This week’s small pleasures #347

Thistles and Kiwis

Here we are at the end of July already – who can believe it? The mornings are getting brighter, the sun is setting a little later every evening and while we are still in winter, we are edging towards spring. We are slowly beginning the clearing process with homes found for a couple of things, the tip visited once, and bags for the charity shop being filled. Not sure this is a small pleasure or not – but guess it is!

Flying

Anyway, this week I was up in Auckland for work, and having a window seat, I was able to capture some of the amazing skies on the trip home on Wednesday. If you look very carefully at the picture on the right below, you can just see a rainbow.

Edibles

In the basket this week…half a butternut squash that I will roast at some point during the week, a bag of spinach, shallots, apples, a couple of grapefruit and a bag of yams (oca) and this beautiful purple and green radiccio.

We grabbed surprisingly good pizza on Sunday at Mishmosh before the cinema, with me opting for one with mushrooms and pesto and lots of lovely gloopy mozzarella and Karl the pepperoni.

Out and about

On Saturday evening, I went to the latest performance from the Royal New Zealand Ballet, who are celebrating their 70th anniversary. There were four pieces in the evening, beginning with Balanchine’s Serenade (1934), which I happen to like, being a fan of symmetry and the wonderful shapes and patterns on the stage. I confess that this was never a favourite of mine, but it has grown on me over the years. The second piece was a new work by Moss Te Ururangi Patterson for the male dancers, which was followed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Requiem for a Rose (2009). The final piece was Alice Topp’s Logos which I really loved, and which made an excellent piece to end on.

While I was at the ballet, Karl was at the Sweden v Italy Women’s World Cup football, which resulted in a 5:0 win for Sweden. I confess that during the intervals at the theatre I was checking the scores – and I claim not to be interested….

On Sunday we went to see this year’s Cannes FIlm Festival winner, Anatomy of a Fall, showing as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival. This is such a good film that slowly builds to its finale. Part court room drama, part murder mystery, party family drama, it is gripping from start to finish. A young partially sighted boy finds his father dead, seemingly having jumped or been pushed from a window. The story then unfolds asking as many questions as giving answers. The young actor who played the son was magnificent – you can read more about the film here.

Simple things

  • Enjoying the flags of Italy and Sweden lighting up the tunnels on the Cable Car on Saturday as a prelude to the match.
  • Seeing sunshine on Saturday after a very wet Friday.
  • Receiving a belated birthday present of a book and some wee candles (which I will feature in a post later this month).
  • Keeping cosy.
  • Getting home after the trip to Auckland.
  • Looking at lots of fun things coming up in August.

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. 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

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

31 Comments

  6. Glad you have managed some more de-cluttering, we still have a shed full of bits and pieces to go through.
    It must have been lovely to see the Swedish and Italian flag in Wellington. We are in Queensland at the moment and all the holiday makers are very excited about the football…( there are many European tourists here at this time of the year.)

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  7. No awareness let alone interest in the football here, but I was excited to hear you’d been to see Serenade. My daughter is seriously into ballet and her dance school performed Serenade or at least excerpts from it a few years ago. It was beautiful and intriguing. My daughter went to see it recently too.
    I am currently eating some birthday cake and it’s giving me some indulgent pleasure. My husband bought a selection of macaron cake slices…so good!
    Hope you have a good week.
    Best wishes,
    Rowena

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  10. Hi, Barbara. I enjoyed peeking out the window with you at the beautiful views. Thanks also for describing the ballets; that’s an art form I want to learn more about. Finally, I hope you find a few simple pleasures (and treasures) as you simplify. Good luck. (And thank you for your kind mention!)

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  12. Hi Barbara,
    Your essay makes me want to carve a piece of the yard and start a section of different types of onions. My wife can’t eat them unless they’re cooked down beyond recognition where I love all things that even look like an onion.
    We have a very successful chicken based fast food chain here (Chick Fil-A) – but for reasons I can’t fathom – they have no onions at all so this favorite flavor of mine causes me to resist whenever asked if I’m interested in going to this restaurant.
    I especially love them is salads from macaroni to greek to any basic dinner salad – onions are one of my favorite foods but I can’t recall having shallots. I bet I have without knowing it.

    I’d take onions, of any variety before the ballet (which I don’t understand at all) any time and every time . . . LOL

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