Hobbies... aside from the obvious!

Bit of a w*nk bunny today and I thought "I really need to find a proper hobby!"

So how do you all spend your downtime? 

I tend to start hobbies and put them aside fairly quickly - such as:

• Knitting a jumper for a man-shaped person I lived with which sat in a bag for 14 years before my mum finished it so I could wear it
• Knitting a blanket for daughter's god-daughter, started before she was born and which my mum just finished (in a couple of hours) to give the three-year-old - for dolls or something!
• Crocheting a blanket, decided to sack it off halfway through and made it a scarf instead
• Cross-stitch - a beautiful underwater dolphin scene, still incomplete after 29 years; birth celebration panels for my two older daughters, now in mid-20's - both started in their first year and still unfinished in a bag in the wardrobe (I didn't even get around to starting the one I wanted to do for my 18yr old!)
• Jigsaws - I was given loads when I got a fit to do them. I completed, maybe, three - they are all now stacked in my wardrobe covered in dust

There's a lot more - I get a fit in my head, research, buy equipment and books... then either don't actually get started or begin a project and never finish it! 

How do the rest of you keep your fingers busy?? 

Jigsaws are the toys of the devil, never done one in my life! I have enjoyed playing poker and other card games and really enjoy quizzing but my main love is getting out in all weathers and walking in the wilderness, just me, my dog and deer and pine Marten and red squirrels and eagles and red kite and buzzards .....you get the idea, lol!

Quote by Afineline
 my main love is getting out in all weathers and walking in the wilderness

 Ah, I remember outdoors! Well, I do take a daily walk - but it's nothing like the idyll you have! (Ok, I guess the moors are similar - we have deer, kestrels and buzzards etc but I'd have to drive to them and I'm trying not to use my car nowadays) 

I spent many years walking and cycling on Dartmoor

how odd, my font seems to have changed, oh well, lol!

Quote by Afineline
I spent many years walking and cycling on Dartmoor

 Dartmoor is nice, but I'm further north so spend more time on Exmoor. 

It’s been a long time but as I recall my direct route from Tavy to Barnstaple passed right through South Molton when I was working across there. Is there an area called Gold Diggings anywhere near you! A disused submerged quarry. The pop group Travis filmed their video for their first single there

That's on Bodmin moor - about an hour and a half from here if memory recalls. Why? Fancy a skinny dip?! 

My memory fails me then, I have been swimming in the quarry but with a wetsuit on, must be time to go skinny!

I miss my hobbies, going for food, staying over at the lakes, hitting the gym and shopping or having a nice drive out, lockdown stinks of ****

Original post sounds like me! I am a creative person, definitely not an artist or a poet but I like to paint and write poetry. Love baking too.

I enjoy blacksmithing, Enduro motorcycles and Traveling Europe on motorcycle doing the TET etc. I’m good with my hands so love getting a project on the go from 3D printing to Lathe & milling machine time, I love being busy and having my mind on several things at once. Peace in pandemonium lol. 

I have been teaching karate for a long time,presently a 7th dan black belt in that but also teach mma and other fighting disciplines. 

Quote by Woohoo

I have been teaching karate for a long time,presently a 7th dan black belt in that but also teach mma and other fighting disciplines. 

Quote by Afineline

Quote by Woohoo

I have been teaching karate for a long time,presently a 7th dan black belt in that but also teach mma and other fighting disciplines. 

Sounds great I attempted to learn tai chi many years ago but just could not find the discipline within myself at the time.

It's not easy or everyone would be black belts. But as a famous film star once said. ," a belt is just to hold your trousers up"

You are quite right Woohoo, it needs a particular mindset, hard work and possibly a natural affinity to become skilled in anything. One day I will find my my calling.......or perhaps not🙁

Can’t really say I (Sword) have a hobby/hobbies!!

By the end of the week I just want to relax prep my stuff for the following week & enjoy the pleasure of being with our grandchildren...

As for the Gym 🤬that for a game of soldiers!! There is nothing I would find more repellent than being in a rm full of exercising ppl!!

