Photographer Mr Ben Weller is usually globe-trotting, but he and his extended family are grateful to be isolating together in the bucolic wilds of East Sussex. Here, he documents a couple of days out in the country and tells MR PORTER all about his new life of digging, planting, fence-mending and bread-baking.

We’re isolating together at my partner Polly [Wilkinson]’s family home in a tiny village in East Sussex, where we spend a lot of time anyway. We came down just a week before the travel ban with our children, Velvet, who is three years old, and nine-month-old Herb. We’re a motley crew. Isobel and Giles, Polly’s parents, her brother Rufus and sister Hermione are all here with us for the duration. Luckily, it’s quite a creative family. 

Everyone already wanted to become more self-sufficient, so, since the lockdown began, we’ve all been helping to build an allotment. Polly, who’s begun studying permaculture, is devising plans for growing seasonal produce. We want to grow as much as we can, including English beans, potatoes, herbs and salad leaves, tomatoes, artichokes, radishes, kale, beetroot and squashes.

Velvet’s taken it all in her stride. She’s free-range, completely feral now, which is great. She barely wears clothes and is covered in mud and filth. One afternoon, when I was digging out the lawn, I could see that she was beginning to realise what we were doing, that we were going to be growing our own food. She was constantly asking, “Daddy, can I help?” She picked up the rake and helped spread out the compost. It was a beautiful moment. She was so focused on what she was doing. I’m very lucky to be here with the children.

Time feels much slower, but the days go pretty fast once you abandon the urge to read every news article and get on with the tasks that keep the estate in order, such as mending fences and gates. Alongside the growing projects, these jobs bring a semblance of normality and structure to our days. At sundown, we’ll toast our labours with a gin cocktail with foraged herbs. After dining together, Giles, who is a part-time musician, will sometimes serenade us with his guitar or we might play Scrabble or watch a movie, then it’s off to bed early as the kids are up at the crack of dawn.