Hobbies

January has been really, really weird in our neck of the woods. In the dead of winter, it's been either too warm or too cold to get outside and have some fun. Since the usual activities were canceled, we've ended up stuck inside with only our hobbies or Netflix for entertainment.  

Of course the Christmas decorations could have been taken down, but thanks to their perpetual procrastination disorder (which is a totally made up and self-diagnosed condition), the Crew still hasn't done that. This is what happens when the Halloween decorations stay up until the middle of December and you hang the last ornaments on the tree the day after Christmas.

   

According to several silly and totally unnecessary web sites (the kind I can't get enough of), January is National Hobby Month and the second Monday is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. They've probably been around for awhile but this is the first I've heard of them. No one in this household needs any more hobbies but that desk could use some decluttering. To be fair, there's nowhere for anything to go until the Christmas decor comes down. Maybe February should be Get Your Hobbies Under Control Month and Put Those Christmas Decorations Away Month?

His Madness never stops making pinhole cameras, so this is nothing new for him. 

I don't know if gardening is actually a hobby for me or if  I just like planting flowers. In any case, it's not easy to get into a pastime that comes to a complete halt for six months and the garden centers apparently understand this. These cute plants can be planted in the garden in spring. If they live.

In January there's also a lot of talk online about garden design. For me, that usually results in placing an overly ambitious order from a nursery while totally forgetting what already lies beneath the snow. Apparently, it's never too early to acquire seeds that you can't possibly plant for a couple of months and won't remember where you put them when planting time actually comes around.

At the moment, the Calamitous Garden isn't looking too bad, thanks to the blizzard that dropped the most snow we've seen since Halloween. Until recently, it was a very unattractive shade of brown. Sunny skies followed and brought below zero temps for a whole week and now it's in the mid 30°F. Such strange weather but at least the snow is pretty. 

Burt and Ivy's hobby is frightening the neighbors and that's an ongoing thing no matter what season it is. They do like to enhance the experience with a spooky jack-'o-lantern and are currently holding a serious debate about which leftover pumpkin to carve. The yellow one was picked green before a freeze and it has "ripened" while sitting on the kitchen floor. It also might not actually be a pumpkin, not that they really care, but it could be a little iffy on the inside. The other two came from the local supplier and seem okay. 

Since it's winter, they opted for the Ghost pumpkin. It was hard as a rock but not rotten inside.

Looks like they're all set for the evening. Happy January 31st everyone!

A very late Happy New Year to all and thanks for stopping by.