Apart from the anxiety we all share about our worlds being turned upside down by the coronavirus, there are obvious stresses and strains with us all living together in a confined and restricted space.
What is amazing is how each of us seems to naturally turn to nature to help us support our physical and mental wellbeing.
My wife spends her precious “own” time gardening, enjoying the physical work involved and the satisfaction of bringing together nature’s beauty; my daughter walks up the road to enjoy the birds and the beautiful views towards the Cheviot Hills to give herself a break from the demands of childcare, while her partner walks and runs with a freedom he could not imagine in the city he normally lives in.
For me, the chance to walk or run along High Yarridge Road in Hexham, is a great time to enjoy hearing the curlews that arrive from the coast every spring to breed or try and catch the rare sighting of lapwings that used to be plentiful 20 years ago but which are now not so common.
Along the way, I may see a hare and even occasionally spy a number of them chasing each other in the corner of one of the uncultivated fields which always fills me with awe. Whilst on the move, I also marvel at the view of the Durham Fells to the south, and on a clear day, the Cheviots, roughly 70 miles away to the north.