The Poetry of Everyday

There are times when I am overcome by the loveliness of the everyday objects that surround my little rituals. The process of making cocoa - so pleasurable, and not nearly just because the result is something warm and chocolatey.

There is the whole beauty of warming milk in a little pot on the white stove. There is the mug it goes into - my very favorite, a large, handmade purple one. There are the small, creamy bubbles that appear on the surface.

And then there is the whole blue-and-orange theme that appears in my kitchen in mid-winter when the fruits all run to clementines and oranges. Someone at the Darling Clementine factory is very astute in their packaging design, knowing how beautiful those little tangerines look against that particular, almost-lapis shade of blue. And the lettering is just perfect. I have been caving into my desire for those pretty little crates all winter, even though in previous years I usually chose the cheaper brands of them.

If it sounds like I am in a better, even dreamy mood, well, that is because I had a better, even dreamy day, following on the heels of a wonderful surprise last night. I am going to keep the details to myself for once. I think I need to hug it around my arms the way one does those delicious secrets when one is young.

But please enjoy these photographs of some of my favorite images from daily life. I always look at these things and think that I want to show them to you, and I hardly ever seem to want to draw the camera out and go through the motions of capturing and loading and sizing and so on. Tonight, though, the Nikon just jumped out of its shell and took them for me. Or so it seemed. (Okay, not really, but doesn't it sound more poetic that way?)