Further garden thoughts

For the past seven years the magnolia has been our borrowed landscape, a generous gift from its previous owner to the whole neighbourhood. I try not to think about its absence. After a long winter every green shoot seems like a miracle, but a whole tree covered in hundreds, maybe thousands, of large-petalled flowers is the boldest statement of renewal.

What exactly was happening during the first lockdown? People had started gardening. They were also rushing into the parks. But why? Was it just boredom?