Do you have any hobbies?

Does Zumba count? I do that a few times a week.

I just called around to see about ballet classes, I’m hoping I can squeeze two or three in a month.

I participate in my husband’s hobby. He races cars. I plan the trips, hang out at the track, sometimes I help the officials up in the timing room. I can’t do much anymore to help him with the car, because I injured myself.

I want to take a vegan cooking class.

I swim.

I love the idea of bird watching. We had lovely birds where I used to live. Someone told me my backyard was very good for many varieties of birds because we had a clearing right behind the house, but then was surrounded by the woods. Last trip to NYS I looked into going bird watching, but the schedule filled up so fast I never planned it.

I want to buy a couple of rental properties.

Welcome to Fluther!

I’ve been a bird-watcher since childhood. If you want any tips, feel free to send me a private message. My partner lives in a different country, so it’s like starting all over again when it comes to identifying their birds.

The latest hobby has been learning to cook. At my age, I never thought that I would be able to grasp it, much less like it. It turns out that it is utter joy.

Another is reading up on world news, if it can be called a hobby. Whether it is just me personally, or from being a stereotypical American, it’s embarrassing to realize how little I knew about what’s going on outside of our country.

Bird watching and nature watching

Making water gardens and water candle features

Writing

Drawing ( sometimes )

Clay sculpting ( sometimes )

Thrift store and yard sale shopping

Last but not least, my passion for geese!
I have a 16 yr. old chinese goose I raised from a wee gosling. “Marwyn” and his buddy “Sonora” a rescue chinese like Marwyn that lost one eye to a fish hook and had a badly broken leg that fused. He is a little trooper, gets around on his gimpy leg, sees with one eye and spends most of his time floating in his pool on resting on his big, fluffy, towel covered pillow with his crock of water and bowl of corn and dandelion greens within easy reach.

I love waterfowl!

View from my sister’s kitchen sink in late August. Her (robin’s and not sister’s) third litter of the summer.

Here the birding is easy and wonderful. Keep in mind that good birders make 90% of their IDs by ear. Learn the songs and calls; that will keep you from wandering into too many thickets and bogs. I’ve been birding for decades. I keep an extra pair of binoculars in the glove compartment of my car and am constantly almost driving into ditches due to the interesting birds who get flushed by the car.

Quilting
Gardening
Knitting, crocheting, doing needlepoint, rug making, stencilling, découpage
Turning part of my 20 acres into the Gailcalled Nature Conservancy for future generations. I’ve had my guy clear trails, rebuild stone walls, limb and prune unruly trees, rip up bramble bushes, plant hundreds of small shade-loving bulbs in the woods, lay down rapidly- spreading ground cover (myrtle, sweet woodruff, lamium, ferns, trillium, wild violets, forget-me-nots) and drag hundreds of large stones from the creek to line paths with. (If my guy quits, it will be the Gailcalled Jungle.)

Two nights ago I watched a charming DVD about the amateur birders who haunt Central Park in New York City and the amazing (astonishing) number and variety of birds they see. Birders: The Central Park Effect. Joining any group of local birders is an instant way of meeting new people and making lovely friends.

I had a red-tailed hawk alight on my deck railing last week and sit there for several minutes…long enough for me to have a memory of a life-time.

Painting, reading, nature hikes, and cooking are some of my favorite things. And wine is both my career and a big-time extracurricular interest. I love reading about wine while drinking what’s in the chapter. The last time I did that was “The Great Domaines of Burgundy” by Remington Norman, while drinking Burgundy wine.

To me, a perfect day would be a long hike in the woods and a trip to a farmer’s market. Then cooking and eating a healthy meal with a couple bottles of wine and some good friends.

Bird watching sounds awesome!

Drawing.
Creative writing.
Learning.
Daydreaming (wonder if it counts).
Screwing up with my computer.

Fluthering…......

Cooking and coming up with my own original recipes.

Photography.

Hiking.

Reading and writing book reviews.

I have a lot of hobbies, actually. It’s just finding time for them that’s the problem.

Writing. Reading. Reading and writing Fanfiction. (Don’t judge me) Poetry. Playing banjo, ukulele and bass. Singing. Writing songs.
Geocaching. Rollerblading. Studying Anthropology. Calligraphy. Vikings. Playing Magic (Again, don’t judge me) Climbing things. Adrenaline is my favorite. Being awkward, and making people feel weird. Being by myself… But mostly I just work, all the time. :(

@gailcalled

Did the DVD mention Pale Male, a red tail hawk who has been raising a family along
with his mate atop a high rise
on 5th Ave. overlooking
Central Park?

You might already be familiar
with his story since it created
quite a media following about
10 yrs. ago after a PBS
documentary was broadcast.

There’s also several books detailing the story.

For anyone unfamiliar, the doc
can be found on the PBS
website and more info is here:

www.mariewinn.com

…..
www.palemale.com

There are two additional books; one by Janet Schulman and another by Jeannette Winter.

I’m on my old phone so can’t do links unless they’re short enough to write out. (sorry)

@Buttonstc: I read the original book by Marie Winn (Red-Tails in Love) several times. We venerate Pale Male and Lola in our family. The Central Park DVD mentions Pale several times, but he isn’t the star as he had been originally, just first among equals. There are over 100 sightings of all kinds of birds in the DVD. As part of the extras, there is a segment called “Cast of characters.” It is a series of the shots of all the birds sighted, plus their ID’s. Great fun.

I like to take photos, hike, bike, camp, kayak, raft, eat, drink beer. Are these hobbies?

I love reading, watching tv, fishing (I’m pretty good at it even though I just picked it up) and ummm..drawing! I stick to drawing anime and cartoons but I want to get better and draw other stuff too. Also writing! Even though I like reading way more than writing, I’m awesome at English : )