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Walking with a friend in the Hertfordshire countryside this afternoon, we stopped beneath a tall tree to listen to the sweetest birdsong.

Here, something I did learn in my youth: the names of different kinds of birds and trees. I recognised this as the song of a coal tit even before I caught sight of it.

And with that, I was set off on a new train of thought: this is the life I want, working out here in the wild, not sitting at a computer all day, every day, worrying about cyber security.

Keeping up the latter, of course, will be important, to provide a supplementary income, should crops fail or the unexpected occur. But I’d hope it would be a few days here and there, just to keep the current account topped up.

I am a tech nerd, it’s true, but only really by accident. I’d rather be typesetting a book, or providing advice on crafting accessible content for the web. There’s too much stress in the technical domain for me.

I want to be working the land, tending to our homestead farm, using my hands, listening to birdsong, smelling the earth.

That’s the romantic vision, anyway. No doubt there are gardeners out there dreaming of a career in IT. Grass always greener on the other side, etcetera.