Spare Time?

 

Terry here, and this week we are talking about our hobbies – no, not the “hobby” of writing novels, but creative outlets other than writing. 

Some people garden, others work on jigsaw puzzles, cartoon, or play music. I do most of those things, except cartooning. Wouldn't even know where to begin. I also don't actually do "gardening," because I don’t have a garden. But I attempt to green my environment with lots of potted plants, which take their own bit of care. 

 I used to sing, and belonging to at least one chorus for years. I would also sing and play the guitar. I never felt the need to perform, but just enjoyed the singing. In recent years that has fallen away. Oddly, I don’t listen to music as much as I used to, either. I think it’s because I find air pods irritating and I don’t want to broadcast my music throughout the house, so it doesn’t get played at all. I’m thinking it’s time to revise that. 

 I do the daily New York Times crossword every day. And I like to do jigsaw puzzles. I even bought myself a fancy jigsaw puzzle board that has slide-out drawers for sorting colors. During Covid, I actually did a 3,000-piece puzzle that was given to me by Camille Minichino who said she and her husband just couldn’t tackle it. Except for the 15 pieces that my dogs chewed up when they fell on the floor, I finished the whole thing. 

 Then there’s reading. I guess you could call it a hobby, but it feels more like a lifeline. I read a lot of mysteries, but also read other types of books as well—mostly fiction, but some non-fiction. I read classics, mainstream, sci-fi, you name it. 

 But my best creative outlet is cooking. After a day of writing, even if I’m tired, cooking relaxes me. I love to cook, and there is hardly a night when my husband doesn’t remark that whatever we are having is superior to anything we could get in a restaurant. Which is an exaggeration, but I do enjoy cooking.

I like to try new recipes and revise old ones. I can enjoy making a simple meal as much as an elaborate one, because I know that the nuances of taste can be teased out with only the smallest bit of the right herbs. 

 But I also enjoy coming across a challenging recipe and taking the time to make it. I have a recipe for a 9-layer cake with different flavors of crisp meringue and layers of different flavors of custard. It takes a lot of time, but the end result is magnificent. I served it at a dinner party and one of the guests asked for the recipe. I told her I’d be glad to pass it along but that I knew she wouldn’t make it. She insisted that she loved to cook and that of course she would make it. Two days later she called me and said she had just read the recipe. Then she said, “Are you crazy? Who would make this?” The funny thing is that once you got the rhythm of it, it was fairly easy to do.

 Because I love to cook, I enjoy going to the farmer’s market, and sometimes I overbuy because the sight of all those beautiful vegetables sparks such creative ideas. The colors of purple eggplants, red or gold tomatoes, green or yellow zucchinis, snowy white fennel bulbs is irresistible. The scent of basil and cilantro. The exotic look of the variety of mushrooms. Freshly-made pasta. I rarely have a time when I don’t feel like cooking. 

And my last “hobby” is exercise. Again, it feels more like a lifeline than a hobby. I bike (okay trike), hike, and do on-line exercise classes 2-3 times a week. Believe it or not, I look forward to all of it. 

 I look forward to reading what my fellow “Minds” do as hobbies.