I did enjoy a bit of Geocaching some years back hunting those elusive Tupperware boxes full of odds & ends you really didn’t need but swapped anyway 😂 even had a few first to find & first to post to my name but not so much now..

Good thred you have posted Hothouse.. at least you are honest about starting things and not completing them.

All the things you mentioned are not exactly life changing if you finish them.

At least with your current indoor hobby you get to finish off each time.😉.

I agree with the theme of getting outdoors.  Walking, cycling, mountaineering... wild camping.

Looking forwards to re-engaging with all that going forwards.

Wild camping, yes! Haven't done it for years but a friend of mine does so often in Snowdonia. He has great fun.

Outdoor hobbies are good, I also like kayaking and sailing.

Quote by MrnMrspierced

Wild camping, yes! Haven't done it for years but a friend of mine does so often in Snowdonia. He has great fun.

Outdoor hobbies are good, I also like kayaking and sailing.

Being in the heart of the Galloway Forest Park, we have a lot of wild campers. Slightly concerning ATM as the post covid Rambo crew have slipped off the sofa and decided to give camping a go. The Scottish Countryside Act gives you the right to roam, a romantic notion when you see the chaos left behind. Trees cut and burned,  glass smashed into illegal fire pits, rubbish strewn everywhere, unburied crap, tents abandoned...the Glastonbury effect..... god how I yearn for lockdown😡😡😡lol!!

Quote by Afineline

Being in the heart of the Galloway Forest Park, we have a lot of wild campers. Slightly concerning ATM as the post covid Rambo crew have slipped off the sofa and decided to give camping a go. The Scottish Countryside Act gives you the right to roam, a romantic notion when you see the chaos left behind. Trees cut and burned,  glass smashed into illegal fire pits, rubbish strewn everywhere, unburied crap, tents abandoned...the Glastonbury effect..... god how I yearn for lockdown😡😡😡lol!!

https://www.swingingheaven.co.uk/swingers-forum/fancy-a-chat/hobbies-aside-from-the-obvious?page=1&post=4122497

Bespoke, Haven't been on white water for quite sometime, back then it was 4 and very occassionally some 5 when rivers running in spate, had quite some adventures and a couple of close departure calls too helping others...

https://www.swingingheaven.co.uk/swingers-forum/fancy-a-chat/hobbies-aside-from-the-obvious?page=1&post=4122501.

None of that where I go wild camping... Places left untouched and usually I bring collected rubbish from trails back, although when I have found unopened cans of lager I do empty them out to reduce weight.

Guess the inconsiderate behave like that where ever they go.  Visit a country park.. litter,

go to the coast... litter.   Go  shopping in a big city.. litter.

The point I am making they make a mess wherever, sure it may be more obtrusive in the quiter. less spoiled places but next time you are parked on a motorway just look at the debris and litter in the central reservation or in any hedgerow on the outskirts of town.

I regularly (usually) go to Scotland , even in winter, carry either fuel for a bothy stove or just a warmer sleeping bag if its a few nights. Not everyone is careless and inconsiderate.

Anyway, back to hobbies.  Anybody got anything unusual they do?

Quote by BesPoke

Quote by Afineline

Being in the heart of the Galloway Forest Park, we have a lot of wild campers. Slightly concerning ATM as the post covid Rambo crew have slipped off the sofa and decided to give camping a go. The Scottish Countryside Act gives you the right to roam, a romantic notion when you see the chaos left behind. Trees cut and burned,  glass smashed into illegal fire pits, rubbish strewn everywhere, unburied crap, tents abandoned...the Glastonbury effect..... god how I yearn for lockdown😡😡😡lol!!

I get your frustration but is moaning about this your hobby or did you forget to include your hobby while on a wild campers tangent lol #vivalelockdown 😂

I used to love wild camping - not so easy nowadays as there are so few places you are able to go!

I actually signed up for a survival-type training course later in the summer in the hopes it might persuade me back outside again. Right now everywhere is so insanely busy and my brain is still in lockdown mode so my outside exposure is pretty much limited to my garden!