Becoming a watcher

Beach Creative Blog
Our Stories- Together In Isolation
Sylvia McKean  Blog Update Number Three


My last blog covered our isolation up until March 20th when I noted that schools were to close and said I was missing seeing our grandchildren. Since then our grandchildren and their parents have featured quite a lot in our lives – albeit at a distance.  We’ve had Mothering Sunday, Easter week-end and a birthday, when everyone was busy making cards – so much so that I ran out of glue and had to send out for more supplies.

 Our two youngest grandchildren insisted on posting their artworks and asking for ‘thankyou’s’ from us – so I became immersed in much appreciated creative works.  Even my 40 year-old son waded in with his cheerful creation and Jim also had a go. Other family members phoned and skyped us as well as stocking us up with supplies of hot cross buns and chocolates – all of which helped to restore some normality in these unfamiliar times. 



Looking through my diary entries I see myself as a becoming a watcher – watching the people passing by my house; watching the weather and my garden wildlife. The weather is my favourite.

Fortunately for all of us most days of the lockdown have been unseasonably sunny, such a bonus for garden lovers or those on their daily walk.  However this part of Kent has been plagued with an easterly ‘breeze’ as the forecasters call it - in reality a very cold wind. I spent some afternoons in early April sitting in a sheltered garden spot reading or knitting and wearing my jacket and hat.  There have been only a few of those lovely golden sunsets – but they were worth waiting for.  On April 7th and 8th I noted the full moon illuminating our garden and on investigation found it was the Super Pink Moon – the biggest Super Moon of the year - it occurs during its closest approach to the earth; quite an awesome sight!  As I write this the sun has gone and it has rained nearly all day and the forecast is the same for the next few days – gardeners and farmers will be happy.

My Great Grandparents

Peter and Sarah Port

Goldfinch Farm Broomfield 1914

 I’m sure my interest in the weather comes from my maternal ancestors who farmed the land around Herne and Broomfield in past centuries. The term super moon was not then thought up - to them a full moon was the parish lantern.  I quote from A Remembered Land,* a book about the countryside from the 1880s to 1914;  “The elements made our rural ancestors what they were; the biting winds, the cutting frosts and the baking sun – all these things carved and shaped the faces that look out from the photographs of pre-First World War rural Britain”.

I expect also that the skies in my ancestors days were really as clear bright blue as they were often painted – no motor cars or aeroplanes then to pollute them; ironically in these lockdown days it can be seen that due to greatly decreased road traffic and a fraction of the number of aeroplanes above, our skies are again returning to their previous hues of deep blue, Scientists report them as being comparable to the rich blue colour usually only found on remote tropical islands. Needless to say air pollution has also decreased.  Blessings in disguise!




I realise I’ve got a bit carried away on my weather watching observations. I have also written a piece about tidying my bookshelves and re-discovering some of my favourite books.  Bookshelves seem to

have become of great interest lately given that everyone on
the media who is self-isolating is communicating via home video link in front of their bookshelves. I find myself looking at the books and not watching or listening to the person sitting in front of them.  I’ll resume this subject in my next blog.


*A Remembered Land, Ed Sean Street pubs Penguin Books 1994
Sylvia Mckean
April 29th 2020