My partner Hannah and I bought our doer-upper in December 2019 and moved to Rye the following March, four days before the first lockdown.

Back in London, I shared a studio next to Broadway Market with many independent creative businesses. I've been a graphic designer and illustrator working in London since 2000. One of those studio friends was the photographer Mark Cocksedge.

When I first asked Mark if he was interested in creating a printed magazine with me back on 30th April 2021, the government said we are past the peak of the pandemic. I'd been living full-time in Rye, East Sussex over a year at that stage, and even though I was new to the area, we'd had lockdowns, social distancing and I was noticing a few things.

Firstly people are so friendly down on the south coast. After two decades in London, I was happy to keep myself to myself; I didn't know my neighbours' names, jobs or what they'd been up to. But here, we've been welcomed and introduced to many friendly and engaging folks.

Secondly I noticed many people had multiple strings to their bows. For example, they owned a business with friends while running a club in the community, and people have flipped their life around, making their hobby their business while learning new skills.

And thirdly there are so many high-achieving creative people down here. Drawn to the area by its beauty, the mix of country and coast and the space to think.

Twenty years in one city had taught me a 45-minute or an hour-and-a-half journey across boroughs on the tube, is the usual to meet your friends. So as Mark and I have visited people and places to create the articles in RyeZine, Bexhill to Dungeness, Hastings and St Leonards, Hawkhurst, and Rye, it feels like one whole place. Like a collection of boroughs filled with people and businesses working together.

It's January 2023, and there have been six issues of RyeZine. Issue seven is coming together, and issue eight is planned with the article interviews starting in March. So far, I've sat down and spoken with approximately sixty people in this area and noticed a recurring feeling or comment from many people.

I titled this mini 'Extra' article Lockdown, Not COVID because they are two very different things. What I've been noticing are the positives that are starting to emerge from that time. COVID-19 affected so many people and families in irreversible ways. What I want to highlight are the positives which came from the slowdown of life, not life on pause but through people not being able to go to work, leave their homes or meet with friends. For some people, it allowed them to stop, think, plan and make changes.

We now have an archive of over fifty stories, all available in the Article and Extra sections of RyeZine.com. They include people finding a new way of communication through social media, where they have built up a community of like-minded people while bringing in a wage. Someone else who used that time to turn a creative interest into an income as an artist. Artists kept painting, brewers kept brewing, and some of the most exciting building projects happened (where preordered materials allowed).

After at least three years of adverse reports on the TV and in newspapers, with pandemics, BREXIT, COVID, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, it is a privilege to share time with these talented people of this community and hear such inspiring and positive firsthand stories.

There are always two sides to a story, and we have heard many heartbreaking storeys recently, so I'd like to acknowledge these encouraging stories.

RyeZine magazine wouldn't have happened without lockdowns creating this breathing space. Like most people, I sat at my desk thinking about where the money would come from to pay the bills while my clients down tools and stopped sending work my way. Option one is to sit and wait for the world to start up again, or two, do something while I wait. If I don't keep my mind active, the clouds of uncertainty and self-doubt come rolling in. So option two, I knew it wouldn't pay the bills, but it has opened doors and started friendships.

Mental well-being has always been part of my life; as a child, a member of my family suffered poor mental health, I didn't understand what was going on, and nobody tried to explain it to me. So in 2016, I started working on a children's book called One for Sorrow to help adults explain what a parent is going through to a child. This book was a successful Kick Starter project and was released in August 2018, with an introduction written by Jo Brand.

I hope that RyeZine's articles will encourage readers to try something new or old, that thing they loved to do and forgot about. So many positive things are happening in the South East, and relocating has been one of the best moves I've ever made.

Gresty - RyeZine.