Not a post title I ever saw myself writing, but as many have said these are unprecedented times (have you seen the graph showing the rise in the number of times papers have said the word unprecedented?). Myself and the other half of Stripy Tapir have just passed the four week mark of isolation, having transitioned from a long-distance relationship to living on top of one another 24/7 in our little flat. Taking joy from the strange new circumstances coronavirus has thrown us into is obviously something that involves lots of mixed feelings- but after years of waving goodbye to each other at train stations not to see each other for weeks on end, having this company is – well, it’s just really, really nice.
Anyway – it’ll come as no surprise that the thing I’m missing most during lockdown is being able to get outside. We’ve been managing to catch small snippets of spring blossoming from our government approved walks, but oh how I would love to have a garden to be able to drink it all in. The following is a little list of things that are getting me through, though, which I thought I’d share in case you too are in lockdown with no outside space.
(1) Birdsong from Titchwell- the RSPB reserve at Titchwell Marsh has put a microphone in the middle of the reedbed that you can stream into your living room. We do get a little bit of birdsong from the few trees close to our flat which I am extremely grateful for- but you’ll never get, say, a Cetti’s warbler. If I put this on, open a window, and close my eyes, I can almost pretend I’m there.
(2) Wildflower hour – I’ve never been more grateful for the small scraps of green space we have close to our flat, especially now that a couple of the larger ones we could visit at the beginning of quarantine have been locked. I’ve been trying to take the opportunity of concentrating on a small space to get my urban botanising up to scratch, and something that’s helped a lot is the twitter hashtag #wildflowerhour. Running from 8-9pm every Sunday, the hashtag is used by people across the UK to post pictures of what they’ve seen in flower that week. Loads of it comes from tiny oases of urban green space just like the ones I can go to, so I’m very likely to find a match for my iPhone photos. Keeping jealousy of people who have access to proper countryside at bay has been something I’ve been struggling with, but wildflower hour has been a way to appreciate the things I have on my doorstep.
(3) Beluga science – ah, Zooniverse, what a little gem you are. Zooniverse is a platform for citizen science projects from all over the world- you can do penguin and seabird surveys, rescue old rainfall records to feed into climate change models (I feel like Charles Darwin browsing my datasets from 1848), and up until last week you could help scientists in Manitoba look into the social structure of beluga whales. Donning a whale researcher hat and virtually disappearing off to the Arctic with a glass of wine in hand has been a welcome escape in the evenings, and has been especially sweet because it’s making a contribution to saving and understanding those species. At a time when doing the right thing is doing nothing at all, it’s been a great place to direct restless energy.
Hoping that you are all keeping safe and well. It’s going to be an interesting Easter weekend, but I’m hoping that the enormous size of our Easter eggs will help get us through.
N.B. The photos in this post are of my prayer plant, Maranta leuconeura, purchased in a panic back before everyone except key workers got sent home and I was feeling rather lonely. Isn’t she like a painting? At a time when we’ve been looking at the small things for joy that pink and dark green combo gets a solid 10/10.
Thank you for sharing your insights ciarra (soz if I misspelt your name!). Finding the every day beauty in those sweet little plants that pop up in urban areas is a joy. Good for you!