This week’s small pleasures #445

Thistles and Kiwis

Mānawa maiea te putanga o Matariki.
Mānawa maiea te ariki o te rangi.
Mānawa maiea te Mātahi o te tau.

Celebrate the rising of Matariki.
Celebrate the rising of the lord of the sky.
Celebrate the rising of the New Year.

This Friday, New Zealand celebrated Matariki, the Māori new year. When the stars that most of you will know as the Pleiades appear in the mid-winter morning sky, the new year arrives. It is a time to remember those who have passed, celebrate the present, plan for the future, and spend time with whānau (family) and friends.

This meant a nice short working week as well, and on Wednesday, after a session at the physiotherapist, I took a slightly different route to Pilates and looked at this building I have walked past thousands of time but from a different angle. The building was completed in 1917 and has an historic association with the New Zealand Police, both as Wellington’s Central Police Station as you can see and also as the National Police Headquarters. It pays to take an alternative route once in a while. The featured image at the top of the post are buildings near the Pilates studiol

In the basket

The Wonky Box came early due to Matariki, and delivered up more parsnips, another butternut squash, carrots, a small lettuce, more broccoli and kumara, and a nice surprise of a few radishes and two courgettes. I think I may cancel next week’s delivery to allow me to clear some of the existing produce still remaining in the fridge. As much as I love roast root vegetables, I could not face any last week, but at least I found a good home for the daikon from last week.

I didn’t add much this week as there are left overs to consume (see why below), but I could not resist this rhubarb, some apples and passion fruit and a bunch of rainbow chard, along with some other bits and pieces for the store cupboard.

Matariki, a birthday and Swedish midsummer

This year, Matariki was also the same day as Karl’s birthday and the weekend of midsummer celebrations in Sweden, Latvia and other countries. With three things to celebrate, we invited friends round for a long lunch. There was a table full of food, including, of course, Janssons frestelse, smoked salmon, herring, a cucumber salad (pressgurka) meatballs, and a fantastic chocolate birthday cake, complete with candles, made by our friend. You can read more if you are interested over at this week’s substack post.

Out and about

After a ‘life admin’ thing I had to do on Wednesday, I needed a coffee, and headed to Fish Cube, a café and gallery space on Dixon Street in the city. The venture opened in February of this year, and the young woman behind it is hoping to make it a community gallery and coffee shop. It is an excellent space, and I loved these tables with spaces to put things like crayons and paper to encourage guests to be creative. I wish her well.

On Saturday, we went out for dinner to Chaat Street – Karl’s choice for his day-after-his-birthday dinner. We enjoyed dahi puri, and then the lamb dish Kashmiri kanti, and beef pepperfry, all washed down with a glass or Te Mania Riesling.

Simple things

  • Walking to and from book club on Thursday evening – hoorah! It isn’t that far, but it was great to be able to do so easily.
  • Making a new dish with chicken, peanut butter, coconut milk and veggies thanks to introvert & dog.
  • Realising that we have now had our shortest day…
  • Loving the new clothes I bought this season – the navy chords, the bright shirt, the black polo neck. A wardrobe refresh was necessary.
  • Starting and enjoying a new book.
  • Spotting these fungi in the garden

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. This week’s little fungi in the garden is in the featured image. Also shared 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.

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

44 Comments

  1. A very happy birthday to Karl! Looks as though it was a lovely celebration. Then he got to celebrate again by going out to dinner. Fits perfectly with my philosophy of celebrate early, celebrate often.

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  6. Hi, Barbara – A special celebration to remember those who have passed, celebrate the present, plan for the future, and spend time with family and friends sounds like a perfect celebration indeed!
    Thank you for the shoutout. I always greatly appreciate it. ❤

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  7. You seem to have a good garden for fungi.

    I have a friend who spends the summer in Scotland and then spends the summer in Australia. Sometimes I think that that might be a good idea, especially as our days start to get shorter again.

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  9. A very happy belated birthday to your husband. Loved the look of the ‘birthday table’ . . . ‘Jannson’s temptation’ is well-known all over northern Europe and the midsummer celebrations, especially these days, are probably the biggest festivity of the year in all of Scandinavia and the Baltics – the time of huge bonfires and dancing around them and the one night every year EVERYBODY stays up all night!

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  10. You certainly celebrated in style. I don’t ceebrate midsummer, but I recall doing so when working in Norway when we lit a bonfire and enjoyed food and drink, although it didn’t get particularly dark!

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  11. Rather interesting to open one’s computer this morning and find a whole ‘conversation’ erased 🤨! I have travelled on line for some 14 years but had not met such incivility until now. Don’t worry – you will not be bothered again.

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  19. Happy birthday to Karl! Your feast looks fantastic. I’m glad to read you’re able to walk easily now. Thank you for the mention and for your weekend coffee share.

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  23. Thank you for sharing that bit in the beginning. It’s always so fascinating to learn. how and what other countries celerate. We have a box delivery called Misfit Market and I will sometimes skip weeks.

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