What hobbies and everyday pleasures enrich your life most?

[Aabbaas]

Family and friends aside, what are the things that enrich your life the most and that you are grateful to have/be able to do?

I’ll start:

• my pet
• dancing lessons
• cooking and trying new recipes
• traveling (when I can)
• treating myself to a nice cappuccino in my favourite mug
• reading a good book

I wish my parents had pushed me more as a kid, I would have liked to cultivate more hobbies or a talent in young age (like playing an instrument). Of course I could still do more now but I think it sets you off for a good start when you have the ability to learn and be exposed to more things as a kid.

Walks in the local park, gardening and a mug of good coffee. Sadly all of them have been limited this year due to heatwaves and pregnancy. Autumn walks are even better as I love the trees changing colour.

Cycling and walking.
Going a bit stir crazy this week as it's been raining heavily most of the time so I've barely been out but I try to get out of the house most days since I retired and to do a bigger walk or bike ride 2 or 3 times a week.

Ha! No beer at breakfast here, but lovely fresh sourdough with my boiled egg this morning.

Love this thread for me it's audiobooks and podcasts, walking my dogs, trail walking when I have time, cross stitch, crochet and this thread has just inspired me to book my first yoga class! I may also take up women's soft ball cricket!

Reading is my biggest everyday joy. Always has been.

I also enjoy and am grateful for:

My garden and the view from it
Drinking a cup of tea in peace
Crochet (I’m relatively new to it and can only make basic things while following a video, but I love it. I’m making my dd a scarf at the moment)
Gardening, particularly growing fruit and vegetables
Cooking and baking, especially when it’s new recipes
Swimming

Singing in the church choir
The gym
My dog
Cooking
Coffee out

Every day pleasures - coffee and spending time with our dog.
I also enjoy decorating the house according to the season, so have just bought new cushions and ornaments for autumn, then for Halloween. It gives me a lot of joy.

Hobbies - i also dont have any. I wasnt encouraged to do anything as a child. Anything I asked to do, I was told I wasnt allowed.
I've decided Im going to take up a bit of cross stitching.

Like PP, I also encourage my DC to try every sport and club they are interested in as I think having hobbies with make them mentally and physically healthier than I am.

Walking around my garden in the early morning, once I've let my 2 pets chickens and the cats out.
My beautiful pony 🐴
Watching the birds in the garden

Taking duck food with me every day on my daily dog walk and feeding my little duck army. They know I'm coming, they recognise me and my dogs and they swim really fast across the lake to come and feed.
It makes me smile every single day. Such a simple pleasure but brings me so much joy 😊

I absolutely love this.

My golden retriever is OBSESSED with ducks. If I go near the pond she drags me to the ducks and, like a toddler, doesn't want to leave!

Lovely thread. I love to read, and I'm in a book group, so get to talk about books, too. I'm in a choir and I have singing lessons - love singing! I've just started to paint with watercolours again after a long gap. I also like a cup of tea, a podcast and a jigsaw 🙂

Good coffee first thing in the morning

My dog

Running

Being in nature

Audiobooks

Havinga super comfy bed and bedding

Running alone and with friends and any time spent outdoors.

I get a great deal of satisfaction from knitting items for a particular charity - the items are always wanted and valued by children’s therapists.
Here is one of my latest, a ‘worry monkey’ - he has a deep mouth pocket for worries - and his little hand puppet friend.

Tennis and the gym. Almost everyday and would never give either up, keeps me fit and social.

Family walk every weekend.

Reading alongside my DS 9 every night. It’s such a nice way to wind down after the day, chat, and spend time together. I look forward to it every day.

Waking up early in the morning for a quiet coffee and to do some creative writing.

My beautiful dog.
Drinking heinz tomato soup when its raining outside.Doing this right now!
Watching old Airline episodes from the early 00's on YT.

Baking and playing the piano.

My volunteering
Gardening and allotment
Eating really good quality food, especially meat

Also need to know - WHAT IS POPCORNING?

For me, it is:

1. My pets. They are excellent company, and less messy than another human!
2. Cooking and trying new recipes. My neighbours tend to appreciate this, too, especially when it's puddings! I'll add 'good food' to the list, too.
3. Reading good books
4. Visiting apparently "unusual" holiday destinations, such as eco-villages, communes and various islands around the UK coastline.
5. When I see bees and butterflies all over my plants in the garden.
6. Learning new skills
7. Visiting particular friends, whose family absorbs you, so you end up lambing with a four-year-old assistant (one of their many grandchildren) or hiding the keys from the machine-mad toddler, before they scoot off down the driveway on the quad bike or something!

I wish that I had been allowed to do art and music lessons as a child. Instead, I was made to do sports classes every day (sometimes twice a day) on top of school. No matter how many sports classes I was made to do, I only ever took to the unusual ones, like windsurfing and trapeze.

Walks in my
local lovely area

time with my children (when they aren’t being stressful!!)

being around horses each week

coffe and tea at home or out

peaceful moments

watching or reading interesting things

running outside

enjoying food

Singing in a choir
reading
I've enjoyed knitting and cross stitch in the past but seem to have got out of the habit. Must try again.

Sewing and crochet
Birdwatching
Cooking, especially a new recipe
Painting
Spending time with DH mooching round a historical site or garden or going for a walk.
BEachcombing
Trolling around charity shops looking for art

Popcorning is the way they express exuberant happiness (guinea pigs). They do random little jumps and they look like popcorn when they do it (lambs do something similar although they are bigger so doesn't look like popcorn). Literally, they jump for joy. Our GP used to do it when I put them back into a cleaned house ... given no other bugger ever appreciates any housework that happens round here it gave me great pleasure cleaning out their house and getting an immediate positive feedback from doing so.

Language classes. I take Spanish, Italian and French evening classes every week from September to April.

Baking. It's a more recent hobby, of maybe 2-3 years. I also experiment with healthy baking these days as I'm on a health kick. So I'm baking cakes and sweet treats without refined sugar and fat (as much as possible).

Shopping. It's just something I really enjoy.

Adult colouring books.

Playing the Middle Eastern drum (Darbouka).

DJ'ing.

I have made friends with a family of crows. They watch for when I open the blinds in the morning and fly over for some snacks (and throughout the day whenever they see me!). I love interacting with them and seeing their different personalities. Like you, it makes me smile every day… there’s something quite magical about being recognised by wild birds/animals. 🥰