I got up this morning and thought…hmmm…the days are getting shorter, autumn can’t be far away. But it is still summer, the sun is still shining and shorts can still be worn. There hasn’t been a lot of rain, and not much is forecast from what I can see, meaning that the grass is looking very dry, as you can see from the patch below I walk past going to work (I mean, it could be anywhere, just trust me on the location!).
It was a short working week for me – just Thursday and Friday – which was in itself a small pleasure. Waitangi Day past with nothing thrown at the politicians (this has happened before), just talking and singing, and now we wait to see what happens next. Anyway…back to the small pleasures.
Eating out
We actually ate out twice this week – at Floridita’s on Tuesday and Damascus on Saturday, and even visited the same bar twice. The bar, Puffin Wine Bar on Ghuznee Street, is one of our favourite places to go if we are in town and looking for a pre dinner drink.They have a great selections of wines, cocktails and beers, as well as having a great atmosphere. Below are pictures from Tuesday, our visit on Saturday evening was with friends after dinner.
Tuesday’s food was excellent. We started with chicken liver parfait crostini with plum, which were very tasty. Karl had the Greenstone Creek eye fillet with Pommes Anna and I had the Wapiti venison ragu on bucatini, with a good green salad on the side. Both dishes got high marks and were delicious.
On Saturday we went out with friends visiting Wellington, and headed over to Damascus, a Syrian restaurant on Tory Street. We were so busy talking I forgot to take pictures of what we had other than two of the mezzah. Anyway, we had a delicious hummus, mutabel (a charred aubergine or eggplant dip) and ful blaben (broad beans, smashed olive, spring onion, mint, tahini) followed by kafta, patata harra (potatoes with a spicy sauce) and the special dish off menu based on wagyu beef. This is the third time we have eaten there and were not disappointed.
This week’s sandwiches
On Wednesday, I popped into Shelley Bay Baker on Leeds Street and enjoyed a prosciutto, mozzarella and salad sandwich, and had another of those egg salad sandwiches from Dough Bakery at my desk on Friday – delicious!
In the shopping basket
We didn’t get a Wonky Box delivery this week, but stocked up with sweetcorn, an aubergine, a couple of lemons and grapefruit, broccolini and this beautiful radicchio (not sure what I will do with that yet), a bright yellow capsicum, plums, nectarines, raspberries (not pictured) a block of parmesan and of course, pasta.
Simple things
- Meeting friends we hadn’t seen for ages for drinks and dinner.
- Spending Sunday afternoon reading.
- Trying out new things at Pilates on Saturday – and feeling it on Sunday!
- Enjoying so much good food this week.
- Smelling the mint and basil plants in the kitchen.
- Watching the sun on this candle holder.
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 this week’s coffee share hosted by Natalie.
- Green Dreams spots a seedling.
- Meanwhile Natalie shares the first of her postcards from Spain.
- Laurie over at Notes from the Hinterland returns to the lake.
- Boondock Ramblings shares her Sunday bookends.
- Mr Tootlepedal welcomes visitors – avian and human – over at Tootlepedal’s Blog.
- Something Over Tea shares an interesting mix.
- Deb’s World shares some dancing jellyfish.
- Lisa over at Southern Patches shares a Sunday coffee.
- Ju Lyn makes pancakes – well, it is Shrove Tuesday tomorrow!
- There is a podcast featuring Deb of Deb’s World to listen to over at Women Living Well After 50.
- .…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 lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com
Thistles and Kiwis 
I am curious … when you take pictures of food at a restaurant, does your hubby protest? The food looks delicious.
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No not at all – sometimes he even asks if I want to take a picture!
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Wow, your hubby has more patience than me!
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It was my husband’s turn to lead a walk in what has been a fairly wet weekend. He was extremely pleased to get everybody there and back and stay dry.
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We noticed our days lengthening and hope that means spring is around the corner (though they are predicting a big snowstorm tonight into tomorrow so we’ll see!). Your food always looks so good! I’m hoping to get out to lunch to with my mom this afternoon and I’m thinking I’m going to get a sandwich.
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There is something about the move from summer to autumn or winter to spring that always makes us sit up and notice. Hope you find a good sandwich!
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What a week of delicious food! And two ears of corn is definitely better than one. Thanks for the mention.
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Thanks Laurie and yes had, in fact, four ears of corn in total this week!
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Woo-hoo!
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I can always tell when Summer is changing. Even though it is still quite warm you can feel just the slightest shift. I am feeling it now heading into spring for us. All the food looks and sounds delicious. What are the large doughy tortilla looking things? Is that to spread something on? Have a wonderful week.
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Those are pitta breads. We had them with the hummus, the aubergine dip and the bean dish.
I think the darker mornings really herald autumn is round the corner,
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I thought those were pitta bread. Just look really large. Any yummy.
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I think the photo makes them look larger than they were!
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Your final photograph is lovely to look at!
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Thank you! It just caught my eye.
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They look like pretty wonderful pleasures!
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Your food boxes (Wonky or not), always make me want to dive right in!
Opposite to you, I woke up this morning just before 7 am, it will still pitch dark, and I thought, OMG winter is never leaving! :D
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Winter too shall pass :-)
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The food looks scrumptious, especially the hummus. I may have to try and make some but it will be nothing like that.
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I confess to never having made hummus but have eaten a lot of it!
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I liked that final picture a lot. The egg salad looks delicious.
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I was lucky just to catch the light.
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Goodness! It is Shrove Tuesday, isn’t it? and Lent does begin tomorrow. It will be interesting to have a confluence of Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday.
Enjoy the remainder of the summer weather! The dry weather you have is the exact opposite of the daily rain we’ve been experiencing in Singapore.
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Yes it is – just seems like yesterday it was 1st January! We don’t do anything for St Valentine’s Day – all went horrible commercial and isn’t a thing in Scandinavia anyway (probably is now – just like Halloween which ‘came in’ after I moved there 20 years ago).
Looking out of the window and the sun is shining again. How long will it last?
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Every sunny and rainy day is a bit of a surprise for us these days – in short, the weather just seems to do whatever it feels like despite the weather reports 🥴
Halloween has also crept into Singapore. I certainly don’t recall either of these commemorations when I was growing up
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Halloween was a very small thing when I was a child – my mother who was English didn’t know it as it was just a thing in Scotland and Ireland back in the day. How times have changed!
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Indeed. I think the first time Halloween happened for me was when I was in Texas for college! But Halloween became one of the my kiddies’ favourite things to commemorate because they were Girl Scouts with an American troop in Singapore.
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The Syrian food looks delicious!
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It was!
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Seeing friends we haven’t seen in a long time is indeed one of the finest pleasures in life. Isn’t it fun how some friends are just as close as last time we saw them, even if it was years ago? How wonderful you enjoyed your short week with so many small pleasures.
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I agree re old friends. You just pick up the conversation where you left off.
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All the food and produce look so good. I love your week’s simple pleasures. I’ve noticed longer daylight hours where I live and even spotted hellebore flowers. Thank you for the mention and for your weekend coffee share.
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Thanks Natalie! Lovely that you can see signs of spring.
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Lovely to catch up via your posts Barbara! My small pleasure is that I’ve booked our trip to New Caledonia which your post of a while ago gave me the idea – thanks again. It’s been 46 years since my school trip that went wrong happened so it’s about time I returned for a second look. We’re having a week away in mid June and I’m looking forward to it!
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Oh great news! I do hope you have a lovely trip. Mid June is of course ‘off season’ so it should be nice and quiet too. I will be following your trip with interest.
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