Our hobbies other than bikes

johnm · Monday at 5:00 PM

The garden centres in NZ have taken a beating too but we have a couple of good ones near here.

Sweet basil is an annual here. We get decent frosts over winter so I plant basil with my tomatoes in late spring when the frosts are gone. Made a stupid mistake last year planting tomatos and sunflowers together. They are definitely not companion plants and the tomato's shrivelled up and died. Five minutes online and I soon discovered that's a known issue

Chives are a favourite. Often mix them with scrambled eggs for lunch.

Got a few fruit trees. Mandarins lemons, grapefruit, fejoia, apples plus a very hopeless plum which may come out. Best by far is my apple. Grapes are also up for replanting because I want a desert grape. The Wairarapa where I live is a very popular wine area specialising in super expensive Pinot Noir.

Shame about your house plants. Only one of my kids are interested in gardening and he lives in the centre of London. Manages to keep a couple of plants going in his flat but unfortunately too high up for a window box. He and I used to plant seeds for a rough cottage flower garden when he was 4 years old.

Right this moment I'm sitting in the sun at my Velo friends place. Had a small operation yesterday for a men's issue. Nothing even closely remotely as bad as the issues your dealing with but I'll get to spend a few weeks on the deck watching the garden grow. No bike riding for 4 weeks.

Take care and keep moving forward.

ashman · Monday at 6:45 PM

I had one Roma tomato bush growing in my garden a few years ago, this one plant produced so many tomato's and it kept producing more and more we got so much off it we couldn't keep up with it, Debra had to make tomato relish, over time she made 3 batches off that one bush as well having tomato's with everything we ate, never in my whole life of growing tomato's did I ever have a bush produce so much off it, it finally ran its course and the tomato relish was great with cooking.

I was just about to go do more work up in the shed, but just got a email telling my diecast cars/trucks for my layout is being delivered today between 11am and 1pm, not bad 5 days since ordering them from the UK, yet it take 5 to 6 days to get things delivered from Western Australia to the east cost to Queensland by post, anyway I just heard the postie going up the road he be here soon if they been delivered by him, I better throw on my leg just incase, 10 die cast models.

No wasn't with the postie, be coming by a delivery van, so now I got to hang around till it comes, Debra is still in bed and 1/2 the day is gone, she is a late owl and stays up into the wee wee hrs of the morning, she wasting a perfect spring day here not a cloud in the shy and its our anniversary today 36 years we got married, still no parole for me, I must be a lifer

and I been a good boy, well lately anyway

.

Ashley

Torontonian · Monday at 7:08 PM

I have 2 gardens on the go at our Artist community historic building and park in Toronto .
The past 3 days pouring 8 buckets of boiling soapy water onto the master yellojacket wasp nest nearby . Then run like hell . Great fun . They're gone .

gortnipper · Tuesday at 12:51 AM

johnm said:
Not very cool but I do like a bit of gardening.

I should send you some Dahlias, John. My wife has a Dahlia business that I help her with.

www.petalpants.co.nz

Saber · 2026-09-16T01:22:26-0600

My wife and I enjoy golfing.

Tornado · 2026-09-16T01:28:22-0600

After a long multi decade hiatus, Im getting back into RC sailboating. Even some scale RC sailboat model building being planned. Makes up for my full scale sail racing years before motorcycling took over.

Saber · 2026-09-16T01:50:17-0600

Saber said:
My wife and I enjoy golfing.

And Tuesday night mens golf league with my pals is still a blast after 33 years of doing it. Especially the post golf brew time.

Richard Tool · 2026-09-16T05:12:59-0600

Scale modeling

Upland bird hunting until my dog went to the big quail field in the sky ..

Surfing and guitar playing off and on ( more off than on lately )

grandpaul · 2026-09-16T07:27:12-0600

Saber said:
My wife and I enjoy golfing.

I use my late kid brother's golf clubs to play "whack a Cow", out at the ranch...

First cow is about 100 yards, the others are at 125...

Stevo · 2026-09-16T08:55:20-0600

Occasional model making, keeping yards in good order.

Shelby-Right · 2026-09-16T12:24:59-0600

I enjoy cutting firewood and splitting using my homemade woodsplitter, I've been working on my 1916 approx Mogul international 2 1/2 hp.

ashman · 2026-09-16T15:20:31-0600

The good thing about my train layout is making all the model buildings and other stuff, I still have about 10 kits to put together the engine shed on my layout took about 5 hrs to make/put together, I build the kits at night when there nothing else to amuse me, every time I visit my local hobby shop I buy a few more kits and have built up a collection so far that all need to be put together.

