JOE O'BRIEN

By the Allotment (2020)

A struggle for the city dweller during lock-down was the inability to connect to nature. As of March earlier this year, I found myself retreating from Glasgow back home to a small village in the North-West of England, just outside of Lancaster. It was a breath of fresh air returning to the fields and oak trees that I was so familiar with. The river is right on my door step and when the summer heat came it truly was beautiful. There was a complete shift in thinking during quarantine; I felt that I wanted to return to fundamental values. A cliché to say the least, but reconnecting with nature and appreciating the world’s beauty was deeply nourishing. I became aware of nature’s tender indifference to us; the trees sang, the river was still flowing and when the sun came out all the animals came together harmoniously. Nature’s unawareness of the pandemic, like a child’s innocence humoured me. I was longing to have a mind free of any related thought. I found myself in the allotment, keeping myself occupied in a world of growing vegetation and fruits. My heart melted at the 5 o’clock sun when I had to refill the watering can at the river. I became highly sensitive to the smell of roses and consider myself extremely fortunate to live at the heart of nature’s elegance.