My Top Ten Thursday: Hobbies

I keep missing my Tuesday deadlines these last few weeks. Things are suddenly busy around me and after a quiet few months it’s hard to have to adapt again. Meanwhile, we are now in our second lockdown. You would think I would have the time right?

So this is a thing going about in the bookish community, and since I loved reading everyones TTT this week, and I wasn’t inspired to write anything this week I thought to give this a try!

1. Words
No surprise here. I love reading. Just the habit of it. The traveling. The learning. I don’t have to own all the books. It’s just that I want to know all the words. In every order. So it’s not even really the reading, but words. They say things. They can look or sound pretty or ugly. But they MEAN something. And I want to know about it. I want to see them. I want to understand.

2. Gardening/Growing things
Both inside as outside the home, I grow many things. I do have a special interest in usable plants, from veggies to herbs but also plants that I grow especially for wildlife and not just “things that look pretty”. I recently counted all the plants in my tiny home and I have 22 different varieties growing. My plot is about 70 square meters, and there is also the balcony and the tiny deck and of course all the plants I grow at my partners home!

3. Cooking and a bit of baking
I spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen. Not only because I have to (because of my celiacs), but also because I really enjoy it. It can relax me during a stressful period, to just spend a couple of hours on that one dish. And then devour it in about 15 minutes. It’s homey. It makes me feel safe. And it gives me chance to explore and learn new things.

4. Hiking
Even though I spent most of my time indoors, I love being outside. Preferably in a forest, near water, and rocks with a heath meadow right around the corner. But I can also enjoy “just a walk around the neighbourhood”. If you really look at things, there is nature everywhere.

5. Birdwatching
YEAH! BIRDS!! These get me excited a lot. I even got binoculars and a bird book and my little note book. I like the little garden birds, or the big hunting birds, or the water birds. Or… well, just about any bird I think.

6. Papercrafting
Oh paper, you are so beautiful. And even if you are plain, I can change you into something beautiful. It’s not just when there are words on it, that paper is fun. If you visited my blog (or my twitter) recently you probably noticed all the post cards I made. I like to draw paper, I like to cut paper, I like to fold paper. Wrapping presents is so much fun! Sometimes I truly believe that is my only reason for giving people gifts. Because I want to wrap.

7. Writing
Another paper-related hobby. Writing. Not specifically writing stories, I don’t think I have done that since well… a long time ago. But just writing. Putting that pen on paper. Making letters turn into words. It’s not the same as speaking. You can see them, you can keep them, you can share them, you can even hide them. They are there. To make them go away, you would have to destroy them. I penpal, write a journal and even for my paperless office I still use a pen and a notepad to keep track of everything. And of course there is this blog too! Not on paper, but it’s still making words.

8. Organizing
This next few words is what I have written in my bio and it’s true: “I am a board member of the greatest hackerspace of the Netherlands and event organizer. I love bringing people together and giving them a structure to meet while also giving them the space to be themselves.” Organizing, planning, it’s so build in into my DNA that I actually get bored if I haven’t organized a major big thing for a while. It just makes me happy.

9. Making memories
A lot of people at the end of their lives say that they wish they gave some moments in their life more attention because it’s the memories that count. So even with something like this awfully crazy sad year going on, I try to make the best of it and create new memories. Like having a summer picknick indoors. Or go hiking somewhere you have never been before and go on adventure. Trying something new. It’s doing new things that make you feel alive.

10. Learning new things
This might be similar, but it’s not. Actual learning of skills, theories, history, habits, old technology, other cultures… these are also things that make you feel alive, and maybe even keep you young, but it’s got more to do with curiosity. I often get bored with the things I know and then want to learn something different, something new. This is also the reason my hobbies tend to change a lot, from restoring old typewriters to my current bird watching episode. There’s just always something new around the corner!

Well, this went okay! It was fun having to motivate my hobbies and actually think about them. Have you ever listed your hobbies before? Do you have any similar hobbies or are they totally different? Or perhaps you are curious to try one of mine? Let me know in the comments!