On Warm Milk And Bedtime

There is a quiet hour at the end of the day when the house settles, the clock ticks slower, and a little warm milk makes everything right. We believe in this hour. We have built a whole dairy around it.

The best bedtime milk is warmed gently, just until it steams, never boiled. Pour it into a wide saucer with a thin blue rim and set it on the kitchen floor beside the radiator. Then sit, and say nothing, and listen to a cat lap.

It is a small, steady sound, like rain in a far off garden. It is, I think, the sound of all being well. It is the best thing we sell, and we cannot bottle it.