This post has been so fun to read. I am with a few of you who say you don't have hobbies, you have obsessions...definitely describes me. I have so many interests that I can never do all of them so rotate through them (not intentionally, I just get bored and have to move to the next interest frequently). am usually active in 3-4 of them at a time. I have been told more than once that I was born in the wrong century. Some that have always been with me and I regular go back too: Gardening- all of it. I can't remember any time not having some level of garden from the time I was big enough to walk. I love daylilies, roses, iris, herbs, veggies, hybridizing, flowering shrubs, landscaping, annuals, houseplants, native plants. I helped my parents plant & weed their veggie gardens when I was 3 yr old, helped my mom start her tomatoes & squash in the window, and at 15 taught her to enjoy growing flowers instead of only food. I take breaks from it sometimes cutting back to just a few things for several years and then..wham...I'm in it 10 times more than last time. Knitting, crochet, spinning & dying yarns. another one that has been a lifetimer. My mom taught me to knit when I was 4 and grandmother taught me to crochet at 6. I taught myself how to design my own sweaters and eventually took classes to learn how to spin/dye. Garden Photography- another life long love. I picked up my first camera at age 5 and my first picture was of my dog sitting in front of my bed of nasturtiums. I've been published a few times. Most notable the cover of a book about the history of an island my great-grandparents helped to settle. Scrapbooking- this is an on-again-off-again love. Obsessive when its on. Ditto with all kinds of other arts & crafts. Reading- I love historical fiction, especially by Christian authors. I also love "how too" and research subjects- learning is a passion. Church- Well maybe not a hobby but it leads to some. I've been active in my church even preaching a sermon to two and singing on the worship team. Geneology & historical research. This is really my mom's hobby but I'm her chief backup archivist & research assistant. Tech- well I do this for a living but I explore online communities on my own time. Cooking- this is also a necessity because I have children with food allergies. I bake all our breads, make my own mixes, and cook from scratch a lot. I make a lot of my own recipes. I also can & freeze our fruits & veggies. Outdoors- I love camping, fishing, hiking, travel to new places, exploring nature & manmade wonders, native plants. a lot of these are on hietus while the kids get a little bigger and able to join. In years past I was an expert seamstress, marksman on a rifle team, raised rabbits & ducks, and a number of other things that have not lasted the test of time.

A modest proposal. I have both gray and red squirrels here but they don't dig up seeds or bulbs or eat anything in the garden. Why? B/c they're so very happy munching on the Black Oil bird seed out there in some of my bird feeders. LOL Now that bugs me for sure, but they can't get at all of them. So my suggestion is to put out Black Oil Sunflower seed near, but away from the human edibles, and you might find that whole dried corn works as well. Try it, it's cheap and might work for you as it does for me, but it wasn't a deliberate move I made, just a spin off. The ingenuity of especially the red squirrels is superb. All that's out there now are two suet containers hanging by metal chain link and anchored to the two foot overhang that surrounds my home. These are out near the deck where I can view them all the time. The Valedictorian of the most recent red squirrel graduating class was ticked off when no more sunflower seed was put in the other bird feeders and that's b'c I now have what's called a Black Bear problem. Sigh. So this one red squirrel goes up the screen ( the front LV/DR has floor to ceiling glass on 3 sides with the middle window in each panel of three opening to a screen) and makes a flying leap, often unsuccessful, to get to the suet feeders and after so many thumps down to the deck floor from aborted flight has started climbing up a nearby tree, jumping over to the roof overhang, hanging from that and then catching the suspending link chain and going down that right to the suet. LOL No, I'm not going to have someone trim back the tree limbs. All to say, get some Black Oil and some whole dried corn and set up a feeding station or two to draw them away from the garden. They'll be happy and you'll be happy. ( smile) Carolyn

I think I could do a credible job of forcing it. I've done similar for other things and know some tricks. I'll take the advice to wait until next year, though, especially since Mother rejected the roast beef dinner. I checked the stores. They mostly show minced meat instead of mincemeat, and a jar of garlic for ‘mince’. One store has a could kinds of jars of mincemeat, not the approved brand, neither of which look appealing, besides jars not really being my thing when I have all the ingredients. I might just make some kind of crumble with similar ingredients.

Jasdip, I love peas and I like hot beef sandwiches, but never thought to put them together like that. I think I'd like it a lot, although Elery detests gravy of any type so I'd be on my own! FOAS, you could have all those strawberries, they tasted like nothing at all! Sleevendog, that risotto looks really good, and I've never made arancini, I should try that. Lynda, I made some fish tacos with leftover baked cod and those blue corn tortillas. The tortillas were relatively quick, after I "nixmatalized" the corn, which took about 9 hours, LOL. We also cut some into pieces and made tortilla chips: Another night we had home canned sauerkraut with chicken Italian sausage and steamed broccoli: Elery and I shared a home grown Porterhouse steak, nice and rare, and we used the leftovers on steak salad: And with that, I think I'm caught up, at least with the meals I took pictures of. Annie