Any Other Hobbies?

I'm just curious as to what other things you folks like to do besides gardening- if there is such a thing!! I only got serious about gardening 3 yrs. ago so before then most of my spare time was spent reading. I really love mysteries. Don't read as much anymore or mostly read gardening books now. I also love doing crossword puzzles. This is weird, but I love jigsaw puzzles but can only do them in the winter!!! Since getting my 'puter, I also love being online. But my fave thing is just spending time with my DH!!!

Hi berrygirl, I've wondered the same thing myself. My third "birthday" as a gardener is coming up a week from today. Like you, I used to read a lot (I love mysteries too, especially medical thrillers). Now I mostly read gardening magazines, gardening books, and... Dave's Garden. I play around with trying to fix up the house too- decorating or do-it-yourself type improvements/repairs. (I keep thinking I can do that stuff when the weather doesn't allow gardening, but then I figure that's the perfect time to check out all kinds of garden stuff online!) I sometimes also just gel out playing about a hundred different types of solitaire on the computer.

berrygirl, a guy at work dumps the Bangor paper on the break-room table every morning. I always snag the cross-word and see how much I can do in 15 min. at 9:30. At home before sleep I have been reading Bernt Heinrich's books about ravens. Or doing this. I feel like I'm waiting for something to happen. SPRING would help a lot.

I'd rather read than watch t.v. anyday. There's a great used bookstore in my area and I exchange there about once a month. In addition to gardening and my passion for best-sellers, I like home dec sewing and cross stitch. These are my winter activities. I hate cold weather and pretty much hibernate for the 3 months of winter we have here. In the summer, DH and I like to fish, camp, swim, scuba dive. We also belong to a great cycling club. So many fun things to do..so little time :)

Gee, can anyone guess what my biggest hobby is next to gardening (or actually rivaling gardening most of the time)?

{Insert Jeopardy theme here}

Personal Confusers, otherwise known as Computers! I also love photography, writing, and reading.

It seems, sometimes, there is not enough time in a day for all my interests.. gardening is #1, then and 'puters, reading, making scale dollhouses and furniture, and when there is an extra minute or two, tole (folk) painting and/or needlework..

Besides gardening and D.G., I love to make crafts. Whether it is hand made Bargello/Crewel/Needlepoint pillows or crocheted afghans. My latest interest is in "One-Stroke" Painting...it is painting for non-painters. Still learning, but having a great time doing so. Lots of fun and hopefully my garden will be captured in my floral paintings.

This message was edited Mar 14, 2004 1:56 PM

Shirley1, "one step painting"? Painting for non-painters? What is that?

Retirement offers one the opportunity to indulge in fantasies not available to the working class but not the money to persue them,unfortunately.Working in the darkroom; Scandinavian history,rosemaling and woodcarving;stained glass;woodworking and reading seem to take up most of my time when not gardening.As soon as that big raise comes in my Social Security check it would be nice to get a bigger yard to house a bigger garden.

Oops, sorry maggiemoo. I meant to type "One Stroke Painting", which was developed by Donna Dewberry in Florida. Here is a link to her website so you can read more about it and also see the incredible things that can be accomplished with this method of painting. It may not be everyone's "cup of tea", but for me, it is just what I wanted.

http://www.onestroketv.com/ostv.html

Thanks Shirley, I think I've seen that before on TV. Let us know how you do with it.

Gardenwife, you reminded me to add photography as one of my hobbies. It seems so integrated right now w/my gardening (even though that isn't the only photography I do) that I just forgot it! Since I've basically started over from scratch in my backyard, it's been a lot of fun doing before, during, and (eventually) after pictures of my projects.

Believe it or not, I hope to tale a beginning blacksmithing class next week! Mostly because there are SO many things I want to embellish my garden and cannot afford to buy them ready-made, LOL.

It will be interesting. I have not applied, and the class starts tomorrow, for 6 days. I hope there's still space. If not, more classes follow in the spring and summer.

Oh, it's at the nearby John C. Campbell Folk School http://www.folkschool.org

darius, how fun! I wish I could join you. I've often wished I could do my own garden art, too. Be sure to send us pictures.

berrygirl, dh only does jigsaw puzzles in the winter too. He loves them. The 5000 piece difficult ones. ICK...The only other hobbies I have besides gardening is reading. I love to read. Fiction, non-fiction, etc....

Darius, I hope you are able to get into the Blacksmith class. I loved it! I really learned alot and gained a wonderful respect for the smithys of yore. D

For the last 12 years I've competed in endurance riding events with my horses. Endurance riding is best described as being similiar to doing a marathon on horseback, a long, slow event lasting up to 24 hours. A side benefit of having horses is the fertilizer they provide for my garden.

Shirley, I'm trying the One Stroke Painting too. I love to paint and I'm not good at it. But I'm still trying. I also like working with polymer clay. I also like jigsaw puzzles but haven't done too many lately - Ginger the cat likes to help too much.

Glad to hear that you are also dabbling in One Stroke Painting, Elsie! It's lots of fun and I'm hoping that it will transform me into a floral painter....time will tell!

BTW, many happy returns for your birthday!

Is it stenciling? I couldn't really tell from her site, but it looked like stenciling.

Since I work at the rocket factory full time and gardening is a year-round task here, that doesn't leave a whole lot of time left, but when it's dark outside, I like to read (nonfiction), do crossword puzzles and similar word puzzles, watch baseball and basketball on t.v., and sleep.

