After spending a year feeling guilty and conflicted for working more than spending time with the kids on 23rd March 2020 all that changed. Britain went into its first national lockdown, closing schools, businesses and shops. Walks around the block and working from home became the norm. Bird song became the sound of the streets. In the first 3 months of the Coronavirus pandemic nearly 40,000 people died in the UK.
The contrasting emotions of seeing beauty in the everyday but knowing of this horror gripping the world was difficult to comprehend and process. Even now at the time of writing (Jan 2021), we are into our third lockdown and hospitals are being overwhelmed around the country. It’s hard to fathom what the lasting impact of COVID19 will be on the world.
Rhea was 3 years old and Jorvan 1 when we went into lockdown. Being so young they demanded full attention and left little time to dwell on world events. In certain respects this helped lead to the quality time I felt was missing prior to Coronavirus.
Seeing them grow, play and build their relationship in the time that followed was special. And whilst there was joy and warmth in those summer months, there was also moments of frustration, boredom and worry as the repetition of lockdown continued.
Cherry blossom trees and birdsong is a personal reflection and documentation of family life during 2020. The work has been published in the WorkShowGrow United publication, and was supported by GRAIN Projects.