The good thing about model trains as a hobby it will be on going for many years before it even comes close to being finished, when I was a kid I love building models, ships mostly as my dad was in the Merchant navy during the war and my oldest brother who I looked up too was in the Royal Australia Navy he joined at 15 and I was going to follow his shoes but fate stepped in and my mother passes away when I was 14, so change my life and leaving school at 15 the bikes came into my life as well my model making days also finished.

But it was always my young days of wanting to build a big train layout, but just never had the time and spending my money on motorcycles and being young and silly, but now I have the money to start this new hobby and now its taking over my life, not spending all my time on it as I still have a normal life to live but it's keeping me sane when things were looking bad after our accident, Debra and all my mates are amazed in what I been doing the last few weeks, building extension off the old slot car tables work, the laying of the track has been the longest part so far then adding more as I go, changing things and reworking what I had already laid out.

The best thing with the layout it keeping me busy and out of the house and out of Debra's way, my shed/workshop is all set up, beer fridge, my music, my bikes and snooker table, every boys dream and when things start to get too me, mucking around up in the shed fixes that, the best therapy I can get for what has happen to me and Debra in the last 9 months, I trying to get Debra involved in it but not having much luck there, but that will change when the trains start running, we both had fun with the big slot car raceway together, but the trains were always stuck in my head and was the road I wanted to take but couldn't afford it at the time, the slot cars was cheaper to do at the time.

I just wished I started this layout many years ago when I first retired in 2013 at 55, but I was still enjoying life and at the time the trains weren't stuck in my head, the bikes were, but the bikes are still there and the Norton will always be there.

Ashley

johnm · 2026-09-16T16:32:30-0600

ashman said:
The good thing about my train layout is making all the model buildings and other stuff, I still have about 10 kits to put together the engine shed on my layout took about 5 hrs to make/put together, I build the kits at night when there nothing else to amuse me, every time I visit my local hobby shop I buy a few more kits and have built up a collection so far that all need to be put together.

The good thing about model trains as a hobby it will be on going for many years before it even comes close to being finished, when I was a kid I love building models, ships mostly as my dad was in the Merchant navy during the war and my oldest brother who I looked up too was in the Royal Australia Navy he joined at 15 and I was going to follow his shoes but fate stepped in and my mother passes away when I was 14, so change my life and leaving school at 15 the bikes came into my life as well my model making days also finished.

But it was always my young days of wanting to build a big train layout, but just never had the time and spending my money on motorcycles and being young and silly, but now I have the money to start this new hobby and now its taking over my life, not spending all my time on it as I still have a normal life to live but it's keeping me sane when things were looking bad after our accident, Debra and all my mates are amazed in what I been doing the last few weeks, building extension off the old slot car tables work, the laying of the track has been the longest part so far then adding more as I go, changing things and reworking what I had already laid out.

The best thing with the layout it keeping me busy and out of the house and out of Debra's way, my shed/workshop is all set up, beer fridge, my music, my bikes and snooker table, every boys dream and when things start to get too me, mucking around up in the shed fixes that, the best therapy I can get for what has happen to me and Debra in the last 9 months, I trying to get Debra involved in it but not having much luck there, but that will change when the trains start running, we both had fun with the big slot car raceway together, but the trains were always stuck in my head and was the road I wanted to take but couldn't afford it at the time, the slot cars was cheaper to do at the time.

I just wished I started this layout many years ago when I first retired in 2013 at 55, but I was still enjoying life and at the time the trains weren't stuck in my head, the bikes were, but the bikes are still there and the Norton will always be there.

Ashley

Does sound like your a busy lad.

I'm lying in my back this week waiting for things to heal a bit but hopefully will be up and onto things in a week or two. No bikes for a month or so.

ashman · 2026-09-16T16:46:30-0600

johnm said:
Does sound like your a busy lad.

I'm lying in my back this week waiting for things to heal a bit but hopefully will be up and onto things in a week or two. No bikes for a month or so.

I wish you well Johnm, healing takes it time but looking after ourselves after major accident or surgery and caring for the wounds is so important, after my big chop my stump was so fat and swollen from the surgery but lucky the healing went good with good care from the nurses 6 weeks healing in fact was looking good just after 3 weeks, but after 9 months my stump is so slim now and my new leg mould has to adapt to the changes as well we all have to do.

Our hobbies other than bikes

johnm

ashman

Torontonian

gortnipper

Saber

Tornado

Saber

Richard Tool

grandpaul

Stevo

TN

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Shelby-Right

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ashman

johnm

ashman

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