A MAN NEEDS A HOBBY.

One of the first things I made, Ideal for standing your
phone on, when not in use.

Before I get into the main thread of this week's Blog Let me ask have you ever got up and  wondered what you were going to do for the day? Well, we started off that way this morning it wasn’t the brightest of mornings, overcast and dull. During the lockdown, we have seen very few people to really interact with and today looked set to be much the same. Until 10am when my phone rang and a friend asked if I would help pick their potatoes, which with nothing to do I was more than happy to oblige so off I went. Valerie stayed home, When the potatoes were picked and our friends insisted I pick Valerie up to come and share lunch, and so what started out as a normal quiet day ended up as a lovely time with our friends and their family. Thank you so much.

Time was when we grew our own, but it's hard work
Now I am happy to help others.

But now back to the plot. “Every man needs a hobby” so said someone, but it's finding the right one that's important.

Those of you out there over a certain age (shall we say the more mature folk), I am sure will remember as kids having all sorts of hobbies, let me see, there was collecting matchbox tops or stamps, some would collect cigarette packets or dare I say it, birds eggs, which we would stick into scrapbooks or in the case of birds eggs put them carefully into perhaps a shoebox lined with cotton wool. Most of us had something we collected and were very enthusiastic about it. But as time went by our interest died and these things were left behind. Apart from the local Flower show where perhaps we could compete in running races ( for monetary prizes) or racing at school sports, it wasn’t until secondary school that we were introduced to things like the discus or javelin, hockey and cross country running, etc. Then only if you had the aptitude for something particular could it be developed into a hobby or pastime.

I tried stamp collecting.

 would love to be able to play a musical instrument but remember from infant school trying to play the recorder. ( The most I could get out of mine was a high pitched squeal and a very poor rendition of London's burning) My parents bought me a piano and I had lessons from a neighbour who smoked like a chimney. Did I succeed? No, I could just about get a tune together to sing at my own pace, try as I might. Later on, I tried the saxophone, and again just a squeak or a wheeze, I remember preaching to a congregation while I was trying the Sax and saying the potential was in the instrument to make a great sound but it was I who had to blow and make the sound come out. ( Like us all we have the potential within us for good or bad. It all depends on who has their hand upon our lives guide us.) But back to my musical aspirations, in the end, I just resigned myself to the fact that my eye/brain and hand coordination just didn’t work.

I tried learning the piano.
PS, no it's not me.

I tried painting but all the colours ran together and made the paper soggy. I’m not a painter I had to admit.

Still, I wanted to find that hobby that would give me some sense of achievement but where was it?

Now all of this might ring bells with you or not as the case may be.

Then we moved to Latvia and I found myself almost an acre of land to fill most of my days. I was able to put what I had learned from different jobs I had had into practice and create what I consider to be a lovely garden. Was this to be my hobby? No, I now think of it more as a labour of love, and it still fills a large part of my time. But what about the days when it rains or the snow is deep with the ground frozen like iron.

Well I guess one can always make a snowman.

Now I do like to take pictures and have a reasonable camera, I like to think I take a nice picture (occasionally) sometimes a friend (who is a professional photographer) will encourage me with a positive comment. Could I make it a real hobby? Probably not I don’t understand the technical side of things and it could cost me a lot of money to pursue it on a deeper level. So I will just call it a pastime for now.

One from the early days here in Latvia.

But now we come to the point of this week's blog. Those of you who have visited us will know that we have a basement which comprises of six rooms, one being a garage. The others are a boiler room, three storage rooms, and my workshop, yes I have a workshop in which I make repairs to my tools and machines, and at times fiddle with bits and pieces. But now most of all I am able to pursue, Wait for it , drum roll please, yes, my hobby. Finally, after so long a time I have found something that fills that hobby shaped gap, I like to scroll saw. I’m a scroll sawyer, I cut shapes in wood, I make things from wood and yes I make lots of sawdust, but I enjoy it it’s my hobby! It’s a hobby that can be as simple or complicated as I want to make it, it’s inexpensive I use old pallet wood or bits of plywood, and while doing it, it gives me time to think about perhaps more important things.

My workbench

Screws, drill bits, odds, and ends there all there some where.

Spare storage space.

I made a stand and turned a drill into a sander

A tool to turn wheels

My belt sander became a bench sander.

And my pride and joy, my
scrollsaw.

But most of all I enjoy it. Every man should have a hobby, it's only take me sixty years to 

find mine.

So what have I made well here are a few things.

Just a few things, from cheese boards to cars, reindeer, cranes 
money boxs and gifts of all kinds.