I don’t keep a daily diary, but I’ve recently started a journal for one of my favorite hobbies: backyard bird-watching. Since I live in an urban environment, I don’t get many species—sparrows, mourning doves, and grackles are my dependable regular guests—but there’s also a downey woodpecker who shows up from time to time, a couple of finches, one cardinal, and two bluejays. And then, just two days ago, a beautiful red-winged blackbird! I couldn’t get a good picture of him, but I’m still thrilled that he stopped by.

At any rate, I have a lovely RLH Notor that I’ve been meaning to put to good use, and birding suddenly seemed like the perfect thing to do with it. For now, I’m just going to record the species I see each day, but I suppose I might eventually supplement that with other facts and information. Later on, I can flip back through the journal and remember all the wonderful birds that I’ve seen. I just wish I’d had the idea earlier in the year!

Do you use a journal to keep track of any of your hobbies?