Friday our last day in the garden with The Coffee Time Crew!

Friday, the last day the Coffee Time Reviewers are in the Garden. I hope all of you have enjoyed their company this week as much as I have. Today we’re talking hobbies and relaxation. Grab your coffee, remember to add a bit of Bailey’s or Kailua. Find a lawn chair or lounger and relax.

Mary: We’re here in a beautiful garden, I know a lot of people who enjoy working in the garden, do you? (I am so not one of them. I really enjoy my cyber Garden, no weeds)

Karenne: I am avid vegetable gardener.  I drool over seed catalogs in December and January to see what I need to try.  I sign up for heirloom seeds and will wait years to get the seeds.  Then I horde them, plant them, and baby them until they are out in the garden.  I always try a new plant or add something new to my garden every year.  I am always trying new veggies, techniques, or ideas of my own in the garden.  My hubby has recently started working in the garden with me.  It is lots of fun to share my experience and knowledge with him.

AzGaye: To some degree LOL. I always said I had a brown thumb and could kill silk flowers but I do like to putter around and try to grow some flowers and maybe veggies. When I had kids at home we did have some good sized gardens a few years and canned and froze a lot of stuff—hard work but you know it is good clean organic food.  My favorite flowers are roses and lilacs. I have had rose gardens and miss the one at my old house in Arizona that now belongs to my son—and he has about let them die  which makes me very sad!  Now I have some house plants and this summer my brother’s fiancee has grown squash, tomatoes and peppers and we are enjoying them. I helped a little bit LOL.

Venus: Sorry to say that I do not. I'm a girly girl who hates to get my fingers dirty and I do not like bugs. I prefer to enjoy my gardens in paintings or photos or admiring them through a window.

Kimberly: I have had so much fun here in your garden, Mary. It is positively beautiful here.  I like working in the garden as long as it’s a flower garden. I’m not big on veggie gardens, though this year I worked hard putting up the various veggies we had.

Danielle: Sorry to say but no I do not. And if you are smart you will keep me away from your garden as well. I will kill anything I try to plant. I swear. I am like….drumroll please…the Plant Assassin!

Kimberly: *snicker* Plant Assassin! I love it!

Maura:  I always love it at first, but tend to get busy in the summer and lose interest.  Yay perennials, and hydrangeas!!

Hollie: My mum loves her garden, I am learning to, we moved recently and I now have a garden large enough that I can have a veggy plot and still leave enough room for the boys/dogs and the trampoline. 

Lisa: Not a bit. Playing in the dirt does nothing for me.

Amy R: I love gardens, but alas I don’t have a green thumb. I kill things, even hardy plants. That and I don’t have the time with three kids. One day I hope to have a chance to garden.

Brenda: I love to garden and gardens.  I’m not big on the weeding though.  I grow vegetables, but I really want more flowers.  I just started adding them to my diet.  Yum.

Betty: The garden is work, not pleasure. For some strange reason, though, I’m addicted to Farmville.

Kellyann:  Like Karenne, I’m a big vegetable gardener: tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, beans, peas, lettuce, arugula.  That was this year.  Next year, I think I’ll branch out to potoatoes, garlic and carrots (have always been a bit spooked by the tubers, but I’m willing to try.)  And, of course, have to have the herb garden: Parsley, Rosemary, Tarragon, Mint.  Gardening for me is like writing in that once I get started, I get lost in the rhythm.  But you can’t eat books, so I find gardening very fulfilling for my stomach as well.

Mary: Lisa, I don’t like to play in the dirt either, but mostly I have a black thumb. Amy, if someone gives me plants, they die when they see me, just to save time and agony. Alas, I just threw a potted plant (A gift from someone who trusted me with a plant) away, today! They’d fare far better if they’d water themselves!

Do you have a hobby? If so what is it, and can you tell us a bit about it?

Karenne:  I love to do research.  I will find a topic or something that I want to know how to do and I will research it to death until I can do it.  I taught myself to sew, knit, crochet, quilt, bake, web design, coding…all from books.  Every year, I make a commitment to myself to learn something new.  I pick it out at the end of December and start working on ‘learning’ it in January until I am comfortable with it.  Side note…took 2 years for me to learn the knitting!  LOL

AzGaye: I say I have hobbies from A to Z, astronomy to zoology! And that is true. I own an 8” Celestron telescope and have enjoyed looking at planets and stars. My main interests though besides books are creative things. I sew, do  jewelry and other bead projects and fabric art, fiddle with artificial flowers and sketch and water color some. I also am a very amateur photographer—sunsets, flowers, and scenery mostly.  I am not a person who can sit idle so I have to be fiddling with something—plastic canvas, beads, color books (yes they do have some for grownups that are not all cartoony!) and things like that.

Kimberly: Grown up coloring books? Oh man! I buy the cartoony ones for the kids that visit our house from time to time. The only rule is: they cannot touch my special box of Crayolas. I keep them in the original order until they get too stubby. The stubby crayons are the ones the kids get. I’m a little particular in that sense.

