Up-Beat Memories of First Lockdown

In her Photo Challenge this week, Jude asks us to look upwards, and shoot our subject from below.

Somehow this instruction reminded me of the first period of lockdown, when staying isolated and close to home was fresh and new: when we country-dwellers had the small pleasures of watching the spring unfold.  Each day’s main event was watching the subtle changes in the nearby verges and fields, and in the trees and clouds.

With no job-plus-childcare to juggle, no worries about actually losing an income, this simple period, when the spring weather was almost unfailingly sunny and warm,  was a time of some happiness.

Since then, things have fallen apart somewhat.  Compliance, and confidence in the government’s competence and probity plummets, and nobody regards the prospect of  a long hard winter ahead with anything  better than disaffected resignation if they’re lucky, real fear if they’re not.

For one day only then, let’s look upwards – and backwards – to the  spring 0f 2020.

Sheep – always sheep round here .. near Masham …
… near Tanfield, with her lamb …
…and another sheep and lamb in Tanfield.
Spring catkins.
Spring grasses in a field near West Tanfield.
And crops, long before the recent harvest.
And cow parsley … everywhere.
Poppies sneak a prime spot on the bridge at West Tanfield.
Poppies in a nearby field in early summer.
This thrush was our constant background summer during the month of May.
Our neighbours aren’t sure if this is Basil or Brenda, the resident woodpgeons.
Crow on a roof.

2020 Photo Challenge #38

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

35 thoughts on “Up-Beat Memories of First Lockdown”

  5. Oh lovely interpretation on the challenge. It was indeed a quiet time, I only wish we’d been allowed to access the empty beaches, 20 minutes away. Once Boris opened up travel, we were restricted even more, due to the influx of visitors.

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  6. Great post with a selection of lovely images just what we need today with yet more bad news. A PM who won with a huge majority on an issue of great division unsurprisingly facilitates further divisions on an issue which requires clear, honourable leadership.

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    1. Honourable? Clear leadership? This is our Good News Clown who hadn’t banked on needing statesmanship, and the need to lead us through bad times (well, apart from the bad times due from 1.01.2021)

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  10. What a lovely sentiment and Spring does hold more joy than perhaps any other season due to the new growth and of course cute lambs. As you know we are in Spring right now and planting new herbs and flowers in pots is always a pleasure and of course enjoying everyone’s larger gardens.

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  12. It was a great idea to look back to spring. It’s the first time ever I have regularly been awake and felt the need to pinch myself to ask ‘is this really all true?’

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  14. These are lovely photos from a time that seems almost weirdly innocent now. Makes me realize that not only has the world changed, but we have all been changed perhaps more than we understand,.

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    1. I know. It was just a few months ago, and feels like another age. What’s a bit dispiriting though is how much positive talk there was then about the opportunity to change, to rely on a simpler lifestyle. Already, there seems now to be an attempt to dash back to the old ways.

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      1. That seems to be true unfortunately. I have become so reclusive I am not even sure that the outdoor walking boom (that started when the first lockdown regulations were relaxed to permit outdoor exercise) continues. (Where we walk is somewhat secluded anyway.) There is no longer a shortage of flour and yeast in the grocery shops, so I guess the home baking boom is over as many people go back to work. Also I suppose people get bored and so the simpler lifestyle thing was perhaps just a fad, sadly.

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      2. But it wasn’t just that. It was about action to enable more sustainable transport options such as cycling to be more fully developed. And instead there’s a headlong rush to get flying back to where it was (yes, I know that the airline industry employs vast numbers of people who are currently losing/have lost their jobs, but ….) It’s complicated!

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  16. I thoroughly enjoyed your post, Margaret. images so fresh and lovely and your words express exactly the feeling. I hope Spring will come sooner than we feel – I remember your walks in the neighborhood and how much I enjoyed reading of them. We both felt lucky. I dread this winter, I really do. Let’s fill the blogosphere with bright things, supporting each other. Wishing you a creative week!

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  17. Yes, we bloggers need to continue supporting one another. This winter will be l-o-n-g. We’re lucky though that we have our interest in communicating with ‘friends’ all over the world.

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