Afternoons Well Spent

One week of no Internet access at home has felt like an eternity! Thankfully I haven't been home much, so there wasn't time for too many withdrawal symptoms to set in. Unfortunately I've realised I've left my Poetry Thursday homework saved on my work computer, so I won't be able to post it until Monday, but I do have a meme prepared.

In the meantime then, here are some photos from the Thorndon Fair on Sunday. Hamish and I had a fantastic time wandering through the hoards on one of those (incredibly rare of late) Wellington good days.

The Thorndon Fair is held very year in a heritage suburb a few minutes' walk from the city. Although I still miss the Grey Lynn festival in Auckland, Thorndon Fair certainly does seem to have lifted its game. There were a number of stallholders this year who were selling excellent, locally made gourmet goods. We spent way too much money on good quality olive oil, rock salt, fruit wine and olives. Hamish also bought a particularly attractive vintage coffee grinder. I fell in love with an old picnic set, complete with little plastic thermoses (with cork stoppers), tin sandwich boxes, little glass bottles, and plastic handled forks and knives. Lucky I did not have the $155 cash needed to take it home with me.

This tickled our fancy - a children's playground set up in the grounds of Premier House, and mothers lounging around on the lawn in the shade watching the merry-go-round spin.

Eventually Hamish and I retreated to the Speights Alehouse for beer and cider. This photo's for Leonie - finally a Pip in a Pink Hat on this blog! The woman in the blue top standing outside the window had just bought some delicious looking antipasto. As soon as we went back out I spent $19 on a container of stuffed olives - garlic, almond, blue cheese and chilli. Every mouthful is a small heaven.

Towards the end of the day we discovered this lovely man's stall, set back from the main road. Ian is one of those rare true craftsmen. He told us he spent 40 years working in government administration, and I think it's a shame it took him so long to get around to doing what he so obviously does best. Ian will be attracting a lot of our custom over the next year or so.

We're starting with one of these spice cupboards, which will look perfect on the yellow and scarlet walls in our kitchen. After that I'm going to get him to make us a kitchen table, then a hall table, and finally a free-standing wardrobe for the bedroom.

Eventually we staggered home and feasted on the fruits of our fair-hunting. A fine way to spend a Sunday afternoon, topped off with a swim at Freyberg to cool the (extreme) sunburn. Nice!