Today’s Picture: 1 Oct 20

On By stuartakenIn Nature, opinion, Photography
Dusk in the forest.

Yesterday, I ended my short annual period of online absence. You should try it: if you’re old enough, it will remind you what life was like before we were all enslaved by the social pressure of constant availability. If you’re too young to know such freedom, you’ll learn it’s possible to go through a day without being at the constant beck and call of your mobile phone. You never know, you might even talk with someone face to face; wouldn’t that be fun?

Yesterday, it also rained here, which meant we were unable to wander our forest until dusk. I was able to capture some of that end of the day light with my phone, so I present a shot from the final few yards before we reached home.

While I was offline, I also took a break from the UK madness of Boris Johnson and his team of incompetents and visited the Greek island of Kos. There’ll be a short series of posts on here to share that trip with you. Hopefully, the first instalment will appear tomorrow.

If you’re visiting here, please be generous to those who can’t escape their own four walls at present, and share this widely with them on social media, so they can enjoy it. Thank you.

11 thoughts on “Today’s Picture: 1 Oct 20”

  1. Pingback: Today’s Picture: 1 Oct 20 | In the Net! – Stories of Life and Narcissistic Survival

  2. Beautiful photo, Stuart.
    It sounds as though you had a very refreshing break.
    I am unfortunately tethered to my phone because of my job. I’m looking forward to the day when I can forget it at home. 😉

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    1. Thanks, Lynette. It was an interesting break; details to follow in a short series of posts on here.
      I fear for the welfare of today’s workers; that constant need to be accessible is unhealthy and permits no proper relaxation. While we were away, on holiday, we overheard another supposed holidaymaker on his phone, clearly getting very angry with someone at his place of work: the impression was that he was one of the bosses and some action in his absence had upset him. Such people seem to be unable to relax and allow others to take responsibility. I always followed the maxim, ‘a good manager is someone who isn’t missed when absent’, because I made sure my deputies and team were well trained, capable, and felt valued. I know some occupations require constant availability, but I’m sure it isn’t good for those involved. We seemed to manage okay in the past…

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      1. I agree totally. I do have to be available most of the time, and yes, it’s very draining. I was on holidays in the Dominican Republic when covid hit, and I was suddenly back at work via phone, FaceTime and Zoom, holiday or not. No shouting though, thankfully.

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        1. One has to wonder to whose advantage is this reliance on specific individuals to perform certain duties, make certain decisions. What would those in ultimate charge do if that individual were to be out of touch for technical reasons, or due to illness? I guess they’d have to find someone else to take over. Of course the workplace is so often set up to ensure employees feel obliged, for the sake of their career, to be ever available, Lynette. But, in the long term, such pressure does neither the individual, nor the company, any good. You keep safe and stay well.

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          1. I agree. My 2IC would have to take over. However, it’s not usually this intense; covid has escalated everything because of all the precautions and safety protocols we have to follow. I am thinking of retiring earlier, though. My plan was for one year and nine months (yes, counting down the months) from now, but maybe it’s a fair bit closer.

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            1. I recall the countdown to my final employment. I was due to retire on my 65th birthday, but the whole system I was working on at the time was due for a complete overhaul, which would have involved me in significant retraining for the final weeks. That seemed a waste of time and resrources, so I checked on the pension situation and discovered an earlier termination would reduce my monthly income by only a pound or so. I left at the end of the financial year, 5th April, and began recovering from my ten years of stress-related ME/CFS almost immediately! It was the best move I made in my working life.
              Hope the time before you reach the stage you can retire goes quickly and smoothly for you, Lynette. You’ll find retirement rewarding, I’m sure. I’m so much busier now, I wonder how I found the time to go to work!

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    1. Very wise, Rebecca. I take mine with me, but there’s effectively no signal in the forest, so I can’t be contacted, but I can measure my physical activity after the walk!

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