Creative Outlets

Hobbies - some people garden, others work on jigsaw puzzles, cartoon, or play music. What's your creative outlet when you're not writing?   

Brenda starting off the week.

My hobbies depend on the season.

In the late spring and summer, I spend a lot of time in my garden. Buying, planting, watering, weeding, dividing, putting to bed .... there's always something to be done. Then it's time to sit with a book and a cup of coffee or glass of wine and enjoy the hummingbird in the honeysuckle and the bees in the Russian sage. I also like biking or walking around my neighbourhood looking at gardens.

In the fall and winter, I turn my creativity to curling -- no, not my hair -- but the sport on ice with rocks. You might not think a game is creative, but I assure you that coming up with the strategy and figuring out how to throw the stone can take a great deal of imagination. My husband and my daughters curl too - my daughters competitively, and we spent a lot of our winters following them to bonspiels and competitions from the time they were seven and eight. My oldest daughter Lisa's career took us to the Olympics in South Korea. She went a second time to the Olympics in China during the pandemic when spectators and family were not allowed, so we watched on television. In any case, curling has occupied a lot of my time as a parent, spectator and participant.

Cooking has also been a creative outlet, one that I enjoy ... sometimes. As those in the family tasked with coming up with meals every night know, cooking can also be a drudge. Still, it's fun to try a new recipe and satisfying when it turns out. At the moment, my herb garden is overflowing, so I'm incorporating these into my meal creations as often as I can.

Writing and the business of writing take up much of my time. I also usually have a book or two on the go that I'm reading for pleasure, another time-swallower. When adding in family and friend time, exercise, looking after a house, shopping and all the day-to-day tasks, I'd say my life is busy enough! Boredom is a word I seldom use :-)

Website: www.brendachapman.ca

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