Tell us what interests you.....

What do you enjoy, collect or what are you interested in?

(Obviously we KNOW you love plants and gardens and gardening!)

But what else? Or what are your hobbies?

Inquiring friends wanna know!

you mean saying gardening doesnt count???

otherwise, traveling, reading, doing the crossword puzzle, visiting with my DG friends on line.

Hmm, how many pages can I have? My problem is that EVERYTHING interests me. I have more reference books than some small town libraries and Stan and I are both researchers. I have a SIL who says if there's a question out there, some one will get a book and look it up, even in the middle of a meal!

I quilt, do photography, read, listen to a wide range of music, and I'm a poet, but that is my vocation. And there is the farm. I am still fascinated after a lifetime of dairy farming by the changes that everyday brings to this bit of land and the animals that move over it.

Kathleen, arent you the writer here on DG? It seems like I remember you posting that once.

hehehe, Kathleen - we do the same thing. Meals are FREQUENTLY interrupted for someone to go grab an encyclopedia, dictionary, almanac, or other reference book to answer a question or settle a dispute. I hope we're able to influence our children to be inquisitive throughout their lives :)

But to the question: gardening, reading, church activities, school stuff with my kids, gardening, hanging out at the pool, watching the wildlife in our yard...oh, and did I mention gardening yet????

oh my...........too many things to list and even remember.......LOL
My problem has always been that I get interested in too many projects at one time and don't know what to work on....LOL

here goes: I do ceramics (on occasion since I've sold my kiln), crochet (not too great at it), knit, decorative eggs (doing that now as soon as I get more eggs), photography, etching (glass and other stuff), computer graphics, made notepads for awhile for DG members.........hmmmmmmm......I'm sure there are other things but can't remember now........LOL

I collect (or trying to as I can't find much of some things): dragons, wizards, angels, frogs, turtles.
I get whatever I can get my hands on of the above :)

Another researcher here too...Funny though, Dh and I were sitting on the porch the other night and he said, you know, it makes me kind of sad that I'll never live long enough to know all the answers (reflecting on our age), and gosh, I thought he knew everything LOL...I love anything that has to do with Mother Nature as far as walks in the woods, watching sunsets and sunrises, looking for rainbows after the storm, etc., I'm an avid reader. I'm on a first name basis with at least two of the libraries in our county. Time with family is wonderful too. Everyday is an adventure :-)

My family-all of them! Religion! gardening! Collecting! Nature& Wildlife! Swimming for the 2wks of warmth in the summer! ;) Sports of all kinds-hockey n wrestling tops! Riding 4wheelers! That may have something to do with having 5 boys! I love ELIZABETH to death she's my new grandDAUGHTER! :) Meeting other Davesgardeners!:)
NASCAR-dale earnhardt jr #8!!! Camaros-67-69 Z's RS,SS all of them!
JOHNNY MELLENCAMP!!!!!!! how could i forget the man!
How about that! :)

This message was edited Friday, May 23rd 10:05 AM

Oh boy, another compulsive researcher here. LOL! I often wonder how much of the info I retain though. I am currently researching landscaping plans and plants that will actually like it here in zone "COLD AND SHORT!"

I love to (in no particular order):

Read, almost anything. I read anything that gets in my way. Cereal boxes, bumper stickers, newspapers... I always have a book with me, and it can be anything from a religious documentary to a sci fi novel. I READ EVERYTHING! My least favorite to read is romance, but I will.

Make scrapbooks for my kids. I was a Creative Memories Consultant in another life, so I'm pretty stuck on "acid free" for my books. My kids are very proud of their books and they show them off to their friends alot. My son told me that it's like a story of his life. And, it is. I've included pictures of him from birth to now, and documented, in my own handwriting, everything I could remember about that time or event. I'm also working on a military memorial album in honor of my Dad. It's a long process though because he's deceased and I'm having to research everything and try to find documents to back up the articles and photos I have. The local library has helped me alot with that.

Gardening of any kind whether it be houseplants, seed starting, all the way to canning veggies. But, I really don't like to weed. I get over it by bringing my boombox outside and cranking up some BTO, CCR, Worship Songs, or whatever my mood desires or needs at the moment. (Keeps the neighbors guessing as to who is home.)

