Pandemic diary 41: The dark side of the Rea

Sunday. We are both feeling better today.

Slept and slept, nearly 10 hours in all. Two Mad Mens for breakfast. A rich chocolate brownie for lunch. Gardening and rabbit runabout. The day ended with a bit of exciting work as a logistics client went out on an SOS call to help get desperately needed incoming deliveries of PPE (personal protective equipment) from Turkey moving along the supply chain and into the NHS. I'll be working on filling out this story on their website tomorrow. Maybe I'll slot in a cheeky backlink from here for an SEO boost, ha ha.

Around 7pm we then took a walk to follow up on the tree identification live demo yesterday along the River Rea Route – the other unofficial path, the overgrown dark side. I also wanted to do today's #distancedrift walking prompt by walking artist and author Sonia Overall. Her prompt was to find islands on our travels: I've yet to process my photos but I've found islands made of plants, litter, salty efflorescence, cat's eye lights, rocks in the river, road markings and more.

It's good to get out of the house and your head.

Pete's photos of this lockdown walk are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/peteashton/albums/72157714151240013

Other people's found islands in the lockdown landscape can be found under #distancedrifts hashtag on Twitter.

Things to be thankful for

Today I am thankful for… wild garlic, tons of it, on our walk. I foraged some and added it into tonight's chicken quorna curry.

Also it was lovely to have a distanced doorstep hello with my great nephew M who informed us that he is now three-and-eight-twelfths, and that he is not allowed to come into our house "until the lockdown ends". And then he sang T-Rex 'Get It On, bang a gong' and danced to Gangnam Style. Oh to be three!

There was also a bonus mysterious Robson – Walkspace collaborator – as we walked out today. He's done a very readable, borderline poetic series of lockdown walk writings over on Walkspace recently. Check them out here: 'Robson on…'

Remember that giftbox with a tree in it that I mentioned yesterday? Pete has turned it into a rabbit engagement tunnel for Clem. She hides from us there. But I am always waiting with my camera for Madame Showpony.

Finally, for added cuteness, we spotted a dog on our evening forage walk. But we could only see a fraction of it under the garden fence. We both took a photo. This dog is an excellent model. And goes to show sometimes you don't need to see the whole picture to appreciate the view.

A. Pete's pic.
B. Fiona's photo.

Commission/hire me: fiona [at] fionacullinan.com