Features and blogging

Dictionary.com’s first example for ‘Stockpile’ is

‘A supply of material, as a pile of gravel in road maintenance’

I don’t have any gravel or roads that require maintenance (unless you count my carpets, which could all do with a good vacuum). My meaning is more to do with collecting words for times when I need a quick upload.

More of us are comfortable with the theory of stockpiling social media snippets for situations when we’re not in a position to think, write and post one. If we subscribe to the idea that our blogs, Insta pages, LinkedIn profiles, and other social plants all need constant watering, then we need to garden in advance.

I wrote this last year at mid-Easter-break when those of us in possession of school-age children were knee-deep in ‘holidays’ (compounded this year by the dreaded Lockdown). I use quote marks because it might have been a holiday for my son but it wasn’t for me. Luckily I’d worked it all out in advance:

• I’d already worked out how many posts I needed, being careful to avoid adding more than usual.

• One of the posts had a timely chocolate theme: always prepare for the seasons..

• I’d checked to see if the Airbnb had WiFi – it did (increasingly this is becoming an essential facet for anyone booking homestays, whether they’re freelance or not).

• I’d added a reminder to my phone so i wasn’t on a high hill in Snowdonia at the precise moment of sending said post – thanks to the polite phone bleep I hit ‘Save & Publish’ the night before.

• I’d packed lots of nice wine in case of emergencies – any emergency, not just work-related.

I’ll be doing this for all remaining school holidays between now and university (him, not me), so there’s no chance of my stock ever running out of piles.

Happy planning!