Share your lockdown pictures and celebrate our towns' beauty

We’re past three months in lockdown.

March and April already feel like distant memories as we clock in for week 14 working from home waiting for the new normal to formally introduce itself.Everyone’s story of the spring and summer of 2020 will be different.

It has been a time of great upheaval and a strange sense of dislocation from family, friends, work and society.

The Bruce Springsteen lyric “no place to be, and miles to go” sums up much about lockdown where long days still have to be filled when almost everything has been closed; our access to shops, cafes, bars, venues, places to go, things to see and do all cut off.

Tuning into the silence has been a challenge too.

The yawning emptiness of roads, the lack of people on pavements. Or anywhere.

But there have been positives.

Stripped of their crowds, our towns have revealed their true beauty.

And that is why we want to capture your lockdown experiences in a new project in association with Love Oor Lang Toun.

Life over the past three months has been more local than ever, and that has allowed people to explore what they have on their own doorsteps.

Lockdown has given us the chance to reconnect with our home towns – Kirkcaldy, Kinghorn, Burntisland, Aberdour and Cardenden, to name but a few – and maybe, finally, appreciate what we really have.

Landmarks, buildings, architecture and public artwork have no longer faded into the background – ghost signs of businesses long forgotten have sprung back to life, little details above doors and in closes have caught the eye, and even graffiti artworks have taken on a different look.

Walking around Kirkcaldy on a sun-kissed Saturday was certainly a joy – a journey normally done in a car was hugely more rewarding on foot.The views from the top of Bennochy Road were stunning – a panorama across the town and out across the Forth.

We’d arrived there having zig-zagged from Balwearie Road, across Beveridge Park, in and out to Southerton and then up Oriel Road, taking in a loop all the way round Strathallan – an uphill climb that fair got the heart pumping.

Rainbows in support of our NHS still adorn many windows, although I think I preferred the household which simply popped an old album cover from rock band Rainbow in the window.

Up on Bennochy Road, look closely and you’ll find a lifesize cardboard cut out of Elvis with the ‘stay stafe’ message.

At the Co-Op next to The Steadings – and what a sorry sight the once vibrant pub looks right now – social distancing markers are chalked rainbows, adding more colour to our daily commute.

That was just one snapshot of one day in lockdown. There is still much to explore around the Lang Toun to re-discover its history, its industry and the people who helped shape it.

More support as Fife town centres emerge from lockdown

As part of our Civic Conversation, we want you to share your lockdown gems.

Which walks did you discover and love?

Which historic buildings did you see for the very first time?

What landmarks have caught your eye?

Your recommendations can, in turn, inspire other people to explore – and together we can create a log of great places to see, and experiences to be had, all of them right where we live.

SHARE YOUR PICS:Join our Instagram pages – @fifefreepress and @loveoorlangtounUse the #Loveoorlangtoun hashtag to share you picsSHARE YOUR LOCKDOWN GEMS:Found a place or a landmark you want to tell others about? Which walk was a joy to discover? Where did you explore the most?Send us a pic and some details - [email protected]SHARE YOUR LOCKDOWN STORIES:Where have you gone, what have you seen?Join our civic conversation by celebrating our district’s beauty. [email protected]

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspapers - the Fife Free Press, Fife Herald, St Andrews Citizen and East Fife Mail.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive. We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Allan Crow, Editor, Fife Free Press