As it is easy to carry tucked into a pocket, having my phone with me allows me to be impulsive and experiment with photographing plants and creatures that catch my eye when I am out in the garden.
Continue reading “Phoning home: Lockdown nature photos on my phone”
Our veggie patch took on greater significance during the stringent first lockdown level of the pandemic when even grocery shopping could be a fraught experience. At the very last local farmers’ market that took place just before the late-March lockdown commenced, we bought some winter veg seedlings to add to our vegetable garden.
Continue reading “The kitchen garden: Brightening our lockdown horizons”
Maybe it’s the lockdown. Maybe it’s that we had no electricity for a day and a night. Maybe it’s because the municipal dump is on fire and choking us all with toxic smoke. Maybe it’s because there is no electricity again this evening. Whatever, but I thought it was Wednesday.
Continue reading “Uh! Whaddya mean its Thursday already?”
Holiday escapism, even virtual holidays down memory lane, oftentimes involve wilfully ignoring inconvenient truths. So back home in the now, the hard realities in the news preoccupy me once again as Covid-19 infection rates escalate across significant parts of South Africa.
Continue reading “Shifting the focus when back in the now”
Food has become more of a global and personal focus in the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Some food supply chains are threatened, and for a variety of reasons thousands more people are now food insecure. Continue reading “Wheat, war, bread and biscotti”
I have been foraging for distractions from anxiety while under lockdown. I have come across some oddities and marvels in our own backyard to share on naturebackin. Continue reading “Backyard curiosities 1: Bubble-blowing flies”
Here we are locked down at home, with our pets being a major source of distraction as we try to alleviate anxiety and find ways of not becoming addicted to reading the news and obsessing about Covid-19 and our collective futures. Continue reading “Stuff to do during lockdown: Tips from our cats”
Store cupboard items can produce fresh salad ingredients within two days. That is the magic of seed germination – otherwise known as sprouting. Continue reading “Salad in the cupboard: Sprouting lentils”
Starting at midnight tonight it is South Africa’s turn to go into lockdown to try to slow down the transmission of the Covid-19 coronavirus disease so that our fragile health services might be less overwhelmed. Our government is acting decisively in the face of unimaginable challenges and we are all wondering how we will cope. Continue reading “Learning from animals in these times: Cats and music in a world where love survives”
letting nature back in 