This week’s small pleasures #473

Thistles and Kiwis

As I type this, it is a glorious sunny summer day. We have been blessed with (mostly) good weather so far in 2026 – unlike other parts of the country. No complaints from us after last year’s non-summer.

I popped into town this morning on the hunt for a new pair of shoes. Not only did the shop have my size in the colour and style I wanted, they were also on sale and comfy. Anyway, here is the view from the bus stop as I was waiting for one home after my successful purchase.

Welcoming the new year

We ended 2025 with dinner at Floriditas, with their special New Year’s Eve menu. We were welcomed with a glass of Nautilus Estate Marlborough Cuvee Sparkling, followed by two snacks – house made garlic and rosemary foccacia with cultured butter and oysters with a Bloody Mary sorbet. Luckily for me, Karl does not eat oysters so I got them both. 

The first course that followed was a sashimi salad with tomato ponzu, daikon, cos and a wasabi dressing. This was excellent and a great start to the meal proper. The second course was a prawn linguine with a prawn bisque, shaved fennel and basil. I was really looking forward to this and was so disappointed. It didn’t taste that fantastic, and in fact Karl didn’t eat half of it.

However, things got back on track with the newt course with duck breast served with charred raddichio, duck jus and roasted cherries. The sides were also excellent: roasted purple kumara, with chilli and rosemary honey, sprinkled with pumpkin seeds and asparagus with parsley hollandaise. There was a choice of dessert but we both went for the Valrhona dark chocolate mousse, spiced orange caramel and hazelnut which was as good as it sounds. We drank a glass of Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc and Luna Estate Pinot Noir.

In the basket

What with having a pretty well stocked fridge, there wasn’t a huge amount to pick up this week: some baby carrots, courgettes in green and yellow, cucumbers, nectarines and bright capsicum. There was pasta, lamb mince, chicken, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries as well.

Out and about

On New Year’s Day, we decided to go to the cinema rather than just lying about as we usually do. We went to see the French film My Brother’s Band. As the blurb says, “conductor Thibaut discovers he has leukaemia and needs a bone marrow donor. Learning of his adoption, he finds an older brother who works in a factory. Their reunion leads to a musical journey as the town faces a factory closure”. Well, there is a lot more to it than that, but I highly recommend this lovely if slightly sentimental film.

On Sunday, we drove round to Eastbourne for lunch at one of our favourite places Tartines, where we also met this cute dog. It was lovely to sit in the sun and enjoy a croque monsieur with salad for me and chips (or fries – he didn’t have crisps) for Karl. We also had lunch at our local library cafe one day, with the always good cheese, ham and tomato toastie.

A local walk

With the good weather, and being at home, I’ve taken a couple of walks to and round a local park. There are always ducks around to say hello to, sometimes more willing to be photographed than others. I also spotted this lichen on a tree trunk (a tribute to Mr Tootlepedal)

I stopped to look at the little stream that flows through the park, watching the water run. Today I think I spotted a red poll flying past as well as daisies growing behind the cricket nets.

Simple things

  • Enjoying summer.
  • Making Julius Roberts courgette pasta – always excellent for dinner at this time of year.
  • Feeling the grass beneath bare feet.
  • Lying on the sofa, reading.
  • Starting a new year.
  • Spotting a Scottish flag on my walk this afternoon – not sure why!

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. 

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

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

31 Comments

  4. Roasted purple NZ kumera is one of the foods I grew up with, and which I miss. Every time I visit NZ I seek out roasted red kumera – along with NZ green lipped mussels and, in season, fruit picked from the tree/vine and eaten immediately – family in Hawkes Bay had an orchard.

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  8. What a beautiful and delicious start of the new year! You seem to be very good at finding great restaurants. I hope the new shoes keep being comfortable for a long time to come.

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  11. All the dishes look fantastic, but it’s too bad about the prawns. Good thing the rest of the meal was enjoyable. The French film sounds wonderful. I actually worked with bone marrow transplant patients right after university. It was still experimental in those days. Thanks, as always, for tagging my post!

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  12. Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll try to find My Brother’s Band. You have eaten lots of delicious food, and sometimes I go on a survey of Seafood Marinara to find the best one out there, some chefs don’t do seafood or prawn linguini well. The roasted kumara with chilli and rosemary honey caught my attention, yum. Happy New Year to you, love hearing about your part of the world, it looks beautiful. Cheers, Pauline

    https://happyretireeskitchen.blogspot.com

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    1. The film was very good. I think the problem with the linguine was the bisque – it was too strong a flavour if that makes sense. The kumara though was good. Happy New Year Pauline!

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  13. The only thing better than shoes in the right size and colour, is those same shoes on sale!!! Very exciting.

    As always, a splendid gallery of yummies.

    I must say again how much I admire your vegetable still lifes. Can’t seem to get that natural feel to the arrangement that you do so well.

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