Jane's Hobbies Page

Stitching: I don't do a lot of it, but when I do I really enjoy it. Cross-stitch, costuming and clothing in general, Temari balls, dolls...I dabble in a lot of things.

Drawing : forget about doing it professionally, which I have, it's much more something I do for fun.

Figure Skating/Dancing: In my younger days, I did a fair amount of dancing...Ballet, Jazz, Middle Eastern...but as I grew older and began sit down jobs, that gradually went by the wayside. The time came (when I hit 51) that the old bod was going seriously to seed. CJC and I decided to do something about it and what we agreed on (it wasn't hard) was figure skating. At time frustrating, at times terrifying, it's eternally exhilarating. We skate several days a week (usually five) for an hour and a half. And thanks to skating, I'm back taking ballet one or two nights a week.

Sculpting: no pictures, yet, but I enjoy playing with sculpy and taking greenware casts and modifying heck out of them.  I also love doing paper models...Taj Majal, St Basil's, stuff like that. And I have two ship models I really want to get time to put together...you know, the kind with individual planks and all the rigging?

Piano, guitar, singing: I don't remember when I began playing piano. My first lessons were from my mother. I then took from a professional for several years, but the best instruction I ever got was playing accompaniment for my highschool choir and jazz vocal group. I spent day after day sightreading and following a director. It was great. Scary, but great. I remember one day in particular...the choir had been working on a marvelous arrangement of Battle Hymn of the Republic. It's usually done with an orchestra and we were planning on doing it with the High School Orchestra, but it has a marvelous piano arrangement/accompaniment.Our director, who normally played it for rehersal, had been out sick for a few days and I'd been handling the class along with a fellow student. Our director came in while we were rehearsing Battle Hymn. I didn't see him and neither did Larry. We just kept going and when we were done, the first thing our director said was: Forget the orchestra; you're playing.

It was, if you will, my coming of age as an accompanist, if not as a pianist. I've lost a lot of my ability...many years without a piano and the distractions of new interests have taken their toll, but I still enjoy attacking my Christmas carols and some old classics.

Guitar is something I took up after I met Carolyn and discovered filk music. I dabbled in it, then, when I quit my day job to work full time on the Gate of Ivrel Graphic Novel, I took a week and joined my mom and her "Brunch Bunch" on their yearly retreat to the Oregon Coast. There, with the waves as my metronome, I did little but play and walk the beach (too cold to swim at that time of year). Again, I'm no virtuoso, but I know enough to play as I sing and appreciate someone else who plays well.

Gardening and The Pond: Never thought I'd list gardening as a hobby...my mom would be amused. Pulling weeds was something I did to earn my allowance. Kind of like cleaning the barn, only I kind of enjoyed that. These days, I have fun with my garden, though I'd rather plan and plant than keep it up. And last summer, rather than fix the sprinkling system to encourage the backyard lawn....we dug it up and put in a 4000gal pond (15x20ft). Yup. Just two old ladies and a mantis tiller and a shovel. We got it plumbed just before the snows hit in the fall, so we haven't cranked it up yet.

Travel: In short: I don't do as much as I'd like. But I love it. I've been to England and Scotland. Various places around the US and Canada. I really want to visit Japan. As my life gets organized, so will this page.