As the live-in carer for my elderly Mother, very definitely in the ‘at risk’ group, I am joining her in virtual isolation in the Scottish Borders for the next few weeks/months. We are lucky to have a small garden over-looked by the kitchen window and there are bird-feeders hung on the fruit trees and seed is scattered daily on the sunken patch of grass.

Our feathered visitors, free to come-and-go, are become a quiet, calm, place in our newly strange routines.  Standing at the kitchen sink, I sometimes endeavour to describe their antics to Mother, whose eyesight is very poor.  We laugh and it lightens our world, so I will try to record something of the birds every day and have it online by early evening. 

No post will be very long, and there may be little in the way of high drama, unless the sparrow-hawk returns, but the garden is coming into Spring and I have perhaps set the bar too high in that I will try to write solely on what I see that day…and find some peace in the writing. 

I’m afraid there may not be many images, this is about the words and our mindseye – and I’m no Gordon Buchanan.  Stay well and all the best to you and yours.