This week’s small pleasures #355

We have been having a rather stormy spring with strong winds blowing seemingly every day. The sun did come out yesterday though, and as I type this on Monday evening, the sky is at least bright. It is pretty normal for the time of year, but still, a few sunny days with no wind would be nice. Anyway, spotting this gorgeous flower on this cactus brought a smile to my face, and made me think of warmer days.

This week’s sandwiches

I know that is a bit of an odd heading, but regular readers know I don’t work on Wednesdays, and often like to have lunch in a cafe. This week I stopped at Pandoro after the hairdresser for a baguette with cheese, ham and salad, and on Friday, enjoyed the chicken, apple and fennel sandwich at the cafe in the library, both being favourites of mine. Oh and the one on the right is not nearly as large as it looks!

Vegetable time

We got our first delivery from Wonky Box this week, choosing to try the vegetable only option to start with. There were yams (oca), potatoes, onions, avocados, a small cos lettuce, carrots and a bunch of gailan, a new vegetable for me. If anyone has a favourite way of cooking this, do please share (YouYube gave me several pointers but would be interested in fellow bloggers ideas). I topped up the box with some seasonal asparagus, a grapefruit and some oranges, a bunch of asparagus and this gorgous looking purple kohlrabi.

Out for dinner – and a long lunch

On Thursday we went out for dinner at Capitol to celebrate our wedding anniversary a couple of days after the event. I enjoyed asparagus topped with parmesan, egg and a sprinkling of bacon, followed by linguini alle vongole, and Karl broccoli and feta bruschetta followed by a Wagyu fillet with a parmesan and potato gratin and green peppercorn sauce.

On Saturday, we went to a Greek long lunch at Noble Rot Wine Bar which I will be reporting on later this week or you can check out my very first (and experimental) Substack post here.

Simple things

• Getting our new sofa delivered – it looks perfect and is comfortable.
• Actually seeing some sunshine, albeit briefly, and enjoying the kowhai (see featured image at the top of the post).
• Going to the hairdresser and being really pleased with the result.
• Looking forward to some fun things in October.
• Cooking Carbonnade à la Flamande for dinner on Sunday – delicious!
• Seeing snow on the hills over on the South Island, view from Ōwhiro Bay on Sunday morning.

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 into the weekend coffee share hosted by Natalie.

• Ju Lyn of Touring My Backyard shares food and sculpture at the end of September in her The Changing Season post.
• Mr Tootlepedal of Tootlepedal’s Blog certainly brightened up my Monday morning with poppies, butterflies and birds.
• Catch up with the latest newsletter Nigella Eats Everything over on Substack
• Deb has been out exploring the countryside.
• Trent works too long but at least gets out for a walk and into the kayak and of course makes us a good cup of coffee.
• Anne at Something Over Tea reflects on the expression as the crow flies.
• Natalie shares her highlights from September.
• There is a lot of lovely September food over at Brookford Kitchen Diaries 
• Laurie over at Notes from the Hinterland gets her power back and enjoys a list of September pleasures.
• Women Living Well After 50 proposes an optimistic October.
• There are changes for Jo over at And Anyways as she wraps up September.
• And Donna at Retirement Reflections shares her gratitude.
• …and all the other lovely bloggers out there. Sorry if I have missed anyone…..

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