Hello,

This quote from Kurt Vonnegut started us thinking about how a hobby can help us to enjoy life to the full. Have you found over the last year that you’ve gone back to an old pastime or taken up something new? Maybe you’ve dug out an unfinished knitting or sewing project, dusted off a musical instrument, tackled learning a language or started gardening.

If so, the benefits of absorbing yourself in an activity are well-documented. Learning something new, in particular, strengthens mental agility and can help create connections in your brain, whatever your age! Of course, it’s also fun, relaxing and a great way to meet other like-minded people. And, if you choose a craft or a creative hobby it’s a wonderful way to bring some colour into your life, your home and your wardrobe.

Whatever your hobby, there’s sure to be plenty of inspiration online, and Youtube in particular is a great place to find tutorials or advice. A quick search just brought up results for everything from drawing cartoons to baking brownies, so there is something for every interest!

One of the things we’ve been enjoying lately is trying to learn how to identify birds by their song, so we were delighted when a friend recommended the free BirdNET app. It’s been developed by a team of biologists and engineers to create tools for the automatic recognition of bird calls; you simply record a snatch of birdsong and the app will analyse it and tell you what kind of bird is singing. The only challenge after that is to try and remember which bird it is for next time…

~~~~~

We’d love to hear in the comments about your favourite pastimes and whether you’ve discovered something new this year.

Until next time, stay safe and well,

Claire and Sam