#screenless hobbies

[siena-sevenwits]

Look what I got!

[siena-sevenwits]

Hopes for this Fall that feel seasonal in one way or another:

Have a hot chocolate buffet for my lower high schoolers

Bonfire in the backyard - I've loved them all summer and I need more, with good conversations into the late evening. And maybe make campfire apple crisp over it.

Get back into Brothers Karamazov properly, and continue annotating. It's an autumnal feeling book, in its way.

Write more letters, especially to my friend who is a Benedictine, and to @rowenabean (I've taken far too long to get our fictional correspondence going, but I finally did it today!)

Bring my housemates to one of my two favourite used bookstores in the city. (They know the other one - they must be introduced to this one, or it will be a crime.)

Read a Harry Potter book (enjoyed reading a couple last fall, and it feels like it could be a nice tradition to continue - maybe try out one of those knock-off butterbeer recipes while I'm at it?)

Make French onion soup with some really nice cheese and bread. Also a butternut squash soup.

Half-Inktober

Lead another stargazing night for our school families (already scheduled!)

Hold my Sherlock Holmes party (my month is nearly here!)

Hand out candy to kids for trick or treat! (For a multiplicity of reasons, I have never had the opportunity to do this! I kind of want to see if the housemates would be okay with my doing up the doorway area LOTR-themed, because I have things i could use to dress up as a hobbit, and it would maybe be acceptable even for my housemates who are maybe a little iffy about Halloween - ooh, or maybe pirate themed? I do have a helm!)

[siena-sevenwits]

I've been a boring teacher lately. It's time to be not-boring. I'm making Ancient Roman snacks for my kids, because it ties in to our unit. So I've got some reconstructed recipes from the Classics department at UPenn up on my screen. Going to make honey cheese cakes and stuffed, drizzled dates. In my experience kids like it to be a little different from what they're used to, but not too far out on a limb. These should work.

Perhaps I'll put on some reconstructed/speculative Roman music while I work.

[siena-sevenwits]

I am going to be working at my museum again this summer once school ends, and I have decided i want to leave my phone in my locker every day. I'll have a radio to communicate with other staff, and a watch, so it's doable.

I've decided I want to learn to knit and crochet beyond the basic, one basic stitch only, no-pattern things I used to make as a child (I just made super basic scarves.) What's the best way to get started that won't overwhelm me?

Any other portable handicrafts I should be thinking about that would look at home on the prairies in the 1920's (just in case anyone sees me) or are easy to hide, that don't require a lot of stuff?

[siena-sevenwits]

Good Latin this morning. Now have the rest of the day off and am making a fancy-ish afternoon tea for St Joseph’s Day, for my family to enjoy.

[siena-sevenwits]

So - creative sparks for 2025. Like last year, I'm going say this isn't as much a plans list, so much it is a list of things between hopes and goals.

Make some grand, handmade toy for my niece

Sketch more or less every month with gaps for when some other creative joy just takes the helm and won't let go

Share some original fiction on tumblr

Send more letters through the post and get creative with them

Learn to cook a meal I've never cooked before, ideally once a month, with really inexpensive ingredients

Memorize at least one poem I would really enjoy performing

Direct Twelfth Night and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at school and build a set piece or major prop for each myself (maybe with my dad's help)

Learn some really basic embroidery that's good for embellishing collars and cuffs of costumes

Curate my video watching online - maybe I'll only watch videos from channels I subscribe to and never look at the algorithm. Tumblrize my Youtube, I suppose! And curate it so that there's an emphasis on videos that are good for my walk with God and my creative life.

Throw a dinner - a really themey dinner

Keep Saltmarsh going at least a few more months and end the story on a satisfying note

Read more stories written by friends and comment

[siena-sevenwits]

One of the most fun things about playing dnd with my brother is that we both go guiltlessly wild on all the most cliche tropes and silly plotlines. The medium demands it for maximum fun.

Bring on the small town with a ridiculously high incidence of adventure and mystery! Bring on a nation of pirates! Bring on the servant who's been hypnotizing his employer! Oops, accidentally asked the self-professed gold-digger out to the end-of-the-season ball and can't honourably back out of it now! The so-called haunted house that was really just a cover for a smugglers' lair (except then it turned out there were some skeletons with swords in there!) The respectable tavern, the evil tavern, and the fun tavern! The love potion! The body floating in the harbour with a tattoo identifying him as a member of the sinister organization who've been pulling strings behind the scenes! Estranged brother and sister who are slowly but surely growing close again because of the wacky shenanigans and adventures the main character brought into their lives! Somebody's not human but isn't aware of this fact! An island from which no ships return, except the one where all the crew had gone mad! A random crocodile unexplainably on the loose!

[siena-sevenwits]

I had a whim to make a little panorama of some of the things taking up my attention lately. So here are a few of them:

Drawing my sketches for the 'Tober challenge

Writing letters with friends

Falling slowly back in love with praying the Liturgy of the Hours

Making up the story of Saltmarsh with my brother during our tabletop game time

Auditions for "Twelfth Night" (don't I just wish we had a theater like this one!)

Lesson planning for my history classes

Writing the script for my middle schoolers' show (Dawn Treader is in the public domain in Canada, for your information. ;-)

Revisiting Canterbury in my heart (and by looking at lots of photos)

Writing and researching this story, "The Iron Gate," that I'm having such a good time with right now

Reading and rereading lots of school stories to keep up the mood for my story and to allow homages

My father will hear of this!

Trying to make a better habit of practicing mercy (reading through Fr. Michael Gaitley's book right now)