What are your hobbies?

I enjoy time with God, reading, yoga, traveling, hiking, kayaking, cycling & SUPing (stand up paddle boarding). Nature & low-impact movement. Napping…& being with my family & friends. I’m 43 & have had psoriatic arthritis 5 yrs now. I’ve had crippling flares & take a lot of meds, but determined to not be defined or stopped by this disease. There’s too much I want to see & do!

I like to scrapbook, and since I only have 1 child, I have WAY too many scrapbooks of this kid’s life. :slight_smile: It’s a good way to keep track of all our life “adventures” though, as he’s only 10. I started making my own Christmas cards a few years ago too, and that has come in handy with 3 knee surgeries in the last 2 yrs. If you’re going to be stuck at home on the couch, one might as well make something fun. I also like to exercise and be outdoors with my husband & son, but the knees have hindered that severely since 2013. We go for family walks every 3 days or so, and I do a lot of flexibility stuff and weight-lifting to keep the knees going…it’s a good thing, as I believe it’s helped immensely with the PsA these last few years. Container gardening is another hobby, and I miss it a lot in our cold winters.

Lisa, I love paper crafting! LOVE IT. I making greeting cards. It is my passion really. Yes, if you are going to be stuck inside you might as well make something beautiful.

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Writing, reading, singing. I’ve never really been a sociable chap, but find I am even less so since the PsA because I don’t find I can trust myself to be reliable - so more social hobbies seem to have gone out of the window.

Darinfan, I’m not social either. the internet does help with that. I join online book clubs and forums such as these to feel connected. Specially on bad days. You could also start a blog or website for your writing and singing. Might help others and give you an outlet for your creativity.

I’ve got a blog, as it happens. Two - but one doesn’t get updated very often unless I want to rant. Me? Rant? Never! :wink:

Big week this week as I have a book that I will be letting loose on the general public, which is always a scary thing - sometimes it goes well, sometimes not so well!

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Best of luck with your book!!! I hope it does really well for you!!!

I’ve done many different hobbies over the years, from handcraft to home decorating, from painting (pictures) to engraving glass… just now my latest is to try my hand at some container gardening to see if I can grow some veges for myself and family… any excess produce (if my growing is successful) will get spread around those I know could do with something to brighten their day. :slight_smile: Here’s hoping my attempts are hugely successful, it’d be lovely to be able to make someone smile again :sunny:

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Janson—I’m a huge container gardener, but mostly summer annuals. It’s easier for me to have them up on steps instead of constantly bending over to ground level to weed, water, etc. :slight_smile: It brings me a lot of joy to grow something and tend it. I have a few spots for vegetables, and I love to spread the extras. I end up with 150-200 cucumbers a year and probably give away over half. My husband is great to help if my knees are giving me extra trouble, and he says the containers are just simpler. I hope you enjoy it and have some success. :slight_smile:

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Wow, that’s heaps of cucumbers :sunny: I am starting with peas, corn, tomatoes, capsicum, onions and potatoes… will be interesting to see how they go in containers (although the corn will need to go in the ground I guess), just a few of each at this stage as it is a bit early for starting some seeds on this side of the globe… I have an old aquarium I’m using as a mini glass house for starting off seeds and a roofed porch that will hopefully help protect early things from late frosts… keeping my fingers crossed I am able to keep up with watering etc (there is no husband to help here if I can’t manage it all haha)… My mum has grown most of their veges in containers for a few years now as bending etc got too much for her and there is nothing nicer than veges straight from garden to plate :slight_smile:

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Darinfan, Congrats!! Wow, a book! Good for you. What is the book about?

Janson, I would love to try container gardening but this Texas heat kills everything. Plus I don’t have much shade in the yard.

Lisa, Wow, that is a lot of containers. Maybe I should give it a serious go next Spring. I tried a raised garden this year and I couldn’t handle the up and down.

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I’ve done a few now over the last four or five years. All but one has been self-published, which suits me fine given what they are. The new one is an expanded version of my book on Elvis - so expanded, I might add, that I’m have trouble lifting the damn thing because of my PsA! After this, I’ve got some articles to write with a colleague at the uni - which will at least see me having to be sociable!

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I should add that the cucumbers are the only thing I actually plant in the ground (ha)!!! :rofl: They grow well against the side of the house where there’s full sun most of the day. The rest of my flowers/annuals all go in containers, so I’m only dealing with 14-15 flower pots each summer. I only have to take care of mums here in the fall, and they’re my favorite. As for the cucs, we eat loads of them, and yes, it’s a lot!! I don’t mind giving them away though. I figure if nature (and the land my house sits on!) is only going to let one veggie grow easily, I may as well go all out.

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My problem, amielynn, is I have TOO much shade. Our back yard backs up to an oak/hickory forest, but the back yard itself has 9 full-growth oak trees. Then our side yard has 3 full-growth elms, and the side with my cucumbers is barely there because the builder built the house too close to the property line and left us only 3ft of grass to mow on the other side of the sidewalk. :slight_smile: The front is where I put all of my containers and have my fun in the sun. :slight_smile:

@lisarockgirl4 Oh do I understand how that goes :slight_smile: My neighbour has BIG trees and bamboo on what is the north facing (should be sunny) boundary of my property… needless to say finding a “full sun” position is impossible (and my house is like an ice box in winter lol)… but I will need to work with what I have… at least in summer the sun is high in the sky so I might be able to find small areas that have good sun for part of the day, here’s hoping that will be enough lol

@amielynn38: Is it possible to erect a sun shade/sail type thing? That might allow growing some of the more sun sensitive things :slight_smile:

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Janson, That would be an option if we were going to be here any longer. We are trying to move. Waiting for a job transfer. Hopefully the next house we have will contain large trees for some shade.

I guess there is such a thing as too much shade or too much sun!

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Learning to play the piano (good for my fingers if done in moderation), singing (very therapeutic), swimming, reading and travelling in our motorhome. Off to Scotland for two weeks in a few days, yay!

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Love singing and would gladly love to up my skills on the piano. Although what I’d really love to do is learn to play the saxophone without sounding like I’m murdering my cat and busk in Canterbury when I’m 65. So I’ve 10 years to make that happen.

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I enjoy reading, watching netflex, going to watch my children play in their sporting events, animals and church activities.

I love to read, hike and travel. We have a trip planned to Europe in November and am really looking forward to getting away. I was just diagnosed and need the planning and trip to take my mind off of the pain I am in. I love to hike and camp. I have hiked the Grand Canyon twice and Zion Narrows, top to bottom once. I would do it again if I could. I read constantly but its getting painful to hold my IPad. I also love to craft with my Silhouette making cards and other fun stuff.

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