The magazine backlog

I had again allowed a backlog of magazines to accumulate.  I hadn't been this behind for some time.  I usually read magazines on rainy afternoons and train journeys and clearly both had been sparse since around May.  I can tell this as I had four publications sitting there with every edition since May.

This pile of magazines was nagging at me and it was not making me happy. There is no point in having these magazines if they just become dust-catchers and spider resorts.   I had a week away coming up so I shoved all the magazines into a bag and stuffed them in the car to come with me.
Every morning whilst waiting for the rest of the house to wake up I sat and read some magazines.  At first I mainly flipped through pretty quickly. Then an article would catch my eye and I would read it. About eight magazines into this reading-binge I was paying even more attention. I was starting to focus on the planting schemes more and more.  I was starting to stare at these pictures of garden perfection and think about my own garden and not finding my garden standing up well to this comparison.  

Now these kind of thoughts can lead to different states of mind.  I could fall into a 'what's the point I can never achieve this perfection, I shall just give up'; or, as is more my general state of mind, I get a bit excited thinking about how I can improve my garden.

At this point I can hear garden magazine editors slapping their foreheads in despair and shouting at the screen 'you dozy mare, that is the point of my magazine!'  Indeed it is and thank you, you have. I think in particular I've had a bit of a breakthrough with revamping my front garden.

The conclusion from all this is that I should not let the backglog get so big again and, very importantly,  I need to be more realistic in the time I have available to actually read garden magazines.   

Comments

  1. In summer I'm often behind with reading garden magazines. Winter is the time for all the magazines and books I wanted to read in summer.

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    1. That's a good point, I do read more when I can't get out in the garden.

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  2. What do you do with blog posts?

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    1. Mine I've already read but I do sometimes track back to remind myself of things. Other peoples are more immediate, I read them straightaway that I see them, I don't stockpile.

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  3. Interesting. I know so little about when where and how people read thinkingardens. Would hate to think of it as an oppression...Xx

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  4. Dear Alison
    I can sympathise as some months I have a backlog of magazines too. Sometimes we are just too busy actually gardening!
    Best wishes
    Ellie

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  5. The weathers turned now, so might be more chance to read them. I take them to six acre cafe and sit and read them there with a cake and hot chocolate. Then i leave them there, so I can't be tempted to let them pile up and gather dust. I'm trying to be tidier at home. Not very successfully!

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  6. The problem is that they are like buses, you wait for ages for them to arrive, then they all come at once!

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  7. Over the past few months a terrible backlog of magazines and blog posts built up and I am still working on the whittling them down. Magazines are a particular problem... I don't want to flip through the pages too quickly but reading them often takes more time than I have to spare. I try to read blog posts as they come in but the longer ones sometimes end up in a 'blogs to read when I get around to it' file... which is a big mistake because I rarely get around to it. And this is a pity since these blogs are often the most interesting.

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