I need a hobby!

[Hopthegoodgod]

I am a full time teacher aged 60. I live in a rural area and desperately looking for a hobby. I find during the working week, I'm too exhausted to do anything but would love to fill my weekends and school holidays. I've tried pottery and sculpture ( loved it but expensive). Gym doesn't appeal ( I did this for years). What hobbies have people found rewarding in their later years? I' m fit and healthy but lack motivation atm.

Painting/drawing, given that you are visually creative.

I am only a little younger than you, and volunteer at a horse sanctuary. Ticks a lot of boxes for me 😊

How about colouring books?
Drawing or painting would seem a good option. There are loads of online tutorials.

I’m a similar age but live in a city. Until lockdown I didn’t own a TV licence and had only the vaguest notion of streaming platforms. By last year I was signed up to everything and had become glued to my screens. So I’ve gradually stopped almost all my subscriptions - and signed up for Curzon membership. Up to seven ‘free’ tickets a week! It sounds sedentary - but it’s an hour’s walk through one of my favourite areas of town and college woods and meadows to get to the cinema. So I get to feel virtuous, with a G&T at the end of the walk.

And it’s so much fun to be able to talk about films as soon as they’re out.

I find it helps to have a few that I can choose from, I'm not always in the mood for a specific activity. Drawing (sketchbooks and pens from The Works or Flying Tiger so not expensive, tutorials on YouTube), knitting/crochet (free patterns from Ravelry, tutorials on YouTube, the only real outlay is the wool and that doesn't have to be expensive), embroidery are all good indoor ones. I've never enjoyed painting on canvas or doing watercolour much but I do enjoy picking up blank cheap wooden boxes and painting them up using acrylics. If you can draw, you can do this (and if you can't, you can trace designs to paint on).

Walking (anything from an hour to a 50k) which also incorporates birdwatching and a bit of foraging, gardening or going to volunteer sessions with a local ecology/green spaces charity, visiting old buildings like churches and photographing them are all more outdoor ones.

I can switch between them depending on weather and mood.

How about embroidery?