COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 hit us out of nowhere, and changed our everyday life

Spending more time in nature

In March of 2020, we found ourselves isolated from our families and colleagues, working from home, watching the news every day, hoping for these strange times to be over soon. Nine months later, we are still fighting COVID-19, and the situation in some countries seems to be worse than ever. In these nine months, we had to find a way to still enjoy ourselves, stay productive, keep our mental and physical state in good shape. Personally, I got used to the flexible working hours and home office very quickly, and started to organize my days around some other activities, such as swimming sessions and walks. This was more than necessary, especially as my job is anyhow entirely desk-based. So whenever it was allowed, I would go out for walks - in the Botanic Gardens, Ormeau Park or along the River Lagan. I always enjoyed nature and photography, and spent quite some time this year taking loads and loads of photographs of flowers, trees, birds, bees, butterflies, moths, and finally fungi, and getting better in IDing, also thanks to some fabulous PhD students at QUB with amazing IDing skills. I am more than happy with my collection so far, and hope to continue with this very exciting hobby. I have picked about 200 of my best shots (equals probably 1 % of all shots taken) which you can find below. I hope you will enjoy these as much as I do :)