Venus: It goes without saying that I love to read and write and have been doing both for as long as i can remember. I also enjoy knitting for my friends during the winter months, it helps keep me warm. I enjoy trivia and history. I also do some desktop publishing and graphic design. Plus I'm a big TV on DVD fan, and curling up with one of my furbabies and losing myself in a good mystery or comedy.

Kimberly: I have so many. I love to read, but scrapbooking is probably my favorite. When we got our first puppy, I started putting my pictures into scrapbooks and at this point, I have 6 scrapbooks with more to do. I also buy those ceramic village pieces you find in craft stores that need to be painted. It opens up my creativity and flows onto this beautiful blank piece, allowing me to express myself. It is especially gratifying when I put those pieces out at Yule.

Danielle: Honestly, I don’t have hobbies. I only read books lol. I don’t have time to do much else. Unless running the kids around to their different sports is a hobby. Or cleaning…or fixing dinner…or…lol. You get the picture. The only thing I do for myself other than this job is play Softball. But that isn’t a hobby. That is Competition and fun and a great time lol.

Maura:  Other than reading, I am relearning how to crochet.  My biggest passion though is training and showing my dogs in competitive obedience and rally.

Hollie: reading is my biggest hobby, but as I have mentioned we enjoy motorsport and spend most weekends during the summer getting cold and wet watching friends racing around a muddy field.

Lisa: My hobby is looking at Hugh Jackman. I devote as much time as possible to it.

Amy R: I love beading, scrapbooking and painting. Writing used to be a hobby, but that’s kind of turned into a full time job for me.

Brenda:  I needlepoint.  It is a wonderful pastime.  Unfortunately, the books often interfere.  I have done some crochet, but I need to practice.

Betty: I’ve been an amateur genealogist since 1990. My genealogy database currently contains over 60,000 names. I also like oil painting, and I’m going to tackle acrylics next.

Kellyann:  My hobby, like my craft, is writing.  When I need a break from writing, I write.  Call me obsessive…or just call me a writer.

Mary: Why am I not surprised most of you like to read and/or write? LOL When you’ve had a stressful day or week, what do you do to relax?

Karenne:  Sit outside, put my feet up, and gab with my best friend.  She always helps me put things in perspective.  (blows a kiss to Brenda)

AzGaye:  I like to sit in my comfy recliner with a small hands-on project (from the list above!) and listen to some fave music, maybe snuggle my dog, a purebred Australian Shepherd that I got thru Aussie Rescue because she has an auto-immune disorder and has to be on meds. She is the light of my life next to the grandkids and goes nearly everywhere I go!  Other times I will read or maybe watch a movie, a new one that interests me or an old fave—I have a fair collection of both videos and DVDs.

Venus: I love to swim or in the winter I like to curl up by the fireplace with a book.

Kimberly: I light some candles and meditate. After that, I turn on my choice of music at the time and read.

Danielle: Surprise surprise…I read. Or sometimes I will sit down with a Soduko puzzle. I love those.

Maura:  Read, play with my dogs, crochet, or take a walk on the beach.

Hollie: I either read so I can pretend I am someone else and somewhere else, or I organize something like a family BBQ so we are all together having fun and I can forget about my bad day.

Lisa: I blast monsters and aliens and various other nefarious villains on my Playstation. It really is quite therapeutic.

Amy R: Watch comedies. Especially British comedies like Vicar of Dibley or Blackadder. Laughter totally unwinds me.

Brenda:  Sits down in my chair and talks to my best friend on the telephone.  She makes me laugh!  (Air hugs to Karenne)

Betty: I mentioned Farmville already, right?

Kellyann:  If it’s hot, I swim.  And when we can coordinate our day, my husband and I go fishing with the kids.  He’s always been a fisherman, but I definitely have gotten more into it over the past 13 years (anniversary is next week…September 27th).  I could see myself spending more time streamside.

Mary: My final question, I find listening to music, going to a concert especially to be my favorite form of relaxation. Do you enjoy music to relax by? If so who’s your favorite artist or group?

Karenne: I love music.  I love everything from children’s songs to Opera.  I will listen to 70s music when I am designing or trying to be creative.  I will listen to country music when I have a ton of work to do that is not necessarily taxing on my mind.  If I am doing a lot of physical labor (rotor tilling, etc) I will listen to heavy metal.  Yes, my tastes are eclectic!

AzGaye:  I love music and like most things, have very eclectic tastes. My super favorites are folk and ethnic music, especially Celtic and Native American—Clannedd, Enya, the Chieftains, Cuzco, Robert Mirabal and R Carlos Nakai etc.  Also listen to early and soft rock and some country, classic and jazz. Some fave artists are Gordon Lightfoot, the Eagles, CCR,  Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Josh Groban, Bob Segar,  Rod Stewart, John Denver, Linda Ronstadt, Fleetwood Mac, Moody Blues--told you I have eclectic taste!! Not too into rap, hip-hop and such is about all!

Kimberly: It seems we all have the eclectic thing in common. I love it. AzGaye, you’ve got great taste in music. Bob Segar, Fleetwood Mac, Clannad, ahhh, the good stuff!

