Be careful of what you wish for. After writing that I didn’t want to turn all these pages into an ongoing memorial to lost cultural icons (No More A Roving), we seemed to lose so many more so quickly that my silence continued for longer than I anticipated. The longer the silence lasted, the more difficult it became to find a voice again.

It’s been grim for many of us, and I’m aware I’ve escaped lightly compared to others, but there writers and photograhers out there who have kept going and I’m grateful they continued to offer inspiration while I was losing the plot. Their words and images have sustained and nourished me during the blank months of lockdown and darkness, so thank you Vova Zinger’s PhotoBlog for an unfailingly stunning image every day, and hPa Studio for regular images from Warren Farm Nature Reserve a lot closer to home. The writers always worth reading included the beagle-eyed Dexter, with his entertaining tails of step-houndhood, the godfather of bloggers, The Gentle Author, at Spitalfields Life, the collective random insights from London Historians.

The unrelenting enthusiasm of all the writers and photographers who have kept going through the bad times are encouraging me to embark once more upon new voyages of discovery. In turn, I hope this might trigger other writers who have “gone dark” to start publishing again too. It’s not that the bad times have gone away, it’s just that they’ve changed. Of course I imagine that some of the updates that have been missed most are from writers who have probably found something more rewarding to do with their lives than pore over a hot keyboard – and good luck to them all.

But it’s spring. New broom. Clean sweep. New start.

Fresh start image by robertrobs

header image: photo by Satoshi Hirayama from Pexels

footer image: photo from Techrepublic.com