Blogger - Aggie Rothon
I’ve been on the phone for thirty minutes. At some point between last Thursday and today my computer has taken one of my files, chewed it up and spat it out, but without telling me why. I don’t understand what caused this sudden rage and neither it seems does the IT consultant that I have phoned, hoping that she will be able to mediate the virtual conversation I am struggling to hold. Unfortunately, the computer appears to be in ‘grumpy teenager’ mode and no amount of encouragement or bargaining by either of us will tempt it to play ball.
Still, there is some solidarity to be gained from trying to solve the unsolvable in company rather than on one’s own, and if anything can be taken from my otherwise wasted thirty minutes it is the cheerful banter batted between myself and the consultant as we peered together in to the vast and unknowable world that is Information Technology.
It is easy to waste time in front of a computer screen. The black-hole of error messages, lost files and sudden, unexplained, ‘rebooting’ can suck time away. The vast, complicated web that is the internet, primed to catch you in its never-ending net is the time-wasters nirvana and the town-shy shopper’s heaven.
So, every hour that I have to spend in front of the computer I try to compensate with two hours in the natural world. I find that no amount of time feeling the weather on your skin, and watching nature and the seasons roll by is ever wasted.
This morning we had the first autumn frost; it glittered in the early morning light. Half an hour spent outside left my fingers nipped by cold. This is the time for the thin calls of redwings as they dip across the chill sky and fieldfares chattering along the stubble margins. It is the time for the comforting taste of blackberry and apple crumble and the smell of wood smoke curling from neighbouring chimneys. It is the time for the best sunlight of the year; orange-gold sunsets filtered through hedgerows and copses as you walk home in the late afternoon. It is the time that the trees are gilded crimson and bronze and you can see your own breath disappearing in misty plumes.
Autumn is a time of great natural beauty and something not to be missed. So as soon as I finish typing this I shall stick to my word. I will turn off this computer and forget my lost file. I shall return to the village and to the local schools Harvest Festival. There I shall join real voices in celebrating the turning of the seasons and the bounty of the natural world.
As featured in the Easter Daily Press Saturday 13 October