I know I skipped a few weeks of isolation updates. Just didn’t feel like talking. The days, although mainly good days (because who am I to complain!), blended into a phase, a stretch of blurry captures that become barely recognisable and hardly meaningful after a while. It’s like a photography hiccup – even though the beautiful object is out there before you, it takes a skill to focus on it properly.

We are still here. Isolating. And I am thinking of starting walks as the situation seems to be improving somewhat. By that I mean that we have fewer people dying and fewer – getting sick, and we are at slightly lower risk of catching the virus.

Of course, it’s not brilliant. And it will take a long time to feel different. But I am so tired of being afraid all the time. So we are going to try and get out.

This morning I needed to pop out to post a few cards. It was early in the morning. Just me and the birds. I walked through the village that felt unfamiliar, same but different, very odd.

The birds are reigning. They have never been particularly timid over here, but now they give you a piercing, quizzically judgmental look as if you came to their party uninvited. And forgot to bring the gifts.

But that was the good thing – to see them living the life as they’ve always done. Because the sun still comes out every morning, the sky is blue (most of the time), the rain is wet and the air is filled with the intoxicating fragrances of hackberry and lilac.

I came home, hugged my boys and finally, first time in many weeks, took out my camera. We shot a few photos, had a play before the rain hit the ground, and lived without agenda getting one more day closer to the moment when we can simply be again…