This week’s small pleasures #354

Thistles and Kiwis

The clocks have gone forward, the evenings are noticeably lighter and thoughts begin to turn to plans for warmer days. Well, given the wintery temperatures today I am not sure I am ready to put away my winter coat quite yet! Anyway, Karl was in Seoul this week, and got home today, just in time to celebrate our wedding anniversary. So to this week’s small pleasures….

Art on the wall

On Wednesday, I had to go and see the new murals at Shelley Bay Baker on Leeds Street by Cracked Ink, having spotted them already over on Instagram. They didn’t disappoint – such fun to see and a great idea for this cafe/shop space.

Edibles

While at Shelley Bay Baker, I enjoyed an egg and rocket sandwich on a really nice rye bread for lunch, and popped into the Wellington Chocolate Factory for a couple of bars of their chocolate (slated caramel dark and a 70% cocoa from the Dominican Republic) which is always nice to have on hand. During the week I also picked up some more of Noble & Sunday’s comforting and delicious maple walnut rooibos tea. I also had a craving for two things this week – fresh tomatoes (out of season and expensive) and a pain au raisin. Well, I at least satisfied the latter, with a surprisingly good frozen one popped in the oven on Sunday morning for a breakfast in bed treat.

In the basket this week: two heads of broccoli which was on offer, a red capsicum, limes, ginger, mushrooms, green beans and a bag of satsumas for the lunch box. There was a bag of potatoes and a head of lettuce too.

World of Wearable Art

On Sunday, I went with some friends to see this year’s World of Wearable Art. WOW is an international design competition with some spectacular and inventive works of wearable art. The effort and craftsmanship is quite incredible when you can get up close. As in previous years, a small exhibition of previous costumes are on display outside the venue – this was this year’s selection.

There is also entertainment outside for those waiting or passing by which is always fun to see.

Below you can see the stage at the start of the evening as we took our seats. I personally thought this year’s show fantastic with dancers, music and amazing aerialists (one even shot a bow and arrow, upside down, with her feet). You can find a list and pictures of the winners here. If you are ever in Wellington at this time of year I can highy recommend this theatrical spectacular.

Simple things

  • Attending an author event with the dancer and director, David McAllister that you can read more about here.
  • Enjoying that pain au raisin!
  • Finding relief from back pain thanks to my chiropractor.
  • Making the effort to attend a calligraphy class (more of that on Wednesday).
  • Reading this news story about the return of the Osiris-Rex capsule from space – a good news story in between all the horror, and one that restores our faith in being human. An example of what can be done with co-operation and focus.
  • Celebrating our 19th wedding anniversary with a bottle of fizz.

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

30 Comments

  3. Happy wedding anniversary. I enjoyed reading your post this week. In Queensland where I live they have chosen never to do daylight saving. I am heading over to Christchurch for Christmas and New Year, will stay with my youngest brother and visit my other brother who is now in a nursing home/hospital. I am looking forward to buying freshly caught fish.

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  5. A very happy anniversary to you two! I know you will find a terrific way to celebrate it in beautiful Wellington, which has so much to offer. Those are some dresses as we would say in Maine. What a fun night that must have been. And raisin bread sounds so tasty.

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  7. What a fun week ! Your vegetable basket each week is very inspiring. I use the crowd farming app for fruit and vegetables that we can’t grow here in Sweden. It supports organic farmers in other parts of Europe. You adopt a tree/field/bee hive or similar from the farmer (for a price) and gets part of the produce. I am expecting a box of mangoes from Spain tomorrow. I can’t wait. Last year they were to die for, just SO delicious!

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  9. Happy Anniversary! There’s nothing worse than a bad back so pleased that it’s feeling better. That fashion show looks amazing – what a spectacular!

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  14. Finally getting around to commenting…lol. Hopefully I’ll get around to posting this week and not sure about next week since I’ll be out of town, but we’ll see. I may have some down time…That mural is neat. Wow, interesting wearable art..lol. Happy late anniversary.

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  16. How wonderful to begin the month with an anniversary celebration! I was just speaking to a friend about her husband trying to get a flight home from the US so that they can celebrate their anniversary together; Karl coming home from Seoul to celebrate with you reminded me of this.

    The World of Wearable Art looks fabulously fun: art, fashion, creative shennanigans … nice!

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