! A Cream Tea To Live For

It’s the flash of bright sunlight reflected off a passing car that stops me in my tracks – picking out the teatime plate which -since I’m one of those who motivate themselves by the ‘reward’ system – twenty minutes of gardening have made all the sweeter: a slice of soda bread, warm from baking just two hours ago; spread with crumbly-textured home-made cream cheese (got it right this time, as much by accident) , and spread on this, red strawberry jam; a slight mound here and there implying a whole fruit promising itself in this superior ‘preserve’.. the sunlight shining on its gleaming surface it’s like those foodie photographs (and yes, I know, they have to use shaving foam because of those hot studio lights…): those photographs in the lifestyle section which we linger over, but have already decided long ago, yes, that’s for me; or, that’ll never be for me… today, it seems, its perfection is, for me: for this, heaven and earth were made; if the gods are to be sought, they are only to be sought in the present moment. Today, they do not fail. Nor I. Nor I.