Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #97- Pastimes

Over the past few months, it’s been a great comfort to be able to stay in touch with the outside world through the medium of the internet and more especially through the auspices of the WordPress community, so to say that I was thrilled, not to mention highly honored, to be asked to host this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge would be an understatement.

With so much time being spent at home, many of us have been looking for new pastimes or taking up old ones in order stay occupied or even sane. So that is my theme for this challenge – Pastimes. It could be something that you are trying for the first time or a hobby or interest that you have enjoyed for many years. Feel free to dig into the archives or take a picture to illustrate a current pastime.

If you had told me, a year or two ago, that I would be spending much of my time poring over thousands upon thousands of postage stamps, I would have laughed. But here I am, doing just that. We recently inherited my father-in-law’s stamp collection. That was his pastime; fifty years of squirreling away every stamp that ever came through the door and then some.

We had originally thought to sell the collection (6 large Rubbermaid containers) and split the proceeds between five siblings but after calling dealers and doing some research, we quickly learned that stamp collecting is a dying hobby. Nearly every member of our local stamp-collectors club is there because they inherited a collection and many stamp dealers are not interested in buying because they can’t get rid of what they’ve got. So, I offered to go through the collection and make everyone in the family, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, a commemorative album as a tribute to someone who spent so many industrious hours soaking and sorting stamps on every possible subject and from every corner of the world.

Photography has taken rather a back-seat so far this year because of travel restrictions but I love gardening, so when the weather is fine and I’m not sorting stamps, that’s where you’ll find me most days, out in the garden among the flowers. There are stamps for that!

Another pastime I’ve always enjoyed is nature spotting. For several years, I even made a note of all the birds and animals that we observed in the garden or on our walks around the various nature centers and parks. There are stamps for that too!

It’s never too late to take up a new hobby. One of the pastimes that gave me the most pleasure was one in which I never actually participated, at least not at the time. A year or so before my mother passed away at the age of 96, she became frustrated by her inability to continue her favorite pastimes of knitting and embroidery, due to macular degeneration. I persuaded her to try painting and, even though her eyesight was so bad that she could hardly recognize people in the room, she gave it her best shot and had a thoroughly good time while gaining a much-needed sense of achievement.

My problem is that I can never seem to finish any of the projects that I start. The house is filled with half-written novels, partially refurbished doll houses, never-ending family history research files and incomplete photo albums. I hope I can stay the course with the stamps and accomplish the task but new hobbies and pastimes always seem to keep popping up.

I look forward to seeing your interpretation of the Pastime theme. Please be sure to link your response to this post (use the original post link, NOT the one from the WP reader) and use the Lens-Artists TAG so we can all find you.

Finally, it would be remiss of me not to give a big shout-out to our three girls, all of whom are working at hospitals in various parts of the country. A most heart-felt thank you to all those who are concerned with our well-being and are helping to keep things running during these troubled times. Stay safe everyone!

Sue.