This week’s small pleasures #358

Today, Monday, is the Labour Day holiday here in New Zealand, and what is more, it has been a gloriously warm and sunny day. This has made up for a big change to plans to my working week, when instead of travelling, I ended up spending three days in Teams meetings from home. I can tell you this was not fun, but at least the sun shone on two of the days, and the other day was so wet and windy I was glad not to have to go out. Anyway, the week has been full of small pleasures despite ending up with a stiff neck by Thursday afternoon!

Lunches

With not getting to travel, and having to have lunch at home, I made a sandwich with prosciutto and other good things on Tuesday, and enjoyed leftovers of a salad of black lentils, roasted vegetables and feta on Wednesday. I was in the office on Friday, and picked up this excellent egg sandwich on rye bread from Dough Bakery.

Food shopping

In our Wonky Box delivery this week were a couple of red onions, a leek, potatoes, more avocados, a cucumber, a lovely bunch of baby carrots and asparagus (the last of which we had on Saturday with tarakihi, spinach and new potatoes). There was also this glorious lettuce that will keep us in salads all week. To supplement the box, we also picked up more grapefruit, a small fennel bulb, passion fruit, tomatoes, two courgettes which aren’t really in season yet but I needed for a recipe and this glorious purple asparagus (which we ate on Sunday). There was also feta, chicken, lamb mince and some blue goat’s cheese for a treat.

Eating out

On Thursday evening to make up for being stuck indoors for days, we headed up the road to Daisy’s for dinner. We started with waffle cut potato crisps with onion dip and pig head and beef tongue croquettes with piccalilli mayonnaise, both of which were excellent. Karl had the steak as you can probably guess, and I had a freekah based chicken salad with all sorts of good things in it such as feta, peanuts and pickles.

Labour Day Holiday

With the weather being so good today, we drove up the coast to Paraparaumu for a walk on the beach followed by lunch. Below you can see us both, with Kapiti Island behind me. It was great to have the cobwebs blown away, and feel that summer can’t be long away. The featured image at the top of the post was also taken there.

We stopped off for lunch at Marine Parade Eatery, both of us enjoying toasted sandwiches (I had a BLT and Karl ham and cheese) and sharing a bowl of potato wedges. It was then home for podcasts, cooking and relaxing.

Simple things

• Enjoying some spring sunshine.
• Getting our new sideboard (which is actually called an ‘entertainment unit’ to stand our TV on). The house is beginning to come together.
• Buying new shoes for warmer days.
• Seeing that New Zealand and South Africa are in the final of the Rugby World Cup – should be a good game!
• Spending time cooking.
• Walking on the beach

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 the wonderful Natalie.

• .Mr Tootlepedal of Tootlepedal’s Blog has a pleasant surprise or two.
• Trent was in Cape Cod and of course makes us a good cup of coffee.
• Anne at Something Over Tea shares some pictures of fine fungi.
• Laurie over at Notes from the Hinterland shares some wonderful pictures of scarecrows.
• Deb, Donna, Jo and Sue host a great monthly link up on books. Check out their posts for October.
• Nigella Eats Everything makes a gorgeous sounding apple and sultana cake.
• .…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