I find technology somewhat frustrating. I'm no technophobe, in fact quite the opposite, it's just that it all seems to come along a little too late in my book.
Take mobile phones. Now there is an invention that would have made college days a whole lot easier. How simple it would have been to arrange to meet up with friends, change plans when needed and generally learn to relax. Instead, I had to organise the day's social activities over breakfast, when I could barely remember my own name. And OMG, I cld hv txtd 2.
And now it's iPods. Why did I not have one before children? You know, when I was actually allowed to listen to something other than my offspring's unrelenting demands.
Still, this weekend, now the promised thaw is in full throttle, I ventured into the garden, iPod in pocket, for some therapeutic compost turning and general cutting back to some banging tunes (well, alright, a bit of Dolly Parton, but nothing accompanies manual labour so well as 9 to 5...).
But no - half an hour into my task, I found I had a helper. My daughter came out to join me. And it was delightful. She cheerfully cleared away the old growth as I cut it down and took it to the compost heap. She pulled out the last overgrown beetroot and withered lettuce from the veg beds, tidied up her own garden and planted the remaining handful of tulip bulbs which never quite made it into the ground before the big freeze.
And throughout it all she talked, and talked, and talked. That is when she wasn't singing - and I use that term very loosely - her own compositions. I can't remember them all, but there was definitely a ditty about her new garden as well as some kind of ode to Lambs' Ears ("I couldn't be keener, on Stachys byzantina" - OK, that wasn't quite it, but you get the drift).
So, yet again, technology proved itself obsolete.
Ear plugs would have come in useful though.
Enjoyed this post - I use technology to deal with teenagers - I bought them both headphones so I dont have to listen to their music result
Posted by: Helen | January 18, 2010 at 12:16 PM
How delightful to listen to your daughter's little tunes. Just wait until they're in their teens...you ain't heard nothing yet.
Posted by: Jo | January 18, 2010 at 07:30 PM
Oh no, not earplugs! That sounds just wonderful. Mind you having had my ear bent all day long by a three year old I am reeling a bit so know what you mean.
Posted by: elizabethm | January 18, 2010 at 10:44 PM
My 6 year old daughter sings on the toilet. And in the car. In bed. While we're watching TV. And between mouthfuls of food. It's like white noise now.
Mind you she's better at it than me. I'm with you on Dolly Parton being made for the garden, but in my case it's because the sound that comes out of my mouth on the high notes of Joleeeeeeene could be used as an instrument of torture, so in the absence of my own private Guantanamo Bay, the garden has to do.
Posted by: Joanne Roach | January 19, 2010 at 09:20 AM
I often take my ipod with me when I'm off gardening, either in my own or someone else's. I never, ever use it tho' as I feel I'd miss out on the twitter of birds, the wind rustling the leaves on the trees, the sound of my fork going in to the ground. I recently asked a thatcher friend of mine if he used his when he was on top of someone's roof. His reply was an emphatic "No, as I'd miss the offer of tea" and I realised that it's that which I'd really be afraid of missing.
Posted by: Thursday | January 19, 2010 at 04:04 PM
Helen and Jo - I'm already dreading the teenage incarnations of my little angels...
Elizabeth - yes, it's not so much the quality as the sheer quantity sometimes
Joanne - I now have Jolene in my head - and it's not going away. Thanks!
Thursday - a particularly sound reason for an iPod free existence.
Posted by: Dawn/LittleGreenFingers | January 19, 2010 at 06:00 PM
Stachys, oh stachys with fuzzy grey lugs
You're really quite ugly but resistant to bugs.
Your leaves are revolting when soggy and wet
And your flowers are a bit shet.
But it cannot be denied
That the leaves are pleasantly velvety (at least on one side).
Damnit. Another vocation missed.....
Posted by: JamesA-S | January 22, 2010 at 12:20 PM
James - I am now eagerly awaiting your first slim volume of plant-based poetry although I will ignore the fact that you ahve been really rather rude about the lovely Lamb's Ears.
Posted by: Dawn/LittleGreenFingers | January 25, 2010 at 11:17 AM
There's definitely some poetry in this post. How adorable, and what a welcome surprise -- to have your daughter just pop out to be with you and to be in the garden. Envious... looking forward to (and hoping hoping hoping) my girl Sydney doing the same.
Posted by: invisiblebees | February 07, 2010 at 11:14 PM