GW, it's an easier way to paint. Donna Dewberry has come out with videos and these plastic coated practice sheets with her paint strokes on them so you can practice over and over. I bought 12 months of flowers and I haven't been able to perfect any of them. In the craft painting section at Walmart they have her line of brushes and the practice sheets and videos.

Shirley, I'm hoping to be able to paint flowers too. I got a video with smaller flowers - I thought that might be easier to perfect than the larger flowers. I just have to practice more. Thank you, I had a wonderful birthday. I celebrated twice - my Dad is a snowbird and came up last week to go to the VA hospital (nothing serious). It was so great to see him and they had an early surprise birthday for me. Spending time with him was the best present.

GW - Check out this One Stroke Website http://www.onestroke.com/index.shtml. There are several certified One Stroke teachers in your area. http://216.157.128.77/FindATeacher_NA_Query.asp?State=OH

Elsie - So happy to hear that you had such a nice birthday and you were able to celebrate it with your Dad.

We'll have to get busy with creating some One Stroke pictures and then we can compare them! It would make me practice a whole lot more!

Thanks for the links, Shirley. On the first link, you need to put a space between the shtml and the period - the period's become part of the URL and makes the link bad. I'm not up for getting into buying supplies for another hobby I'll likely sit aside after a few weeks, LOL. I have hundreds, probably thousands, of pictures awaiting homes in albums and scrapbooks as it is! ;) That's another hobby of mine - scrapbooking!

I think I saw that One Stroke painting on our PBS fund raiser this past week. I was surprised how that lady made it look so simple. And the two tone flower petals and such! Great!

Maybe someday when I learn to draw a circle I could then take it up.

OH dear , Where should I start. LOL

I sew in my spare time, which isn't much, I also make homemade goatmilk soaps, Use to raise the goats for the milk, sold them all now I buy the goatmilk from a friend.

I sell stuff on ebay too LOL and buy stuff, when ever I see something in the store, or if the kids see something, I say let's see if ebay has it first cheaper, they get so mad at me LOL Hey, I've saved a ton of money buying at ebay.

I was doing ceramics for a while, quit that, then I was into stamping up stuff, when it took me 2 hrs to make l card I decided it wasn't for me. LOL

BerryGirl I love jigsaw puzzles, I have a program on my computer that allows me to make my own jigsaw puzzles out of any photo or drawings. I also like to draw, chrochet, making and painting garden stones, decorating gourds, crafting with clay, air brushing fabric, quilting, sun painting fabric, dyeing fabric, and now trying to learn how to air brush designs on jackets. I am sure I left something out but these are just a few of the things I like to do. I also love listening to books on tapes while crafting or gardening.

Wow!!!! I am so thrilled to see all the responses to my question. It's so interesting to see what folks love to do and I noticed quite a few of you have the same hobbies as me and a lot in common. Windsurffer, please tell me the name of the program you have

It's call Brainsbreaker and it lets you do a lot things with your puzzels like rotate pieces, and even pick different shapes and sizes of each puzzel. He offers a lot of different photos that you can download from his website plus has links to locations for other photos.
This is the best jigsaw program I have seen on the internet and believe me I have tried a lot of them.
Here is the link http://www.brainsbreaker.com/

This message was edited Mar 19, 2004 12:14 AM

I play music by ear (piano, flute & viola) and enjoy that. I also enjoy cooking & reading. I'm not much of a sports fan, but do enjoy the Superbowl and World Series. Sometimes I like to write - even poems when they come to me. I used to be athletic and involved in sports. I have found that my gardening keeps me fit, so I should probably just join a volleyball team during the winter, to help keep me occupied. lol! :)

Some of my other interests are:
Reading
Singing
Acting
Dancing
Saltwater aquariums
Raising Bassett hounds
Painting
Woodworking
Garden Art crafting
Baseball
Sewing
Quilting
Movies and TV watching
Computers
and of course gardening gardening gardening

RikerBear
Marc

I love to dry herbs and everlasting flowers for crafting. Making wreaths and arrangements is so much fun. Also, making soaps, moth chaser sachets, and potpourri is fun.

Julia

Wow, interesting to see this old thread pop up again! In 2004, I posted "Personal Confusers, otherwise known as Computers! I also love photography, writing, and reading".


I still love those things, but scrapbooking and paper crafts are big interests of mine.

Lordy don't know if the system would take a post with as many interests as I have...will not list them, just know if it's a craft I've either done it or willing to try it...

Yes, GW, this is almost like a walk down Memory Ln seeing this thread pop up again!

I have recently (almost two years ago) added knitting to my hobby list. It was great while my back was injured and I could do little gardening. I've gotten a little more serious about photography, joined a local club with a friend.

And, while this isn't a hobby, it is an addiction - my two year old grandgirl, Ella. :-) She's a gardener in training, a very willing student.

I've had the good fortune to see balvenie's woodworking and stained glass art since then, too. He's amazing!

Wow so its not just me huh...lol I started really gardening about 2 1/2 years ago and have never looked back..

As for interest well pretty much any crafting I can do or try I enjoy. My main interest are horses, drawing, painting (one stroke & Other), no sew crafts, learning to sew soon, woodworking (but dont have a garage so thats limited), reading Stephen King Novels, making jewelry and so on and so on..lol

To those looking at one stroke it really is easier if you dont already draw or paint. I am picky about how things look and getting started with one stroke I had to get back to being simple and after that it was really easy, I even taught a friend who CANT DRAW A STICK MAN!