Absolute Newby confused about why project in the rendering queue has null value for start time

I'm just trying out After Effects to see if I can generate an animated title for a Youtube video. I created a simple project with some photos that appear in a staggered fashion. Then I chose: File->Export-> Add to Render Queue. 

I have not set any preferences so I have whatever is the default. Also, I just downloaded AE from Adobe today so it is up-to-date.

I see my project in the Render Queue (Window->Render Queue). But it hasn't started rendering and it's been there for a few hours. I've tried unqueuing it, requeuing it, restarting AE. AE is not using any CPU and and just sits idly doing nothing. I read online that sometimes you have to "restart the rendering queue" but I can't find any instructions for that. 

I'm on Windows 11.

Do you need to know anything else? I've attached a screenshot of the Render Queue. On the theory that my settings for the rendering where too big of an ask, I reduced them to Quality=Draft and Resolution=Half but that hasn't helped.

Thank you.

Margaret