The Pictures of the New Year were always going to be a little bleak, emerging as it were, from the Year of the Pandemic. In a time when it had become ‘acceptable’ to be distanced and disdained, this cold and wet New Year weekend cast a cold but familiar shudder onto a world seeking warmth and comfort.

But I love this ‘wintry’ New Year in my tropical garden as it unfolds at first light – to hear the rush of rain pattering onto the flora, to see the tiny rivulets of groundwater meander through gravel and gravity, to observe the dance of the wet fronds bounce to the staccato rhythm of the water from above, to see the doves huddle in togetherness.

Beyond these obscure walls in an inconsequential garden, the rain (and snow) brings misery, the streets litter with streams and ponds, and shops lay empty and unfulfilled. But that is a story for another reflection.

Leon Fleisher (1928 – 2020) performs Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze. Recorded and filmed October 30, 2019 in Friedberg Concert Hall.

Lumix G85; GX85. M Zuiko 75-300 mm; M Zuiko 40-150 mm. January 2021