Surf the net, but I think that goes along with my obsessive compulsive, need to know, disorder.

I collect Bibles, ceramic chickens, happy habit nun figurines, birdhouses, old decorative tea cups, and music. I think I have a hosta, iris, and daylily collection going too, but I'm still in denial about those. I have to deny it or DH would have a fit to find out just how many different ones there are out there to be had/collected. He's not over the tea cup collection yet. Won't be much longer before he discovers the plant addiction too. LOL I can hide a hosta, iris, or daylily much easier than an antique tea cup. Go figure.

I tape Days of Our Lives everyday and "power watch" it on the weekends when I'm cleaning. Sometimes I go for months without seeing an episode, especially in the summertime.

Basketball! From Pro, (Bummer about Michael Jordan retiring again), to high school ball. Right now I'm really enjoying watching my son mature and grow into an awesome ball player.

Hmmm...there must be more, but I forget now.

I love to collect (and sell) old postcards and documents. I also like to travel(Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, England) in the last three years. I spent my children's inheritance so now I'll stay home and garden.
I also raise Texas Longhorn Cattle.
Bill

BIll: including old books?

Lavanda: only a very few old books. An old poetry book of Edwin Markham poems. I also have a hand-written postcard by Markham. Mostly old letters, checks, magazines, etc. I have several thousand old postcards, mostly scenic views, schools, court houses, street scenes.
Bill

oh yeah, I collect old German books too.........many about WWII but I have some chorus books from the 1800's and a couple of children's books from the later 1800's and early 1900's that look almost new :)

Well,I'll wade in and try and list the main stuff.

My family has researched their roots thouroughly...me included.Do you see a 'a research theme' evolving among us??I can go back past Charlemagne on one line.Most of my ancestors,I can list back to the 1700's,so I have a real sense as to my roots.

This has evolved into my intrest in heirloom veggies....I have a desire to know how my ancestors lived day to day.

I dabble in photogrtaphy...I used to do pen and ink,but haven't in several years.

I custom dye fabric and am really getting good at some special effects.

I love to read,but there isn't much time for it any more.I like good Science Fiction(not the trashy or kiddie stuff)I'm probably the only woman in (or person) in West KY that has Frank Herbert's Dune books...all in hardback.

About anything creative interests me....I told my neighbor yesterday that if I lived to be 200...I wouldn't get to do everything I'd planned on!

I'm like you Melody, there will never be enough time in my life to do all the things I would like to do. I always have a long list of things that I want to do NEXT! I can't imagine ever being bored with life as there is just so much to do and so many new things to try. When I was a child my mother would always tell me when I would say I was bored, "If you can't find anything to do I will find something for you." That always amounted to work so I soon learned to find things to do even though there might not appear to be anything inventive to do at the time. I think she taught me a good lesson with those tactics. Could you ever guess that she was a teacher and actually so was my father. Daddy wasn't as good to teach things as mother was. When I was young, he left me one time with a whole garden full of tomato plants and told me to remove the suckers. He didn't take time to tell me anything except that the suckers were the side branches. I worked at that job all morning and when he came home I had removed all of the leaves except the top ones. Daddy was an agriculture teacher and I bet he was the one who learned the real lesson that time. His tomatoes were always a great source of joy and pride for him but not that spring. LOL!

my sis has our family back to the 1300's its so neat! and she does all the work! ;)

