24th March 2020

Lockdown-ish day 1…..the morning has almost gone, and I have been as always painting, just outside the front door is a sheltered veranda with a glass roof where I set up two tables for all the stuff I use. No one about. Usually there is always some background noise….some thing… some annoying engine, ship engines, aircraft engines, tractor engines….lot’s of aircraft…cars always bloody cars….and on an Island I can cycle round in 20 minutes…..it is ridiculous.
But today is different, I remember when air traffic was shut down during Iceland’s volcanic eruptions….at first it took a while to notice that there were for a short time no aircraft vapor trails scaring the sky, once I had noticed I just could not stop looking at that sky…..it was quite wonderful…..actually it was sublime.
…And today in beautiful sunshine spending the whole morning painting not a cloud in the sky….and the only sounds I hear are the sounds of nature. The bird song is utterly sublime…it echoes from place to place….it is wonderful. I cannot describe how wonderful it is to simply only hear nature……without that constant and incessant background noise……I hate that noise…..we cannot…must not go back to how things were, it is simply wrong…..