At this time of the year we rediscover once again the joys of TV...
In fact I've put in a small note on my phone which ones to look out for.
There's the Apprentice on BBC1, Big Dreams, Small Spaces on BBC2 which will air everyday this week. Then there's the new season of Walking Dead on Fox TV, as well as American Horror Story whose previous season will also be available on Netflix sometime next week (mmmm marathon!).
Speaking of Netflix we have seen some of their new fabulous autumn film offerings like Skyfall (shame my favorite Bond girl had to die), Hunger Games: Catching Fire (which I must have seen six to seven times before on Blu-ray, still love it though!), and Nymphomaniac Volume 1 and 2 (an excellent, poignant film of an acquired taste, that despite its generous showing of graphic sex scenes it is far from titillating as it is to show the psyche behind the behaviour, and is definitely not a feel good film). Hopefully season two of Bates Motel will be available here soon too.
Oh and if we miss something (we don't just sit around after work, we do other things too...) there are always the catch up channels, digital box recording, as well as online streaming wherein you can access past episodes on demand via apps on smart TV.
Ahh don't you just love technology! And I still remember family time in my youth huddled together watching the same program on black and white TV...
So do I have enough on our must watch list? Not at all. Then there are loads of 'property porn' programmes to look forward to (interiors, designs and house building), as well as historical and documentary ones.
I think I may have elaborated enough already of some of the things we look forward to as we rediscover once again the joys of TV. But what has it got to do with gardening?
This week will be the last week wherein we'll get the chance to see the garden after work with some daylight still available even for only a short amount of time. Next weekend our clocks go backwards by an hour. Yes we gain an hour over the weekend but it also means from then onwards it will be dark already by the time we get back home from work.
Darkness, not conducive to spending time in the garden let alone take pictures.
In the spring and summer the television becomes neglected in our household, almost abandoned except perhaps for the ten o'clock news as we spend most of our free time outside, in the garden or somewhere else. But come autumn and winter the sense of hibernation sets in and warm re-acquaintance with indoor pursuits like watching TV amongst others takes over again. Activity snobs may say such a preoccupation is an unsophisticated and mostly brainless pursuit but my answer to that is, we work hard and twist our brains for most of the day like a lot of people do and surely a bit of untwisting afterwards wouldn't do any harm. Even if it's just 'watching TV'.
This is how we cycle our activities. There is always something to look forward to for every season. No time to mope during the colder months with so many other things to look forward to and be distracted with.
We do also know that this seasonal infatuation with the gogglebox will be short lived. Come early next year it's likely that we'll find Walking Dead drab and depressing and not watch the latter episodes until the season finale. Interest in American Horror Story is likely to linger. Patronage of property porn shows are likely to persist although they may start to fade later on into just becoming a background noise in the house as we think about and plan for the coming growing season ahead. Then later a new cycle begins as we abandon the TV all over again...
Although before we do that, for a few moments and something to look forward to early next year, we may see something very familiar on our screen. Familiar faces staring back at us from the screen, in a place that is also very familiar to us too. And a reminder how fabulous last summer was ;)
Mark :-)
