Late last year or about the time Drs. were deciding that this new virus was serious enough to
have it’s own name I came up with the idea of doing a calendar or a picture book with shots just from my
deck. The two incidents are not related but Covid 19 did have a huge impact on how much I left my deck
this year – and it was not much.
The idea of this project was to capture the changes that go on in nature and by restricting my
shooting to the deck it would make me more aware of the subtle changes. I have learned that restrictions
help to make us more aware of the little things around us, the things we miss when we are busy with the
big picture.
I decided I would take pictures only from my deck and then select 3 or 4 from each month and
put them together in a photo book, I began the project in December with the intent of having it completed
in November of this year and I would have a few printed for Christmas gifts for the people that matter
most in my life, or at least showed some interest in the project.
I have to tell you that the Covid 19 situation changed our travel patterns a lot and I have been
spending much more time at home and on the deck than would be usual. It was an added benefit to the
project and the project helped keep me entertained through what could have been a challenging summer.
The project that I am calling, A Year on the Deck, did give me something to do, but on the larger
scale it helped make me more aware of the things going on in my own yard. I still dislike what the
groundhog did to my beans but at least I did get a good picture of him on his first day in the yard.
Sometimes we need restrictions to help us see the good right outside our door. I know this has
helped me with several writing projects, for one an editor that insists my contribution to his paper be from
with inside this province has at times annoyed me, but has also helped me find some interesting topics not
to far down the road.
Give it a try, and you don’t have to wait for something the scale of Covid 19 to test drive the idea.
