Deborah Harvey : The Red Dress of Poetry ...: lockdown

Showing posts with label lockdown. Show all posts

Saturday, 17 April 2021

On the Edge VI: Another year in sunrises

Sunrise is just about slipping beyond the parameters of my average day, so here's a year's worth of lockdown sunrises for the road. Except, of course, there's still not much of a road, unless you're careless of the virus and/or not that content living in your head.

It's also a whole year without the ash tree to catch the sun at equinox, that I foolishly thought of as mine, even though it stood in someone else's garden and that someone else chopped it down. Though I see our neighbour's weeping birch is growing rapidly.

23rd April 2020, 6.14 am

7th May 2020, 5.35 am

1st June 2020, 5.13 am

31st July 2020, 5.39 am

2nd August 2020, 5.41 am

7th August 2020, 5.53 am

30th August 2020, 6.28 am

31st August 2020, 6.37am

2nd September 2020, 6.19 am

7th September 2020, 6.27am

14th September 2020, 7.09 am

15th September 2020, 6.50 am

17th September 2020, 7.04 am

23rd September 2020, 6.59 am

24th September 2020, 07.08 am

6th October 2020, 7.25am

7th October 2020, 7.17 am

23rd October 2020, 7.49 am

22nd November 2020, 7.29 am ...

... and 7.45 am

1st December 2020, 07.40am

25th December 2020, 7.50 am

29th December 2020, 4.51 pm

31st December 2020, 8.21am

10th January 2021, 7.44 am, 7.55 am and 8.03 am

21st January 2021, 8.08am, 8.15am and 8.16am

22nd January 2021, 8.13 am

24th January 2021, 7.48 am

6th February 2021, 7.39 am

10th February 2021, 7.45 am

11th February 2021, 7.21 am

13th February 2021, 7.22 am

23rd February 2021, 6.38 am ...

... and 6.56 am

9th March 2021, 6.36 am

22nd March 2021, 6.23 am

30th March 2021, 6.53 am

7th April 2021, 6.37am

Monday, 5 April 2021

Whatever gets you through the lockdown, or A year up the meadow

It's been a year since I finally walked along the footpath over the top of the local golf course with Son the Elder - having been driven off at the age of ten by an angry but factually incorrect golfer - and discovered the meadow with its hollowing oak, sunsets and views to the Severn estuary, the little wood at the bottom, and Charlton Common beyond. This encounter was to transform my experience of lockdown, and possibly also the Northerner's (though he is less prone to magical thinking than I am) and also our dear Ted's, who missed going to new places and smelling new smells, but who nevertheless had somewhere beautiful and interesting to spend his final months. As for our new dog, Cwtch, she has little idea what constitutes jaunting, but she whimpers with excitement when I turn up the lane and loves running between us and keeping tabs on us as we irritatingly refuse to stay in a neat herd.

First encounter, 5th April 2020

Apart from autumn when we didn't go up there that often, owing to having had our hearts broken by a certain dog, I have a huge collection of photos through the seasons. I'm going to post ones of the oak tree, which I think might be my most important tree apart from my grandmother's apple tree, especially since we also lost the ash tree from our bedroom window just before lockdown.