Where to start? I love old things, pictures, neat picture frames, collecting bubble glass ones at the moment, handmade doilies, anything with roosters, old bibles, bottles, bowls, trinket boxes, quilts, etc. etc. etc. DH swears that I'm just a pack rat or junk collector - I hate to see anyone throw anything away - especially stuff someone else might be able to use. (My neighbor is learning to check with me before they haul stuff to the dump. I'm currently looking hard and heavy for a porcelain sink with the sideboards that drain into the double sink and the back splash. (had one in NC, but DH wouldn't haul it up here - gave it to my cousin there and it's beautiful in her kitchen!) I crochet not great but baby blankets, afhgans, just started doing doillies. I really want to make a quilt I've got scads of material (but would love to have more)just haven't set down to start. (Not sure when I'll get that done!) I also have an addiction to kitchen gadgets new and old. The list go's on and on and on. DH and I both also read alot - especially anything to do with gardening, farming, farm animals, family life stories, would love to have all the stories my grandparents used to tell written in their words. Tried to get grandma to tell me stories while I taped her before she left us, but the camera thru her off and she never could think of any with it on. (same thing happened when I tried to use a tape recorder) Would love to research our family tree - I think Dad is paying someone to do it now. I also love music all kinds. DH is partial to bluegrass, did anyone see the movie songcatcher? Well that's the type of music DH likes the best. Better not forget my kids and family is always all important. All my DH's vacation time is usually spent visiting family. Does anyone else wish they could relocate their family so that everyone was an easy drive away? The kids grow so fast between visits. I love to go thrifting and dig thru other people's junk. Where to stop? Campfire sing alongs are great too. Dad plays guitar so I'm always begging him to come over whenever we burn stuff at night. Tracy (I guess I should add writing long and windy thread postings on DG!)

I collect Frogs, books on frogs, also flower frog that are metal spike, how to books, bird books. I like to feed the birds and watch them through the window. I enjoy many many flowers. Dreaming about what my garden would look like if I had better health, taking pictures. I love bulbs that I can put in large pots, I really like oxalis, and unusual bulbs. I also need to replace a couple of other things that I lost last winter. One is pineapple lily bulbs and I can't think of the other at the moment.

This message was edited Wednesday, May 28th 2:39 PM

I love reading, I spend alot of time reading books, magazines like gardening types, parenting types, and home and family types, I practically live on the computer, do all my shopping except grocery shopping over the internet..I am married, and we have a house full of animals...so I'd have to say our pets are a big hobby for me. I love flea markets and auctions, and cooking.

Currently my family life interests me the most (I have a wonderful DH, a 4 year old daughter, a son who is 20 months - and a baby on the way.)

Besides that I have recently picked up oil painting and my home is decorated with many of my paintings, I also take classes. Home decorating, fine art, flowers and gardening, cooking and eating(especially italian food), travel(I have been to a lot of places, mostly doing missionary / relief aid assistance), I am also very musical -- I sing, play piano, guitar, recorder and clarinet. My faith is a huge part of my life, I am a Christian. I have recently wrapped up 2 semesters of conversational Italian courses. I also am athletic too, I like to bike, run, swim, ski (snow or water), canoe, rollerblade, horseback ride and scuba dive.

OK -- enough about me -- who is next??

Alyssum: That is just great. Made me tired just reading all the things you do. Taking a conversational language course is fun. I am getting pretty good in Spanish, which is getting to be very helpful here in Texas.
Bill

All about me, eh? Well...I grew up in the country, so I am constantly growing 'weeds' in my yard, to achieve that 'memory lane' type feeling. I'm always on a quest for some new perennial for zone 5. I appreciate all nature, including bugs...unless they are bean beetles. I have hyperactive bees and spiders. I have lesf a trail of plants behind me in every place I've lived. I am an armchair philosopher who loves to travel. I tend to frequent the world's largest freestanding piles of dirt. Lol! I have a passion for mountains and moose. Trained as a writer, I'm secretly jealous that my eldest is heading off to college (sob!) and is 200+ pages into his first fantasy novel. (I gave it up to raise 2 kids.) I'll try just about anything once(except seafood). My yard floods periodicly, so I have to be careful what I plant where. I don't like plants that have to be dug up for winter, and love annuals that self-sow. I can't grow vegetables to save my life. I am desperately seeking the longest blooming perennials known to man. And, I can always use more kinds of coralbells, campanula, cranesbills, and veronicas. I also need stuff for dry shade.
Does that help?

naturepatch

The above was very interesting reading. I'll just add my bit. I've been a widow for 9 years now. I've lived in this area all my life. We had 80acres of apple orchard and luckily sold while prices were still good and before my husband got sick. He was in hosp. 3 1/2 months and in local nursing home 7 years. He died just a month before our 50th wedding anniversary. I moved away from the orchard in 1994 up to this area in low hills, nothing here but sagebrush and grass. Bought a triple wide and moved into place and started planting. My daughter said "Mom why do you want to homestead at your age, but now after she had seen what has transpired, she thinks it OK.

