We are living in very strange times. 2020 is not turning out how any of us thought it would. We are all, mostly, staying at home, working from home, existing from home. I am finding the adjustment to being in my home 24/7 very easy. I believe I am in a minority with this feeling. I have always been the kind of person that needs to gear herself up to go and socialise. Consequently I don’t have a huge circle of friends and I rarely go out just for the sake of it socially. I go out to hear live music, sometimes to eat, to go to work, to visit family, to exercise.
The current state of the world means I can’t do any of those things. But I’m adjusting. I watch live streams of music from my favourite bands from the comfort of my living room. And you know what – no-one is talking over the band! I watch cookery shows and cook from scratch – I’ve perfected tarka daal. I was able to work from home although I’m currently on furlough leave (that’s the hardest thing to adjust to). I text family and friends or hang out on video chats for my British Sign Language course. I do yoga in my room. I have overcome the limitations put upon me by this world event and my own health issues. I am adjusting.
What I am missing is photography. So I went out into the garden (the only place I’m allowed to go right now as I’m on this pesky vulnerable person list) and pushed myself out of my comfort zone using a 50mm fixed lens. I don’t like it. I never have. I find it restricting and I don’t fully understand how it reacts to light and stuff so I rarely use it. I had a little bit of success with it today, in full manual mode and I do like how light and easy it is to hold. I just get frustrated having to keep moving around with it. I’m too reliant on my zoom lens’ and that’s something I need to work on.
My Instagram account has become limited to my garden. This isn’t a bad thing but it means there will be a very detailed account of how my garden grew this year. Normally I take pictures on my morning commute to Liverpool City Centre. My commute is now about 30 feet to the end of my garden so I’m expecting to have to get very creative with those pictures.
I planted some out of date seed packets – sunflowers, chillis, sweet peas. I left them pinned to my noticeboard and they stayed there. I never have enough time, the weather is never right, I forgot to buy compost. A million reasons to not plant them. This time out we’ve been given means I have no excuses. So I planted them all. Wow, sunflowers grow fast!!
Hopefully more time to write will see me update my blog more than once every 3 years. Hopefully. Depends on that To Be Read pile of books I can see out of the corner of my eye.
Anfield Girl…. 