As I mentioned last week, I was up in Auckland last week for work, flying up on Monday and back home on Wednesday. The meetings went well, the flights on time, and as I had a flexi ticket I was able to transfer to an earlier flight and get home over an hour earlier – now that was a real small pleasure.
I’ve been enjoying the camellias by the bus stop…and also the pile of petals…though I take care not to stand on those…I do not want to fall and fracture another bone in my foot!
In the shopping basket
I didn’t bother with a Wonky Box again this week, just picking up things I wanted and needed instead. The basket contained a couple of oranges, some golden kiwi fruit, garlic, lemons, a bunch of purple sprouting broccoli, asparagus and some colourful baby carrots, as well as mushrooms, a bag of rocket, turkey mince, pork filet and some chicken and sausages from out local butcher.
Eating
I enjoyed a rather good prawn linguine when I was away, a pot of tea before Pilates on Friday and another excellent bagel, this time with herring and pickles, at Bond Street Deli. We had a Saturday treat of a mini Afghan biscuit, topped with a Jaffa instead of a walnut, and a pasta bake with sausages and tomatoes and topped with mozzarella for Sunday’s dinner with left overs for Monday.
Going out, staying in
On Sunday afternoon, a friend and I headed out to see a production of Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan by the Lower Hutt based community theatre group Kaha Theatre. It was great fun and a different way to spend an afternoon. I don’t think I appreciated that the famous quote we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars came from that play, but you learn something every day.
We’ve continued to watch Blue Lights over the VPN and also enjoyed the next episodes of Slow Horses and Task. I need a new audio book, but have dipped in and out of various podcasts such as Dish (best watched on YouTube) and The Recipe with Kenji Lopez-Alt and Deb Perelman.
Simple things
- Getting home after being away.
- Spotting a curious cat in the garden.
- Looking forward to lots of good things coming up.
- Reconnecting to an old family friend.
- Realising that the Labour Day holiday is only two weeks away.
- Enjoying the lavender 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. Also entered in the weekend coffee share hosted by Natalie.
- First up, do check out the cookbook challenge hosted each month by Brookford Kitchen Diaries. If you like cooking and want to make yourself either try something new or just share an old favourite, this is the place to go. Do join in!
- There is cat joy over at Laurie of Notes From the Hinterland
- Anne of Something Over Tea has some war thoughts and shares a poem.
- Travels Through My Lens goes to Smith Rock State Park in Oregon.
- Natalie sends us postcards from Jasper National Park.
- Min of Write of the Middle goes to the Mornington Peninsula.
- Mr Tootlepedal has a day of rest.
- The Travel Sketcher celebrates the past week in The Pearl and cooks some excellent looking food.
- And the Glasgow Gallivanter goes to Cumbria.
- Fred shares six things in his garden after the storm.
- And Ilze is now writing her blog in Latvian.
- Jude takes us to Rosemoor.
- Meet a well loved stuffed toy who lives with Ju-Lyn
- And Jo visits Duddingston in ‘ma hame toon’ of Edinburgh.
- ..…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.
Thistles and Kiwis 
It is good to know that your trip away was worthwhile, and wonderful to be able to get home an hour early! I enjoy the drops on the nasturtium leaf – a difficult photo opportunity to resist 🙂
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Getting home early was an excellent bonus. I so agree re raindrops on a nasturtium leaf – always pretty.
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Thanks for the link. I want to tell you that I have just read The Correspondent by Virginia Evans which you mentioned a couple of months ago. I enjoyed it, so thanks for that!
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Oh glad you enjoyed that book! Thanks Anabel.
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Thank you for the referred sites, too!
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No problem!
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Simple pleasures are the best! The prawn linguine looks delicious. Your photos of the nasturtium leaf and lavender are stunning. Thank you again for sharing my recent blog post!
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Yes! I was surprised at how good the prawn linguine. Thanks for stopping by!
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That food looks utterly delicious! Yes, be careful not to slip on those lovely petals. We, too, are watching Task and Slow Horses. Like them both very much. Thanks for the mention.
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Thanks! It was a surprisingly good week food-wise!
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Love the snapshots of what made your week extra special!
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Thank you!
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That is one solid looking bagel! You always eat well though. I’ve done quite a lot of eating out this past couple of weeks because we’ve had friends here. I made a bit of a wonky corned beef pie yesterday. It tasted good and I scored a few Brownie points because it’s one of Mick’s favourites xx
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Those bagels are always well filled! Corned beef pie sounds good comfort food.
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what is this strange & beautiful bloom? It is so interesting and curious.
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Just a camellia!
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I didn’t realise camellias grew from calyx like these!
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I looked at your post again – I see the camellia. But I was actually referring to your 2nd floral capture.
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It is lavender!
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Ah!!! Nice!
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We listened to an audio version of The Good Liar recently. It’s an excellent yarn. It’s also been made into a movie and is on Netflix, but I would recommend reading or listening to the book first.
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Oh will look out for that!
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It is hard to beat a nasturtium for holding raindrops on a leaf.
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You are so right!
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That bagel looks the business, and I do love a pasta bake. Thanks for the shout-out… let’s try and get more people into the cookbook thingie.
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It was a very good bagel. Yes we need to try to get more people to do the cookbook posts!
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Beautiful closeup photos of the leaf and flowers. The food looks so yummy. I’m glad you had a good week and got to arrive home earlier from a work trip. Thank you for the mention and for your weekend coffee share.
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Thank you! It was good to get home early.
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You always post pictures of the best looking food. It was national pasta day in the US today, so some of your food would have fit right into our menu! Have a great week.
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Thank you!
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My pleasure
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I love that you listed “getting home after being away” as a small pleasure! That is exactly how it should be 🙂 Thank you for sharing your positivity week after week.
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Oh thank you Maria!
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Some lovely recommendations, Barbara. Yes, be careful with those petals on the pavement, my friend. Enjoy the lavender too.
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Thank you!
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It’s always good to get home! It’s Wednesday and has been a pretty calm week so far, so for that I’m grateful!
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Yes it was good to get home. A rather wet and windy day here.
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