During lockdown I became friends with  my upstairs neighbours after I had a leak in my ceiling and had to go up to tell them. I had never seen them before and said they should go into the garden sometime. Gradually throughout lockdown people started going out into the garden one flat at a time. When the lockdown ended people started using the garden more often for chats, sunbathing and a bit of social. We have two stairwells and 16 flats in the block and now I pretty much know all of them and often bump into them on the street when I leave my flat. It’s so nice to be able to wave to people on the street or say hello. I’m also now more friendly with the people in the local Co-Op. Due to the slowdown I have discovered all sorts of amazing things I never knew about my area, chatted to people I didn’t know, and made friends with people on my street. I have a new relationship with my surroundings. I listen to the sound of water when I cross the bridge. It’s so nice to know some of my neighbours and one local even rang the doorbell last week for a chat!! The more you go out the more you meet people. These walks have become a celebration of what can happen if you stay in one place and engage with people and you immediate surroundings.   

I left the sameness of the indoors for another window into the outside world. Crossing my doorway I get a blast of fresh air and feel the anticipation of unknown interactions which might lie ahead. I’m out of hibernation. On the doorstep I bump into my neighbours. I heard them the other night through the floorboards but we haven’t seen each other in months. I had begun to think they had disappeared until I heard the thud of activity upstairs last Sunday they were doing their exercises again. It’s nice to hear signs of life above and it was a relief to know they were still there. 

Everyone in the block has been trapped in their flats in this wierd state of staticness since christmas. It feels like we are all living one great big long day which blurs into one. Stuck in our bedrooms and kitchens and sitting rooms. It felt joyous to have a little interaction outside and it’s always so good to have someone to share it with. 

My wallking buddy is Debbie a neighbour with Angus her dog. We begin our walk. We experience a continuous stream of joyous dog interactions, a stand off, a bit of sniffing, some chasing around the trees..and acknowledgement of other species.. The night is misty and magical and we soon get warm. We become voyuers of the city. Everything is sparkling, we see the castle, and large houses all lit up from inside like giant dolls houses - this is the best thing about the dark nights. We catch up, there’s too much to talk about - people in common, projects, happy things, sad things, what’s on the telly and we stop to hear the sound of the water and ponder over the empty swimming pool - usually a beacon of warmth and activity which glows at night and is a symbol of the area. But now it’s shut and it’s become a reminder of the current times. We start thinking about food..2.5 hours have flown by. Human engagement is fantastic, and I’m feeling revived after another interaction with another human being and a magical walk. I am alive, revived and ready for bed.. it's always so good to have a walking buddy..

https://www.edinburghforageandeat.com

A couple of months into lockdown, after the initial fear of even sitting on a bench for fear of infection had subsided, I would take a book with me and sit on a bench in the sun. I preferred that to sitting in our communal garden here, as I was guaranteed peace and quiet.

I would see some regulars there - the young girl with headphones on, weaving fast laps between graves, the group of three dodgy-looking men who would regularly gather round a grave with their tinnies of an evening, my octagenarian neighbour Trish, who also walked there daily. Trish penned a couple of poems inspired by her daily walks there, including the Graveyard Gavotte! 

At the height of the pandemic, around April to June, I saw a few freshly dug graves while walking, although I was never there while a burial was taking place. 

I became familiar with the names of some of those buried there, favourites being Annie Virtue and Robin Gossip! Some days I would stray off the paths and read the headstones of the more tucked away graves. My slowness of pace meant I really stopped and looked, considering who these people had been and why they had been buried there, especially when the biographical information on the headstones suggested they had lived (and died) elsewhere. 

Although I can walk far beyond the cemetery now that I've fully recovered, I still do circuits there and don't think I'll ever tire of the place and the view.