online: 14 october 2011 modified: 12, 13, 14 october 2011 12 october 2011 the plot thickens
from the highest seat
...almost raining beneath light grey cloud that today envelops the city and its forest... visibility is limited to 2 or 3 hundred metres... the roof tops of the Vale of Health village are clearly visible from here but the city beyond is hidden by white mist and rain... occasional raindrops are far apart and none have yet landed on this little screen...
...as i walked here up hill i felt a new work seeking form in my thoughts (extensions of softopia)... as i looked at road surfaces, bushes, trees, houses, parked cars and forest pathways... and now (as i look up from the screen) i see strange yellowish light over the city as the rain cloud rises and thins out and shines as if of itself at several thousand feet above the city towers, still hidden...
...and now (looking more closely at the gorse and other vegetation before me) i enjoy the stillness of seedlings and grasses... and the fallen leaves, and pine cones and needles... i become aware of the quiet roar of city traffic nearby... and of the flight of a solitary bird moving across the sky just above the tree tops...
...several runners behind me stop running and get into conversation... they rest sitting or standing at this natural stopping place... and when i look again at the city i see that the tall buildings are now visible... and brightly lit with red sunlight... while the surrounding cloud is slowly changing from light grey to pale pink...
...now someone talks on a mobile phone as if the other person is present... and in voice and spirit that person is indeed as present as is the one who is phoning from here... but i suppose neither of them is really here... they are together in cyberspace, so called... (our new element... more pervasive and more dynamic than is printed literature)...
...raindrops are now falling on the screen so i stop...
...on the way to the bus stop is a sign of the times:
an animated and illuminated traffic sign* that is solar powered... and digitally controlled... to me a joy to contemplate... and i imagine it's easy to operate and use... for the moment it's showing two messages alternately:
road closed for 2 weeks 22/10/11
enquiries 0870 444 7225
...spelt out in a matrix of light bulbs...
...the plot thickens!
*Kelly Brothers, solar signs... phone 01454 31 26 75... website and videos www.kelly-bros.com
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