If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea…

Thistles and Kiwis

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea…I would offer you a homemade Anzac biscuit with Monk’s Blend tea from tLeafT. You say that sounds good! (I use the Edmonds recipe).

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea…I would tell you that while neither of the new things I did this month required courage (my word of the year), they were certainly fun and different to my usual. The escape room was a lot of fun and I was surprised how much I enjoyed the netball.

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea…I would ask you if you noticed the mushrooms growing near the front door. You said you had and don’t they look magnificant?

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea…we would talk about the wonderful news that the four wāhine who make up Mataaho Collective won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, awarded to the Best Participant in the International Exhibition. We say this is great for New Zealand art and puts the country out in the international arena.

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea you ask when your French classes start again and I say Tuesday. I say I love the cat on the reception desk, and you say oh you mean le chat noire and I say oh yes!

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea…we would talk about food, about the produce of the season, cooking plans and what we have eaten recently. I tell you about our dinner on Tuesday at Noble Rot which you say sounds good. I say I made a cauliflower soup on Wednesday with cheese and ham toasties which you say sounds just the thing for an autumnal evening.

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea…we would talk about the grey and windy weather on Anzac Day. You say yes it wasn’t the best, but somehow the gloomy skies made the day more poignant, and you agree.

If we were having coffee…or even a cup of tea I would of course ask you to stay for dinner. There are some good sausages cooking with puy lentils in the oven, and you say oh that does sound good. I say I have done potatoes and kale to have with it, and we open a bottle of wine and carry on our conversation into the evening.

Apologies for no picture of the sausage dish – there is no natural light in the evenings and sausages are hard to take pictures of too!

Also to be posted in the What’s Been on Your Calendar linkup, hosted by:

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

Published by Thistles and Kiwis

29 Comments

  1. Sausages and lentils are one of the yummiest autumn dishes, but completely impossible to take a photo of at night under artificial lighting.

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  2. Hi, Barbara – Your opening photo is absolutely stunning. It definitely looks like it was taken by a full-time professional food photographer.

    Taking part in an Escape Room Challenge and Netball would both take extreme courage for me. I believe you are living your WOTY brilliantly!

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  3. Hi Barbara thank you for the coffee and I enjoyed catching up with what you’ve been doing. I’m not sure I could do the Escape Room so well done! I haven’t played netball for years but I have been trying to practice my Italian. My husband who was born in Italy speaks fluent Italian but would like to learn French. Thanks for joining and supporting us at #WBOYC? Have a lovely month. x

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  7. I bake Anzac biscuits every year. Many years ago I gave a short talk to our Military History Society on the relationship between food and military history – and handed out Anzac biscuits afterwards. They were much appreciated 🙂

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  8. I always enjoy these monthly posts Barbara, you have a delightful way of summing things up. Like Donna, I love that header image! Thanks for joining us x

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  9. I always struggle when it starts getting darker earlier too and I lose that natural light for taking photos. It sounds like you have had a wonderful month.

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