Shiny, shiny, shadow

Everyday spring bling

April in the UK. This year, the start of the month has been filled with warmth, bulbs in bloom, and life-affirming light. It’s that sort of sunshine that beckons me outside, and – if I don’t accept the invitation immediately – will show me (without judgment) the dusty windows in need of a spring clean (and will give me the energy and inclination to get the cloth and bucket out).

It’s also the kind of light that makes inanimate objects want to join in with this life thing. Using the magic of reflection, refraction, silhouette–tion, everyday items dive into a new realm of being.

The spring spotlight is usually reserved for new shoots and leaping lambs, but … may I welcome onto the stage …

1. My kettle

Photograph of the kettle in my kitchen, a shiny red Kenwood model, reflecting its logo as KENMOOD (backwards N, upside-down W) on the wood-effect countertop.

This is how I was welcomed to my coffee-making ritual this morning. What a mood. A Kenmood. Happy, confident, ready for action. It’s a fairly new kettle too, and I felt a pang of affection at how optimistic it was being. Little does it know it’s living here in Hampshire where the water is kettle-cracking hard. As Ken happily boiled away, I made a promise to stick to a more attentive descaling regime.

2. Streets paved with gold (from 3 April 2023)

Here’s a sight I now look out for at this time of year: the splashes of gold on Winchester High Street, made by the sign from/for THE REPUBLIC OF PIZZAS AND DESSERTS. Although I’m totally onboard with the concept (I’d move to that republic for sure), I've never been inside this particular establishment, but I like walking past. It seems to be a venue of choice for young people on first dates: looking for love under the harshest striplights while eating a Kinder Bueno Pizza.

3. This charity-shop glass (from 8 April 2020)

I got these glasses a decade or so ago in a charity shop. Originally a set of four (or maybe even six), only two remain. And – as if they know they are at any moment in danger of being the ‘one piece too many’ in my expertly stacked dishrack sculptures – they make the most of life right now by bringing their whole forget-me-not selves to the alfresco party.

A blue-and-green forget-me-not patterned water glass, casting a shadow of its floral shapes onto a piece of white paper on the garden table.

Right, better go wash those windows, eh?

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