Venus: That is such a hard question. My favorite song changes with my moods. Currently my most played son is Vampire Heart by HIM but I love singing along to country songs and hits from the 80s, relaxing with Hindu Spiritual chants and classical music or soft jazz, I even listen to the Jonas Brothers but not as much as I used to listen to The New Kids On The Block.

Kimberly: LOL Venus! NKOTB 4-Ever! My best friend and I used to drool over whatever magazine they were in that week. I love cranking up the stereo and flowing with the music. It depends on how bad my day has been what type of music I listen to. If it has been mildly stressful day, then some Blackmore’s Night or Celtic Woman. A really bad day requires some Nickelback, Sick Puppies or Theory of a Deadman to make me unwind. I usually will start off with hard rock then mellow into my Celtic music. I listen to almost every type of music out there so a favorite group would be Nickelback, followed by Lady Antebellum, Zac Brown Band, to Cher, and then lastly, Blackmore’s Night.

AzGaye: Oh yeah, my deceased kid brother turned me on to Blackmore’s Night—very cool! And Celtic Woman is good too. Anything Celtic will get to me really—I forgot to mention Alan Stivell and Dan Ar Bras—both from Brittany. Dan more rock fusion—love his earth’s lament song! AZG

Danielle: When I am writing my reviews or trying to write a story I love to listen to the Phantom of the Opera Soundtrack. The voices are so powerful. I don’t mean the volume. I mean the emotional quality in their voices.

Maura:  I love all kinds of music, except rap.  My friends laugh at the selection in my cars, they say it’s a bit schizophrenic (at any time you will find, opera, classical, rock, celtic, swing, jazz, punk, reggae, steel band, blues, and even instrumental surf music).  I love concerts, just this weekend I saw John Pizzarelli and Blondie(illustration of schizophrenic taste in music).  My favorite group would have to be the B-52’s.

Hollie: Music in this house tends to be the choice of the teenagers, I am allowed to say NO way turn that off, but I can’t say can we listen to some nice classical, we tend to compromise with some sort of Rock, not to hard and not to old that the kids sulk.

Lisa: I love jazz. I could listen to it every day and never get tired of it. There are so many greats, but if I had to choose one favorite I’d have to go with Charlie Parker.

Amy R: I love music. I have to write to music too and it totally depends on my mood what I want to listen too. My favourite musical artists are Breaking Benjamin, Prince, Gwen Stefani, Timbaland and Johnny Cash.

Brenda:  Anybody ever heard of Moody Blues?  That is music to relax to.  Now Alabama is music to make you smile.  Country Western has some wonderful music.

Betty: Classical and soft jazz are the most relaxing music. I just tune the TV to one of the Galaxie channels (all music, all the time) and chill.

Kellyann:  Loreena McKennitt is my absolute favorite artist.  I listen to her music while I write and relax.  But for the afternoon beat to increase the heart rate when I don’t want more caffeine, I listen to Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams www.slambovia.com.  Coinicidentally, the drummer is also my brother-in-law.  But that’s not why I listen, it’s just really good music.  My final top in the top three is the Idan Raichel Project, an incredible Israeli band.  Give them a listen, you won’t be sorry.

Thanks, Mary!  What a wonderful week of discussion and revelation in the Garden!


Mary: I’m actually a bigger Concert whore than I am a Travel whore, because obviously local concerts are cheaper. But I’d love almost everyone mentioned above. There were a few artists I wasn’t familiar with, I’ll be looking them up!

Thank you Coffee Time Reviewers crew for visiting with me this week in the garden. I’ve really had a good time, I hope you have. Please stop by and visit often!

Danielle: Thank you for inviting me. I had a blast. Now…do you think I can sneak away with the pool boy and the waiter without Mary noticing?

Kimberly: No way, I’ll tattle! *grin* Mary, this has been so much fun. It isn’t often we get to sit down as a group to chat, but when we have the opportunity, LOOK OUT!

AZG: I won’t tell if I can slip out with my cop and cowboy!

Comments

Lisa Fox said…
It's been awesome hanging out with you all week Mary! Thank you for having me over in your wonderful garden.
Hollie said…
thanks for having us Mary, we've had a lovely time
Danielle said…
This has been so much fun! Getting to know everyone else and their zany ways...more than I already have. "Snicker". And the garden setting has been absolutely beautiful. Now I just have to tiptoe out of here...here boys...where are you...come to Danielle...I won't bite...much...
Mary said…
Hi Everyone,

I've had a great week with all of you. Of course I'm getting things mixed up because I could have swore I posted early this morning.

Anyway thanks, it's be fun!
Anonymous said…
*shaking head at Danielle* She will never learn!
Mary, this has been such a fun week. We are a pretty crazy bunch, but it seems to work well in your garden:)
Blessed be, my dear. And hug those grandbabies an extra time from me!
Mary said…
I will be glad to hug the grandkids extra!

Thanks everyone for spending the week. Sorry it's over!

Now what are we going to do in the garden?

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