Build Those Brain Cells!

It is February and the nights are growing noticably shorter.
     It is lighter in the mornings and stays lighter longer in the evenings and the birds are certainly recognising this. It is nice to hear the dawn chorus in our garden, with one particular blackbird who seems to start it off. He is loud, proud and full of song and inventiveness and his voice seems to over-top all the others.
     This time last year I went for my first cataract operation and I still remember the wonder and amazement at the difference this made. The sharp crispness of objects, but above all the brightness of the colours of everything!
     I think this was the re-awakening of my love of colour, when I just had not realised how muted and misty my world had become.
     And it was the colours of wool, which somehow really called to me.
     At first I wanted nothing but strong and bright colours. Pale colours, pah! I'd had enough pale and watered-down shades, I wanted vibrant, deep, rich colours, colours that were proud and bold!
     Then, late last year I took a hand knitted blanket apart and it had been knitted using up all pale coloured yarns. These were made even paler because the knitter had used two yarns together usually a pale colour and white, making the overall effect even paler.
     When I had taken it apart I had loads of wool and I wanted to make something with it - and the large blanket of squares I came up with used the juxtaposition of these shades, plus the occasional deeper hue, which turned out to be far more colourful than I had ever expected.
     A week or so ago we were watching a TV programme about healthy living - now I freely admit that while watching these kinds of programmes I feel I ought to be eating a hunk of fatty meat, enhanced with a giant bag of potato crisps and washing it down with beer or a gallon or two of strong red wine. Anyway, the presenter, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, was advised that as we get older and our brain cells start dieing off, that one of the ways to stimulate the brain and encourage new brain cells to be created (yes, we can make more!) was to take up a hobby such as knitting or crochet.
     Apparently learning a new skill can help the brain create cells and learning both new stitches and how to read knitting and crochet patterns and translate the strange shorthand into something understandable, will increase both brain activity and cell renewal.
     So by learning crochet over the past year, I was actually doing myself good in more ways than one.

     Incidentally taking up any new hobby, or developing an existing one can also do the same thing. Painting or any kind of art or craft, particularly those which need hand eye co-ordination are also good ones.