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June 21, 2005 ~ Primarily for Pleasure
Tuesday.
June's WordGoddess prompt: hobbies, illustrated.
hobby n. An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure. American Heritage Dictionary.
I hike. I climb mountains, seek new trails, push myself further than I've gone before. I seek the quiet places, the wild places. I seek that which is ageless. I am most at home in the woods, each footfall is both meditation and therapy for me; it is the closest thing I have to church. Sunlight or storm, winter or summer, I hike.
And hiking is a gateway to several other hobbies for me. (No, not just giving Monty and Rose some exercise). Mountain Biking, for one, though I've had to lay off the rough biking while pregnant.
Photography, primarily nature photography. Getting the framing or lighting just right, sneaking up on some creature unawares. But mainly, what I love most about photography is the chance to share with others the beautiful things that I see:
And then there is my fascination with plants, plant identification, plant physiology, what is edible and what is not, and how various wild plants can help humans. Researching, identifying, observing, and sometimes gathering medicinal herbs has long been a fascination of mine. I have numerous books on the subject: identification guides, books on plant physiology, herbals, instruction books on gathering and preparation, medical use dictionaries. Learning the plants of a region and their uses is one of the ways that I make a place home. A while back, I combined this passion with my hobby of drawing, and made a little book collecting plant sketches and notes:
 
(click either picture for a larger version)
Just as I love identifying and observing native plants, I also immensely enjoy tracking and observing local wildlife. Birdwatching and identification can occupy me for hours. Finding deer sign or bear scat excites me far more than it should. heh. I love learning about the habits of different species, why they act the way they do.
Mocking birds, for instance. They are extremely territorial. Last year, living at the old house, we had to mow our lawn once every two weeks, and this little guy got extremely pissed off every time:
Screeched at me all puffed up the entire time, and, as soon as I walked away from the mower, attacked it as well, swooping at it, tiny talons out, landing on the handle and pecking it.
Eastern tiger swallowtails are gorgeous:
But what is that he's perched on, holding so still for me to take several pictures from only a foot away?
Well, what's a swallowtail's favorite meal? Something dead, for they are scavengers. That is a dead fish. (You're welcome. heh.) I don't know why I savor these little behavioral facts so much, but I do.
My most long-term and passionate hobby, however, (as evidenced by this journal) is writing. Writing nonfiction, journal entries, and letters tends to take most of my time, but I also occasionally delve back into fiction or poetry (which I used to do a lot more of):
Central Library--Portland, Oregon, 1997
"Excuse me, Miss?"
The bearded man with the large backpack
smiled from the chair next to mine.
"Do you know how to email?"
One of his grubby fingers
pointed to the free webmail site
loaded on his screen.
"Sure." I returned his smile.
"I don't have a phone or an address,
so I wanted to try this, instead,"
he explained, pulling a slip of paper
from his pocket.
It was as dirty as his hands
and had more creases than his face.
He cradled it
as if it were fine china,
a newborn child,
a dried rose petal,
or a carefully preserved idea.
"This is my daughter," he said
with a soft look in his eye
as he handed me his treasure.
Faded pencil lines formed
an email address.
© copyright Melissa Ray Davis
December 2001
(And yes, that was a true event. The poem was published in Pulp literary magazine, 2002, I believe).
I also love writing letters the old fashioned way on parchment with a pen dipped in an inkwell, a chance to practice my calligraphy. I just wish I had more time to write in this way. So rarely do I get a handwritten letter anymore; I love to send them out occasionally.
And closely related to writing is reading. Give me a good book and I'm happy, set to curl up in the living room for hours. Here are some of our books:
Lately, my focus has been pregnancy and childbirth books. But I love classics, the occasional nature-writing, really good history, sometimes sci-fi or fantasy, and every once in a while modern fiction. Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is my favorite novel.
Then, of course, there is writing on the web, which I obviously love to both do myself and partake of the efforts of others. Online journaling, though, is not so much a hobby as something that has become an intrinsic part of my life. I may not always have time to get entries up, but sharing my life has become an essential aspect of my day to day thought process. There always seems to be a narrative going on in my head, and I'm always thinking of how a certain experience will translate into an entry.
Of course, I cannot make a list of my hobbies without talking about the wolves. My work at the wolf and wolfdog rescue has changed my life in so many ways. (And not just through my adoption of Monty and Rose). I was hooked from the first time Delaware put his big paws on my shoulders and licked my face. In helping socialize them, building them bigger pens, taking care of little things like scooping poop or refilling water, I have learned so much. They speak in such quiet, honest ways. And that moment of breakthrough when a shy wolf finally comes over to check me out--there is nothing else like it in the world.
Morgan loves cooking, and I have slowly come to love it as well. I still have to ask him, frequently, for a clarification on which spice should be used, or what method of cooking would be best for a certain dish, but he's taught me so much. Here's a picture of a meal from the spring before last, when I collected fiddlehead ferns from Dam Pasture Trail and we steamed them and put them in a pasta dish:
My mother is a fiber artist. Many of my childhood memories of her picture her hunched over a sewing machine, fabric all around her, that whir of the machine the soundtrack. She taught me quite a bit when I was young. When Morgan bought me a used sewing machine for my birthday a few years back, I was right back in my element.
That picture features something called a "dammit doll" (a tradition of Morgan's--a doll which one beats against some hard surface over and over again whilst yelling, "dammit dammit dammit!!" heh.) and a "dream pillow." Two autumns back, I collected a whole bunch of mugwort, which was in bloom in the fields around here, and dried it. Mugwort (one of the herbs featured in those illustrations above) has many medicinal uses, but also one somewhat different use. If burned or just smelled before or during sleep, it is a powerful dream enhancer, making the subconscious more vivid and memorable. I stuffed little pillows with mugwort (along with a few drops of lavender oil) and gave a few out as Christmas presents that year. The little pillows can be slipped inside a pillowcase. This fall, however, I shall be staying away from any mugwort in bloom--it is also a powerful abortificant.
And lastly, my newest hobby:
I was taught the basics of piano when I was very young, but I wasn't very good, and I never even learned to sight-read. When we got this free piano a few weeks ago, however, I found a book on learning piano and have started practicing and fumbling my way through. Finger positions came back to me quickly, but sight-reading is going to take a while to master, that's for sure. Someday, however, hopefully in the next few years, this house is going to be filled with music.
There are so many other things. Building, for instance. I love building things (and I also love taking things apart to figure out how they work). Wood and nails and saws and screws. In the last few years, that energy has mostly been directed into building pens and the wolf rescue (and the one in our own yard). And then there is art, something I have long had a passion for, but not so much had the time for, recently. Gardening, which, alas, we do not have the space for here. Weaving, candle-making, crafting? So many things to do with my time. People ask me, "How can you survive without a television? Don't you get bored?" And I can't help but thinking, "How would I ever find the time to watch TV? I have so many other things I want to do."
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