During this period of current bonkersness (surely this will make it into the Oxford English Dictionary this year!), I’ve found myself getting increasingly nostalgic.  I think it comes about for a variety of reasons – not being able to get home and see my family; seeing on social media that my school friends were feeling the same, and therefore thinking about those friends; thinking about the teenagers who must have been one of the most affected demographics of lockdown, and remembering how tough teen years are in a normal world, nevermind amongst all this.  Whatever has triggered it, the nostalgia is at an all time high right now!

I suspect I’m not the only one who’s been feeling like this because I’ve connected more with old school friends over this time than I have for ages – and it’s been lovely.   I don’t mean we’ve been messaging each other relentless over the last few months, but sharing the odd memory on a Facebook post, adding a supportive comment, having a little giggle.  And, maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it feels like we’ve reminded ourselves of those ‘glory years’!

Regardless of why, this nostalgia has found me planning an ’80s themed party for my upcoming birthday.  Obviously, ‘party’ is stretching the definition to the absolute limit, since it will just be 3 of us, but actually this suits me perfectly.  I get to plan and make a load of fun nostalgic decorations, make a playlist that would have made my 10 year old self’s ears burst with excitement (aside: my 10th birthday party was an ’80s disco in our front room with me ‘DJing’ on my mum’s record player with my prized collection of singles and three different coloured light bulbs in our overhead light!), plan a photo booth with suitably eighties accessories, and generally just find utter joy in re-creating everything that represented my childhood.

Since I still have some eighties style clothes and accessories from a themed gig I did with my band some years ago, I shall add a few neon items about my person too – although I may be alone in that!  And I’ll crank up the record player with my period appropriate records and re-live my 10th birthday party, but with the addition of a photo booth that only I will want to use 🙂  Watch this space for ’80s themed self portraits soon!

For those who wish to relive the ’80s, or for those unlucky enough to have been born after this glorious (if uncoordinated) decade, here’s a playlist of school disco-approved tracks 🙂

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2BKUZmQ0kPRkFMdCrBUENx?si=FjoUyZTWT4u8xQti6JYAyg

If I’ve missed anything vital off the playlist, you have any suggestions for party decorations or you just want to join in the nostalgia, please leave a comment.

Stay safe and dance like no-one is watching.

Clare www.claremcewenphotography.com

Whilst we’ve been locked down, we’ve spent a lot of time in the garden – thank goodness the weather gods have been shining down on us…..a rarity in the UK normally, but nothing about this time is normal! We live in the middle of a housing estate, but we do have a decent sized garden. There are quite a few small trees in the garden and we’ve always had birds nesting in it, but this year we’ve had a chance to pay more attention.

Wow! We have had a lot of birds visiting our garden! We had first Mr Robin (Robbie), then Mrs Robin (Roberta) and now two baby robins too (Ronaldo and Ronaldinho – I should point out it’s Portuguese Ronaldo not Brazilian Ronaldo!).

We’ve now got baby blue tits too, which are all fluffy and very cute! There seem to be quite a few of these, including Becks!

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There’s a baby pigeon in one of the trees, being very well looked after by it’s attentive parents. For a while, I was worried that mum wasn’t going to have a baby since she’d been sitting on her nest for weeks and nothing appeared. Then suddenly we saw a baby head pop up next to mum’s in the nest – joyful.

We have regular blackbirds, and sparrows flitting through the raspberry canes picking off bugs every evening. We’ve seen a red kite and a buzzard overhead and a lesser spotted woodpecker on our TV aerial. We also found our first frog of the season – my husband usually finds them when he’s mowing the lawn!

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Now, we usually see blackbirds, pigeons and blue tits flying by, but I’ve never got friendly enough with a robin for it to seemingly look for us – and pose when I have the camera out!

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Or watch baby blue tits begin their first steps of independence. Or ask a squirrel politely if it could wait until I got my camera….and for it not only to wait, but come a bit closer to me for a better shot!

What I really can’t believe about all this though, is that normally we miss most of it! Normally, we’re racing from one place to the next, glancing out the window occasionally. Normally, we haven’t got time to wander around the garden for hours with cameras in our hands. And perhaps normally, we don’t place enough importance on it.

Hopefully, from now on, we spend more time just being in the garden and making friends with the wildlife. Perhaps our new skill after all this will be recognising different bird song and learning to slow down a bit.

Take care x

Instagram @claremcewen

Twitter @ClareMcEwenPho2

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So for the last few weeks of lockdown, we’ve been watching caterpillars eat and grow and eat and grow. A couple of weeks in and they formed their chrysalises, and a couple of days ago they emerged as beautiful Painted Lady butterflies.

As a family, we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed watching the infamous butterfly life cycle. Yesterday, we decided it was time to set them free. They were a little cautious to begin with, then crawled onto my son’s hand, and bravely launched themselves into their new world.

I wonder if that’s what we’re going to feel a bit like when the lockdown is lifted and restrictions reduced? I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to be unable to get within 2 metres of anyone for the foreseeable future! It’s funny, a few months ago, we would never have believed that this would become our new normal. A month or so into lockdown and we’re probably all adjusting a bit, in due course we’ll have to get used to being released into a new world!

What was everyday is going to feel weird, I’ll likely be anxious about being in contact with other people and I’ll be hoping against hope that the feared second peak doesn’t occur.

Whatever happens, we’ll get used to it, and hopefully we will embrace our new world, bravely.

Stay safe.

Clare x

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton