The simple pleasures in life

[ChiefPlanner]

Really good fresh bread , quality butter and good strong cheddar , home made chutney.

A "proper" NYC diner breakfast with lashings of extra coffee.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

• That one perfect evening near the summer solstice where you're in an excellent beer garden with good friends and it doesn't start getting even remotely dark until 11pm.

Definitely a good one!

 

[Ashley Hill]

The smell of new asphalt during road resurfacing. Bliss

That smell always takes me back to the start of my career shunting tar tanks on local trip work.
I also like the smell of a greenhouse full of tomato plants.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

A great pint of real ale in a country pub at the end of a long walk

 

[johnnychips]

Yellow wagtails and dippers around and in rivers.

 

[Trackman]

A great pint of real ale in a country pub at the end of a long walk

I like finding great mystery pubs and after forgetting where it was!

Think we've met before ..... the name and avatar spooked me out!, took me back to about 25 years ago.

 

[SteveM70]

A great pint of real ale in a country pub at the end of a long walk

Yes! Especially in winter when you come down off the hills just as it’s starting to get dark and the pub has a real fire, as well as real ale

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Yes! Especially in winter when you come down off the hills just as it’s starting to get dark and the pub has a real fire, as well as real ale

Heaven

 

[E27007]

The warm whiff of a "new baby", talcum powder and citrus , truly wonderful!

 

[Blindtraveler]

Hot freshly brewed rich Italian coffee and chilled orange juice of a morning. The pleasure of staying in a half, decent hotel and knowing that pretty much most things you want are available just by asking
The great feeling you have after spending time with good friends

 

[The exile]

Sitting alone on a quiet remote railway station platform waiting for my train.

slightly tempered by the “how am I going to get home if it doesn’t turn up”! Going back a bit - the moment at that country station in a warm sunny evening when you hear the bell code from the box that means your train’s coming!

Walking across the fields as the light’s just starting to fade on a crisp bright winters afternoon when all you can hear is the crows / rooks checking away to each other.

 

[Sun Chariot]

The sight (and an asphalt-y smell) of a newly surfaced road. Billiard-smooth. Glowing fresh lining. And not even a hint of the potholes to come.

Mind you, down on the south coast, finding any road in that condition, is as rare as finding a white dog-poo.

 

[The exile]

The sight (and an asphalt-y smell) of a newly surfaced road. Billiard-smooth. Glowing fresh lining. And not even a hint of the potholes to come.

Mind you, down on the south coast, finding any road in that condition, is as rare as finding a white dog-poo.

Yes - round here the best you’re likely to get is a couple of hundred yards surrounded by road surface that is only mildly less bad than the bit they’ve worked on - and without a sealed join between the two, so guess what, the rain and frost gets straight back in.

 

[birchesgreen]

The sight (and an asphalt-y smell) of a newly surfaced road. Billiard-smooth. Glowing fresh lining. And not even a hint of the potholes to come.

Ahh the smell of bitumen...

Another simple pleasure came a few years ago when i met someone who thought "asphalt" was bowel trouble.

 

[DarloRich]

a nice toasted crumpet. You cant beat a cracking bit of crumpet.

 

[Sun Chariot]

a nice toasted crumpet. You cant beat a cracking bit of crumpet.

Spread?

 

[GRALISTAIR]

a nice toasted crumpet. You cant beat a cracking bit of crumpet.

Nice and heavily buttered too!

 

[DarloRich]

Spread?

Nice and heavily buttered too!

always butter.

 

[Sun Chariot]

always butter.

Last month I discovered the sumptuous pleasure of having Somerset unsalted butter on freshly baked crumpets. The world was suddenly a better place.

 

[DarloRich]

Last month I discovered the sumptuous pleasure of having Somerset unsalted butter on freshly baked crumpets. The world was suddenly a better place.

close thread - life can become no better

 

[3141]

Remembering at about 6pm on Sunday that you’ve got Monday off!

Once you’ve made the first effort, being out and about really early on a summer’s morning.

And the converse; lying in bed listening to the wind and rain outside and realising you haven’t got to go out today!

That reminds me of a song my Dad used to sing. It probably came from music halls in about 1920:-

Oh, it's nice to get up in the morning when the sun begins to shine;
Four, five and six o'clock in the good old summer time.
But when the snow is snowing and it's murky overhead,
Then it's nice to get up in the morning but it's nicer to stay in bed.

 

[E27007]

The Settle and Carlisle line and it is hot Summer afternoon, basking by the lineside, the aroma of creosote from wood sleppers and the occasional creak from the rails

 

[dangie]

…. the aroma of creosote from wood sleppers….

Using this as an example, it’s interesting that many of life’s simple pleasures originate from smell’s and aroma’s, especially when considering that humans when compared to many animals have an extremely poor sense of smell.

 

[Sun Chariot]

The Settle and Carlisle line and it is hot Summer afternoon, basking by the lineside

When I did that (Ais Gill more than 30 years ago, for photos of 60-hauled coal), I was bitten dozens of times by swarms of large black horseflies. Not pleasant at all...

 

[BrandanM]

When the train stops and the coach doors are right in front of where you're standing on the platform.

When your advance service is cancelled and the next train is the one that you really wanted originally, but dismissed at the time of booking because it was way more expensive. And it's half empty.

When you buy fried chicken and get home to find the takeaway has chucked in a couple of spicy potatoes or a few chips for free.

When you stop the petrol pump on a nice round cash figure at the first attempt.

 

[route101]

The first cold frosty night of the season.
Up before it gets busy on a summers morning with an amazing sunrise.
Waking up knowing you are going on a trip to a new place, riding new types of aircraft or rolling stock etc.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Walking back on an early autumn or winter evening , and smelling domestic coal fires - even in suburban St Albans , but declining of recent years with the increasing use of wood-burners .......

 

[alex397]

Anytime I’m alone with no humans about, watching nature. One of the few things left I truly enjoy.

 

[Purple Train]

When someone asks for something, like a pen, or a charging cable, that you keep in your pocket, rather than you having to go and find one.

 

[SteveM70]

When someone asks for something like a pen, or a charging cable, that you keep in your pocket, rather than you having to go and find one.

And the simple irritations in life when they don’t return it without being pestered