This week’s small pleasures: episode 12

It’s Monday evening, and time to reflect on small pleasures from the week before.  It was a relatively quiet week, with the usual Pilates classes, walks through the Botanic Gardens to work, and dinner at the pub of a pie and a pint on Thursday.  Thanks again to Mani at A New Life Wandering for the idea.

1  The sky one morning walking to work

The weather has been…shall we say mixed this week.  We’ve had a thunder storm, torrential rain, sunshine and varying temperatures.  It is late autumn after all.  Anyway, this was the sky one morning last week.

2  Autumn vegetables – again

Cavolo negro and baby purple carrots

3  New teas

On Friday I purchased some new tea from T leaf T, one was a green tea with sakura rose (pictured in the cup and spoon below) and the other a créme brûlée flavoured black tea.  I also got given a sample of the utterly divine (and definitely my next purchase), ginger quince flavoured green tea, which was both perfumed and fruity.  I had been looking for a rose scented tea after hearing Jess Lively talk about one she had found, and the sakura rose did not disappoint.  It has just the right amount of rose flavour to savour the blossom.

 

Tasting sakura rose flavoured green tea

4  Dumplings

We went to a dumpling party on Saturday night, where our hosts provided dumpling wrappers (and cooked) and the guests supplied fillings.  It was great fun, making up the dumplings and chatting away, with a glass in hand.  My two favourites of the evening were a three mushroom and a ‘Mexican chicken’ filling that just burst with flavour.

5  Sunday

I can’t believe a second lazy, doing nothing Sunday in a row!  The weather was good too, so there was really no excuse, but we know the weeks ahead are going to be super busy, so actually it was nice to chill out on the sofa with the cat.

Charlie with his fur blanket

6  Cold weather food

I’m sure you know what I mean – the stews, soups and warming dishes that we long for and crave on cold days and evenings.  On Sunday I made a lentil and sausage hotpot with Toulouse sausages, puy lentils, carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms, which was perfect for this time of the year.

Why not check out other small pleasures at:

Middle Europe – a blog about daily life and travels, based in Berlin

The Hawaii based Holoholo Girls