COVID Chronicles: “Tan Ah Yuh Yaad,” In Photographs

We are staying home. We are good, obedient citizens. Also, as those who especially need to stay home and not catch anything out there on the street, it makes sense to us. We don’t want to be anywhere else, right now.

While taking my regular evening walk the other day – we are lucky to have a reasonably good sized yard to stretch our legs in – it struck me that the mood was so different. I take my walk every day when it is approaching six o’clock – curfew time. The sounds on our usually busy street are disappearing, one by one. Our neighbors have settled down and are tucked in their homes. Cars are parked up. Front doors close. The occasional motorbike or car might pass, but the yard rests, muted. We have had no rain for weeks, so it is dry and dusty, but the daytime wind has moved on. It’s a gentle time of day in the time of COVID. The sky begins its evening glow.

I haven’t been using my camera much lately (it’s fairly basic Canon) so I thought I would incorporate a little project, and just take a few photos each day. So, here are some of my “COVID Chronicles” so far… just everyday observations in the quiet of curfew.

Our friendly neighborhood American Kestrel eyes me from his high perch at the tip of a palm tree.

Skyscape.

The turbulent winds of late are throwing down our young East Indian and Bombay mangoes from the trees. What a sad waste.

Traveling…I saw a plane fly across the sky this evening. We are grounded.

A surprising discovery – a small wild orchid.

There has been much excitement in our hedge in recent weeks. The Loggerhead Kingbird family has grown. Here is one of the parents keeping an eye on things. The loud cheeping has now moved from the hedge and can be heard all over the yard, as the youngsters have emerged.

A huge frond has dried and fallen off our very tall palm tree. Yes, the weather is dry. Here’s a closeup of the hard, crackly part of the leaf, and I am sure there’s a scientific name for it, which I know not! Nature’s design.

Masks drying on the line. You are supposed to dry them in sunlight.

I opened the lid of our rainwater drum. The tiny, pale shape of a drowned baby lizard was floating there.