I guess I've been a collector all my life, especially my married and widow life. I have collections of miniature pewter, lots of things from Franklin Mint: a coll. of 10 or so miniature car models, Miniature plates, full size plates, (mostly chickadees), more than 50 chickadees, about that many wrens and also hummingbirds. I used to do oil painting and watercolors, but not just buy other peoples things. Have 2 doz. hanging butterflies and several dragonflies. More than 50 Liliput Lane miniature houses.

Have lots of books, gardening reference mostly, but lots of others. One file drawer full of gardening files. My main interest is gardening.

I am trying not to collect anything more (other than plants !!). I do love to go to Arts and Crafts shows but have to travel quite a distance to do that. Anyway I'm a collector nut. Donna

I have one of the largest collections of prints of various artists renditions of the 'Ten Ox-herding Pictures', over 40 sets. The Ox-herding pictures is a metaphore of the search for the true self in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. Many of the sets I photographed from the walls of Buddhist temples in Korea. I enjoy travelling and have visited 52 countries last count. I get speaking commitments in many Asian countries and get to visit the people in their own homes and mountain villages. I have copies of almost all the works of Reginald Blyth, some quite rare. His works on haiku and oriental humor are the best written. I also have a large collection of the works of Suzuki on Zen, many of them rare, gathered up in book shops all over Asia. At home, when not in the garden, I am in the basement where I have a cabinet shop and make fine furniture. I used to play the 'cello with various symphony orchestras but gave it up when, after not practicing for several years while at college, I couldn't play any of the pieces I performed as a teenager. Now I just listen. I get to read about 30 books a year, mostly on spirituality and transpersonal psychology. Not going to Asia this year - all conferences and workshops postponed till next spring. Staying home and playing in my gardens instead.

Well, I love to travel, always have! Have been going to Europe for the last 5 years, love the history, architecture, gardens, new friends and ideas, and consider myself very lucky to be able to do so. We always hunt a deal, but I sure do a lot of research before each trip. My favorite so far? Prague, CZ.

I spend so many hours at work, there isn't much time for more! But I love meeting and talking to folks. Thank goodness for DG-perfect for unwinding!

I collect hummer and dragonfly things for garden and sunroom. Enjoy my 2 old doggies Apollo II (Dobie) and Athena (German Shepherd). Love to feed and watch the wild birds, and wildlife. Still talk to my deer and other critters (yell at squirrels tho) and generally enjoy living in the woods.

Reading about the plants I have ie where they are found in the world, educating people by giving talks on bats, a bit of bird watching

Wow, Mark, you ought to hop on the DG Magic Carpet and fly over here to Texas to see the Austin bridge bats, and give us all a talk abut bats i general. I just LOVE bats, and it has nothing to do witht he fact that I am an old bat myself.

Love, Lavanda

LOL been there and done that 2 years ago. 1.5 million Mexican Free-tailed bats live under Congress Bridge rising to 3 million and baby time next month but ..... better still id Bracken Cave near by which is home to 20 million adults and in a few weeks time 20 million babies.

these bats fly south every evening to eat Corn earworm moths migrating north across the Gulf of Mexico.

I have given a talk at a bat course at the Southwestern Research Station in the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona

Bats, eh? So how come your DG name isn't 'Batman'? Lol! I just couldn't resist! Sorry!

naturepatch

LOL - Guess I'd be the only one with a vast collection of "shot glasses" from all over the world! Hey, if its your thing! I have a collection of antique pewter that sits all over and love ceramic pots! We love to garden, travel, read and create our woodworks.
Looks like everyone here has a lot of interests!
Candee

way too obvious but I am 'Mark - the Bat' man else where on the 'net

Well, Mark, happy to hear you like bats. We definitely need more of them.

As a side note...it would be kind of interesting to find out what people do for a living...or did. We forgot to put that on the list. I bet some of us have some pretty interesting lists of past and current occupations. But that would take up a whole thread of its own. :)

naturepatch

DJ, MC & promoter - 10 years, worked in a hospital lab - 6 months, 4 record stores - 7 years, currently working for my brother who has a sandwhich business selling to stores, skewls (LOL) and hospitals.

some of these jobs overlapped

Hmm, Mark, and do you play cricket with that moniker?

