so I parked and enthusiastically walked in to give them a try – and it was wonderful. Huge selection of traditional Indian dishes – great use of spices, so lots of familiar rich flavors.
If that wasn’t good enough, We’d seen another possible Indian place, further north of us, so a bit of a drive and my wife decided we should try it last Saturday. It didn’t look like much and had almost a fast-food style appearance but they too delivered a wonderful array of choices and everything we tried was wonderful.
So just like that – we suddenly have two viable options for these wonderful meals.
simple pleasures indeed. . .
Cheers
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How nice to find two good places to eat at once. Hope you get a decent amount of plums to enjoy.
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Your plum cake reminds me of a recipe I tried from my local newspaper. It was called “Yeasted Breakfast Cake With Peaches and Plums Recipe” — I enjoyed it a lot (https://www.latimes.com/recipe/yeasted-breakfast-cake-with-peaches-and-plums). A very summer cake.
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Oh that cake looks good!
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Plum cake looks awesome! Perfect for a coffee share!
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It was rather good I do admit.
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That salad sounds good. I have a few cookbooks that I’d love to cook my way through, but my hubby too much wants to eat a certain way..lol…self control isn’t in his dictionary. That plum cake looks good too. I enjoyed your “simple things list”.
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Thanks Kirstin!
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