A cup of tea and a well-earned magazine

I love to read.  I'll read anything in print, the back of the cereal box, a dropped newspaper on the bus, the small print at the back of a rail timetable... I'm serious!

Of course, I love to read books and always have one on my bedside table.  I'm currently reading "Scanning the Century - The Penguin Book of the 20th Century in Poetry" and have also got "Clash of Kings" by George R. R. Martin (book 2 of Game of Thrones) lined up.

If though, like me, you tend to lose yourself in a book, it's difficult to read one when there are other people around.  Especially if those other people are aged two, four and forty-six and require some attention.  In those circumstances it's nice to have a magazine to dip in to.  I like a magazine when I'm on holiday, for waiting outside pre-school if I've arrived early, for a quick five minutes while they are in the bath, and for long car journeys.  I have discovered though, that when I'm shelling out cash for a short-term magazine, I'm quite fussy.  I don't want to pay for articles about fashion, hair or make-up because they just don't interest me.  I definitely don't want gossip.

What that leaves me with are quite a few magazines which I enjoy reading (Prima, Essentials, Good Housekeeping).  I do like the cookery, gardening and craft sections, but I don't think I quite fit the target demographic.  They aren't quite the fit I'm looking for.

I quite like magazines about homes and interiors, such as Real Homes and Your Home but prefer a bit more variety in subject matter.

For a while I subscribed to Gardener's World but found that after you'd read what to do each month for a year, and not had the time or money to do it or buy it, you may as well just go back to your back copies each month.

I subscribed to The Green Parent for a while too.  I liked the philosophies, and unlike other parenting magazines, you weren't awash with adverts for plastic stuff, equipment, toys, formula milk, nappies and so on that you just don't need.  Once I'd got past the pregnancy, birth, cloth nappy and baby-wearing stage though, much of the magazine became irrelevant, so that subscription finished too.

So where does that leave me?  What magazines do I read?
I love these ones (plus I get Natures Home from the RSPB and Scouting from The Scout Association):

I subscribe to this one and love it.

this is another one that I splash out on every now and then for some brilliant inspiration

I adore this one, and splash out when I'm on holiday