Winter is Coming

Winter is Coming!

Winter is coming. What should we do with our time? Puzzles, quilting, reading, snow shoeing, snowmobiling, skating, knitting? Just not sure? Let me share some memories and ideas. One thing is for sure – don’t be bored!

Rug hooking (latch hook kits) would be one of my first choices. If you aren’t familiar with rug hooking, it’s having a hard piece of canvas/silicone type material with holes in it with a pre-stamped coloured design on it. The design can be very simple or quite intricate, there are hundreds of patterns to choose from. Then you have a special tool – a latch rug hook, referred to as a crochet hook, but it’s not a true crochet hook! Various packages of different coloured wool. Match the colour of wool to the colour on the canvas and away you go. Recommended age is 7 and up. Easy peasy! And it doesn’t take up much room so it’s easy to put away when you’re not working on it. And relatively inexpensive, depending on the design and the size you choose.

Now this is where my memory starts that I want to share with you and rug hooking. My Granny was very dear to my heart and my childhood. I have talked about her before, but anyways here is a new story. For those of you that may have purchased my cookbook /book “A Baker’s Dozen” I have referred to her before. Rug hooking - what is it? You take those little pieces of wool and match them to the pattern on the piece of canvas and hook them to the canvas. The rug would sometimes be 24x16. That’s a lot of little pieces of wool to hook into a rug that size.

Rug hooking was a fun filled time passer in the winter. The stories we shared and the laughter. I often spent a good part of my weekend or when I wasn’t in school at my grandparent’s house. We would start with some hot chocolate, some home-made cookies, maybe some chips and then the question – what would you like to do? As a child I loved doing some time of craft or learning how to make something. More often than not out would come the rug hooking kit that she was working on. Sometimes I had my own smaller kit – making it easier to finish a smaller project for a child. Rug hooking was easy as you didn’t have to be especially talented. Watch the colour pattern, take a piece of wool and latch it to the correct colour on the canvas. And then just laugh and visit – that was about it. These were always fun times when I was visiting with my Granny. She loved me unconditionally. I wish I had journalized my visits and my memories I had with my Granny growing up so I could remember them all today. (That’s another whole topic in itself – keeping a journal.)

We also had a bachelor neighbor growing up and when we went to his house in the winter, he always had a rug hook kit started as well. While he visited with my dad us kids would grab the hooks and work on his creation for him too.

It is important to spend time with people around you that you love. Do you have little people to spend time with? Do you need a puppy? What are you doing with your time?

Find a hobby. That’s what I think. For women this seems easy. We sew, we cook, we clean. Our lives seem to always be busy. Can I just sit and read a book? That’s hard for me. I sit down to relax; I see some dust – I think I better grab a cloth and remove that dust. Next thing I know I’m dusting the house. Good grief! Just relax.

What should you learn to pass your time? Here are some ideas. Learn to become a dog groomer (good money in grooming dogs too)! A Walmart greeter? Don’t laugh – everyday you meet new people. People are interesting. Listen to them talk. You can learn so much in just a few short seconds. We were gifted with 2 ears and one mouth. Learn to listen – to anyone that is talking to you. How about bird watching? Birds are very interesting to watch and learn about. Put a bird feeder outside your window and start identifying them. Lots of bird books out there to help you with this.

So, what’s next as we enter our senior years? Learn to be still. Just sit. Be quiet. Watch the world around us. Meditate, what does that mean? For me? Just relax. Shut down for 2 minutes. I have a FitBit. It has a 2 minute relax mode. I can breathe and relax and have a 30 second nap. I then wake up and feel refreshed. I often set my timer for 15 minutes over my lunch hour, just close my eyes and relax.

Perhaps travelling and exploring the world around us is what you would like to do. There are so many fantastic places to see in the world. Times have changed with a pandemic around us, some people are back to travelling abroad while others are fine staying closer to home for now. Find your own comfort zone. People have discovered a lot of things to do and see in Saskatchewan as well as Canada.

And then there’s YouTube. Want to replace the motor in your ’68 Camaro? You can find a video with instructions on how to do this. How about that carburetor in your old Harley Davidson? Same thing, you can find anything you need to know on that good old internet. Which leads me to my next thought. Do you have a computer? How about a cell phone? Where are you at with technology? Did you get left behind? Didn’t bother to learn how to use technology? See if you can take a class at your local college, school or maybe even your church offers a course on how to conquer the cell phone/computer and internet.

Here’s another idea – how about those little Kitty Cat Arctic Cat snowmobiles. Did you know you can soup them up so they can go faster than 12 mph. Buy some kind of a speed up kit for $200 - and bammm, now that machine goes 30 mph.  It’s a crazy world we live in. So much information available at the tips of our fingers.

Find something you want to do. Learn some culinary skills. It is unlimited. The world is so big and we have access to so much knowledge. You can learn anything you want to – and age isn’t a factor.

Take care from the warmth of my armchair. We now have winter around us. We went from dry ground to snow covered fields and yards. Guess I am off to spending some time with the snowmobile now. A great way to enjoy winter. Which in closing – find a winter outdoor activity you enjoy, winter isn’t nearly as long when you enjoy getting outdoors.

What kind of a song is in store for you to listen to this time?

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – 1967 – a philosophy of determination and perseverance.

Do what you want – be who you want to be!