This week’s small pleasures #516

It is now 7.5 weeks before Christmas, and that also means it is nearly the end of the year too. Work is at its busiest peak right now, so the thought of some summer holiday is extremely tempting at the moment. Anyway, as I mentioned on Saturday, I was up in Auckland for work this week. The institution I was visiting had a lovely herb garden, full of all sorts of things from nettles to artichokes to borage and many other plants, as well as a visiting cat. Karl was in Seoul, and came home on Sunday afternoon – now that was a very big small pleasure!

Friday

I had a doctor’s appointment on Friday and of course was a bit early, so I took advantage of the good weather and went for a short walk up to the Dominion Observatory and enjoyed the view over the city. The gun is German from the First World War and brought back by New Zealand troops.

Saturday

I sadly no longer have Pilates on Saturday morning, so I went into town and found two bright and cheerful shirts on sale from Chili, one with a cat on it. In New Zealand, the General Election is on 7 November, and I went to vote early on Saturday after visiting the library. It was good to get that done and not leave it until the last minute. I also spotted another bee when out and about, a bright blue and yellow one, I’ll Bee There For You. The hive and silhouette represent the community who the bee protects.

Breakfast, lunch and a bit of food shopping

I decided to have breakfast in bed on Friday since I wasn’t working (having worked my usual Wednesday off) and opted for a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Actually, I don’t recommend taking something with poppy seeds to eat in bed 🙂 I also the new cafe at the re-opened City Art Gallery, and had poached eggs, bacon and a very nice chilli jam. This was on their brunch menu, but their lunch menu looks good too.

There was no Wonky Box this week, so I picked up a few things from our local supermarket – broccoli (it has been 2 weeks since I had any), capsicum, tomatoes, a bag of satsumas, two bunches of asparagus, 2 punnets of blueberries, sausages and a couple of other things.

Ballet

On Saturday, a friend and I went to see the Royal New Zealand Ballet’s end of year production, this year, The Sleeping Beauty. It was quite wonderful, beautiful to look at with fantastic costumes, and a straight telling of the story. It is my least favourite of the big classics, but I so enjoyed this production. We loved it and were so happy to see Maya Tanigato and Laurynas Vejalis dance the two lead roles. The evening was a real small pleasure.

Simple things

• Hearing that my friend Vanessa crossed the finishing line at the New York Marathon – well done!
• Having smooth flights to and from Auckland.
• Enjoying being able to dry the laundry outside.
• Watching all the bees buzzing around the lavender and pineapple sage.
• Browsing cookery books.
• Making double chocolate and sour cherry biscuits from Around the Kitchen Table by Sophie Hansen and Annie Herron which I have to say were very good.

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.

• Laurie celebrates the last birthday of the season in style.
• Jude at Cornwall in Colours shares an annual round up of her garden.
• Meanwhile Travels Through My Lens takes us to Lassen Volcanic National Park.
• The Travel Sketcher shares his week in The Pearl as Halloween approaches.
• Mr Tootlepedal shares the colours of autumn.
• And The Glasgow Gallivanter shares more of her husband’s epic French cycling tour.
• There are cosy autumn days with Maria in Sweden.
• Natalie shares her October highlights.
• And Neal shares five good things on Friday.
• Ilze reminds us what determines a person’s worth.
• Deb shares her October highlights.
• The Changing Seasons are featured over at Ju-Lyn’s blog
• And Jo hosts the cookbook club over at Brookford Kitchen Diaries.
• Anne remembers floppy disks.
• Finally….Mr Platypus is all washed up….
• ..…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 and good food. Thistles and Kiwis can be found on Facebook and Instagram @thistlesandkiwis