The first green of a germinating seed; an unseasonable volunteer tomato; the bright colours of a new lining stitched into an old purse.
Each delight demanded to be shared, and a new photo project began.
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For the last couple of years, I’ve been enjoying fun little photo projects each week. First, it was assembling a small collage of geometric shapes cut from magazines, photographing the result and posting to Facebook. Then, the following year, a photo of whatever I was doing at 12.32pm each Saturday was posted to Facebook.
For this year, I looked for something a bit different and struck upon an idea when I suddenly realised I’d joined one side of a jigsaw to the other. The exuberant excitement was quite unexpected.
2020’s project was born; to recognise an abundantly gleeful moment when it happens, take a photo and, you guessed it, post to Facebook. I call it, perhaps a bit cryptically, Major delight in a minor key.
In deciding the title, I figured the humdrums of my days were very minor in the larger scheme of things, but this year turned out to be 2020; I didn’t realise just how “minor” these moments would be.
Yet, I persist with the project in spite of its apparent triviality because it’s important to recognise those moments, however small, when they burst forth against whatever degree of gloom appears as their backdrop. It’s especially important now.
However, I appear to have a very high bar for “abundantly gleeful”. We are half way through the year and there are only four photos in the series!
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After too many years of no jigsaws, something unexpected happened when I joined one side to the other. The excitement seemed out of proportion to the action. I guess I didn’t realise just how much I was missing this old habit.
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It was very spur of the moment. I filled all the small pots and planted carrot and radish seeds. Would it work? In little pots? While checking the garden after a bucket load of rain, I found them germinating against all expectations. Perhaps my attempts to expand the vegetable garden would work after all.
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This is what I want to do all day every day: Making and Creating. Taking something broken and giving it a fresh start. An accidental spill (aren’t they usually accidental!) had spoilt the lining. Plus it was a typically bland colour. I replaced it with something bright and popping, and was over the moon when it worked!
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So very, very unexpected. A tomato seedling popped up. It must have direct seeded from an overhanging plant that was long gone. And it was the wrong time of year with winter almost upon us. Nevertheless, I’ve set up a small greenhouse and they are slowly ripening.
Series notes
A pattern is emerging. The photos were clearly triggered by a surprise, but there have been other surprises during the year that weren’t classified as a major delight.
In these four, it looks like each surprise was triggered by its unique context and its relationship to a personal goal.
I wonder where (not “if”, definitely “where”) abundant glee will strike next?
Cherrie Zell 
What are your thoughts?