I'm a poet ("so what do you do for a living?"), photographer (mostly art pics and lotsa flowers), retired (due to health reasons) dairy farmer. The only things that I've ever gotten paid enough for that the government was interested enough to take taxes out was as a carhop when I was a teen and as a substitute teacher's aide when I was old enough to know better but needed money for a camera! I've work as an artist in residence to 4th grade through 12th and had some local arts grants that allowed me to do a show of my pics, produce a play that used my poems and start a science fiction novella, as yet unfinished.

no I'm a bat ^..^ man http://www.batdetective.com/

OK I read everybody elses so, I fix Volvos for a living (18 yrs). I collect fossils, knives, hostas. Had M/Cs for years. Last year DW let me buy '99 Triumph Speed Triple. Still have '75 Commando and '79 Bonnie (bought that for DW new) '72 Kaw 175 dirt bike is scariest still. Last summer a Little Brown bat found our bedroom. After shooing out the dogs I nabbed him hiding under a chair. Took him outside and told him to sleep elsewhere. Also a couple dozen shot glasses. haighr, want some that say Maine?

Guess I'd better throw in my dabbles in the working sector. I worked for a chicken farm once...in the egg boxing factory. THAT was an experience. Worked for a villiage hall as a clerk, babysitter, concession stand operator, did an internship at a newspaper(which is when I decided the news industry didn't do a thing for me), got my 'useless' english composition/english liturature degree (that's what my hubby calls it), and promptly ran off and married a sailor. Haha! Two kids later, I did a stint as a clerk for the Marriot Corp at a toll plaza, worked as a full time custodian at an elementary school, and now I'm biding my time til the kids leave the house(and graduate from college) as a school bus driver. Whew! Tires me out just reading that! But my first love has always been nature, so when I grow up I want to combine nature and writing...somehow.

naturepatch

what interests me?? nowdays it's mostly grandbabies and gardening. I can't fit anything else in there:)
I used to read, oil paint, make porcelain dolls, and lots of other stuff, but days are short so I try and prioritize:)
All I collect is dirt, pots and seeds! LOL!

as for jobs, I worked for USPS as a rural carrier for 9 years, was a cake decorator for 3, managed a retail clothing store and waitressed in another life.

I love to read which is evident by the mess in my living room. I start to read something and put it down and then pick up another something and don't finish the first thing for a while. Eventually I do read things through but in the meantime I just flit around.
I collect silver spoons from many places, interesting frogs for decorating my gardens, loons, dust, and live animals. My Mother always has said that I have owned everything but plaid mice and she is almost right. Right now I have goats, sheep, two horses, a steer, 7 dogs and three of them think they are my babies. The other 4 are new to us as a friend got tired of breeding Shar Pei dogs so I told her I would take them. We are expecting our first litter this next week.
As far as jobs go I started out doing yard work for all the neighbors, went on to adding babysitting and shoveling snow. When I graduated high school I was hired as a manager of a large dog breeding facility in Northern Montana. After a winter of feeding 200 dogs in -20 F weather, I decided to take another approach to life. I became one of the first woman laborers hired for a large copper smelter. I then went to Veternary Technical school where I paid my tuition by teaching the breeds classes for three groups of students. I then went to work for a vet. Loved the job but he moved to Hawaii so I went on to just groom dogs for 22 years. Had to retire from that when I became allergic to dogs, shampoos, flea dips, etc.
I am now a homemaker. I love this job and someday my dream is to get my house in order but for now I take care of my 90 year old Mother and my hubby of almost 30 years.
I also am long winded on this thread and some others. sorry but I do like to talk.

This message was edited Nov 26, 2003 12:56 AM

O.K. I'll bite on this one. I love turtles and anything that has to do with them. Reading about them raising them (not very good at it), drawing them, taking pics of them and collecting ANYTHING that has one on it!! I also love doing things with my children (by the way, they love turtles too) reading, traveling(don't get to do very much) and surfing the net.

As for jobs, I'm currently a dental hygienist and the only other job I have ever had other than in a dental office was a a japenese waitress in college. Komono, white painted face, little black shoes and the whole nine yards!!

Tina