[By Róisín Curé in Galway] The lockdown in rural Ireland (and urban Ireland) continues. I am one of the very lucky ones. I have a big garden full of trees, birds and flowers (and rats and many, many weeds), and I get on very well with my family. I'm not at all sick of them [note: that was written a few days ago], despite being at home with them for the last 28 days, but then I also have a lovely little studio at the end of my garden.
Others are not in such a lucky position. They are cooped up in tiny apartments, or the restrictions of their jurisdiction make life very hard, or they're just very lonely. I know how horrible all of those things can be. I have experienced heartbreaking loneliness, awful isolation when I was rearing small children and all kinds of infuriating domestic restrictions in my day...just not during this lockdown. So I sympathise.
Here are some of my sketches from home these days.
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A beech tree full of buds. |
The nice thing about sketching delicate blossom like this is that it's gone a day or two later, but forever in my sketchbook.
I had wanted to sketch this tree for a very long time, and was happy to go there with my younger daughter to sketch a day or two before Easter.
Yet more baking....