This week’s small pleasures #142

This week we actually have a round up of the week’s small pleasures on a Monday. Not only that, but this week I am not travelling anywhere, nor have any social engagements other than dinner with my dear husband on his birthday. A most welcome quiet week!

I was up in Hamilton on Thursday and Friday for work, and was lucky to have dinner at Gothenburg, one of my favourite places. The cured Ora King salmon with dill crème fraiche, pickled cucumber was gorgeous, as was the Skagen röra, (a Swedish classic mix of prawn, dill, lemon and mayo) and the crispy fried chicken with sriracha mayo and lime. We had some edamame beans on the side, and for dessert I had a lovely apple and brandy crème brûlée with cinnamon shortbread, and my companion a rhubarb tart with vanilla custard. All quite lovely.

Still on food, I make no apologies for another picture of the toast with ricotta and sticky jam at Squirrel on Blair Street. It looks and tastes wonderful, and makes for a great Saturday morning breakfast treat before Pilates.

A small pleasure on a Saturday morning

Of course it is winter here, so our shopping basket is full of goodness in the shape of Brussels sprouts (so tasty when roasted), cavolo nero, kohlrabi, carrots, apples and the red things at the bottom left on the tray are yams, also good roasted. In the middle is some cultured butter with miso from Bellefield Butter Co, which tasted really good and is supposed to be excellent with fish. There were mushrooms and spinach too for a veggie lasagna, and of course our usual Sunday breakfast bread.

Some of this week’s food shopping

Moving from food….the weather. It has been a bit of a one day sunshine, one day rain kind of pattern, with Sunday being a lovely, sunny day, perfect for a walk in the Botanic Gardens. Below you can see the beautiful yellow leaves on the gingko (it will soon be without any leaves), and in the featured image above, the first of the magnolia blooms. You could see the daffodils under the gingko beginning to poke their heads above the soil as usual too.

The gingko in winter

Some of the mascari I planted early are beginning to add a touch of blue to the mini container garden we have. Such a pleasure to see things growing.

Early mascari or grape hyacinths

And of course…we came back from holiday and collected Charlie from the cattery. Here he is on Sunday afternoon, making the most of the sun.

Fast asleep, and snoring

And that’s it for this week. What were your small pleasures of the past week?

Thanks to Mani over at A New Life Wandering for the original idea.

You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram@thistleandkiwis.  As for Twitter….am totally inactive these days.  If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com