Many of us are now living a rather odd life in the shadow of pandemic (now there’s a sentence I was never expecting to write). Here in the UK we’re now in a kind of partial lockdown, with schools, pubs, restaurants, museums etc all closed indefinitely, I’m working entirely from home and we’re limiting how much we leave the house. Only a few days in and it’s a strange existence.

I thought one way to stay connected would be through my blog which I’ve not used as much as I’d have liked over the last 9 months or so. I’ve decided I’ll try to write something short a few times a week: it might be reflections on what I’m doing at home; using old photos from trips to say something about places I’ve enjoyed visiting; and maybe even thoughts about what’s going on.

I’ve decided to call the series ‘A quiet life’ because life will be quieter, with no socialising, going for a coffee or a beer, let alone days out walking or visiting places. It already is quieter too- even though I live in a pretty quiet neighbourhood there’s often a background noise from traffic on the town or the nearby motorway but that’s not as noticeable, there’s far fewer people wandering along the street chatting, and the tell-tale vapour trails from aircraft are conspicuously absent.

So I’ll see where it takes me. In the meantime, before I get going on the series, I’ll just say stay safe and take care.

Here’s a nice picture of a sunset on Lake Champlain in Vermont from last summer to start with. We spent a few days there and fell in love with the place. I’ll revisit it quite a few times in my posts I’m sure!