An innocent in IT-land.

The clock ticks towards nine o'clock, and as I am gardening in the big garden tomorrow, I will have to go to bed soon. Most of the day has been spent trying to get my head round Drupal - an open-cource web programme thingy. It's not a progamme, I'm told, it's a Content Management System. It has pages, blocks, galleries, children and parents, tags and taxonomy - and none of these things resemble the like-named things in the real world. It's an interesting exercise in letting go of preconceptions, if nothing else. I have my trusty guide, Ian (my partner) through this wierd world, although he can't quite believe how stupid I can be for an intelligent person.

This is in the name of re-launching my website, which I have been anouncing I will do for at least two years now. After today, it seems like it will actually be possible.

We did have an afternoon intermission from Drupal to go and collect some sweet chestnuts -  a bumper crop this year - an embarrassment of riches. We filled every bag and pocket we had available, and could hardly prevent ourselves from collecting more. In the end we had to avert our eyes from the gorgeous chestnut shine peeking out of the spiky lime-green cases littering the track around us.  Ian is now shelling his way through a giant stockpot's-worth of them. 'Why did we collect so much?' he says.  'This acquisitiveness is at the root of our consumerist society', I say. 'Let's listen to another episode of Mort while you do it'.