Otto's blog

Hobbies Podcast #3

11月

25日

In this podcast, I talk about my hobby of gardening:

https://bohmeenglish.podbean.com/e/the-bohme-english-podcast-24-ottos-gardening-listening%e7%b7%b4%e7%bf%92%ef%bc%89/

This is a transcript:

Hello, everyone. In this podcast I`m going to tell you about another one of my hobbies – gardening. But not vegetables or flowers – a different kind of gardening. But before I tell you what it is, let me explain how it began.

So when I was growing up in Australia as a kid, I loved playing sports – tennis, swimming, cricket, and so on. Then when I was a teenager, I really got into football – or 'soccer' as it`s called in Australia, Japan & the US. I especially loved watching English Premier League football on TV – the teams` uniforms looked so colorful & cool, and the atmosphere in the stadiums, with all the chanting & singing, really impressed me. Another thing that caught my eye when I watched those games was the beautiful condition of the pitches – the grass was amazing. The pitches looked like big green carpets; completely different from the sort of football fields I was used to playing on in Australia, which were usually dry, hard & dusty - really terrible, not to mention painful if you enjoyed slide-tackles, which I did.

So anyway, inspired by that, I decided to try turning my house`s front yard into an English-style football pitch. It was in pretty poor condition when I started, but I watered it every day, pulled out weeds, and cut it whenever the grass grew an inch or so. And little by little it started to turn from brown to green, and the naked dirt patches became covered in nice, healthy grass. Finally, after a couple of years, it ended up looking pretty good.

So there you are – I like grass gardening! And in fact, even though I now live in Japan, I still do this hobby, but not in my house`s yard, which is pretty small. Instead, a few years ago, I decided to become a volunteer groundskeeper for a small park near my house. I go there about once a week to cut the grass, pull weeds & pick up trash. I`m sure some of the neighbors think it`s strange, but I don`t care – I enjoy it, and my kids play there, so it benefits them too. Also, little by little, I`m getting closer to achieving my ultimate goal & dream – to create a beautiful, grassy, English Premier League-style football field in my own neighborhood!

#園芸 #趣味

Trayful of Limes

11月

17日

The limes on my lime tree were turning yellow, so before I left* for work today, I harvested them. As you can see in the photo on the left**, I got a trayful. I didn`t pick all of them, though. I left*** a few small ones on the tree - maybe they will grow a little more. I took the photo on the right a few weeks ago - fortunately this guy wasn`t in the tree today.

Vocabulary:
- * leave (= 出る) --> left [過去形]
- **left = 左
- *** leave (残す) --> left [過去形]

#園芸 #趣味

A Bagful of... What!?

11月

16日

The Biwa beach that I visited was pretty empty - just a handful of people were there, walking their dogs, or sitting on benches. A couple were beachcombing, like me, but I don`t think they were collecting what I collected - walnuts & water chestnut seed pods*. I had an idea, so I gathered a bagful of them. What do you think I`m going to make? Hint: Next month is December. The answer is in comments.

* https://jp.bloguru.com/otto/341395/water-chestnut-seed-pods

Vocabulary:
- a bagful/boxful/mouthful of ___ = 袋/箱/口にいっぱいの＿＿
- a handful of ___ = a small number/amount of ___
- 'A Fistful of Dollars' (Movie name, in Japanese: 荒野の用心棒) = 拳固にいっぱいの金

#アウトドア #旅行 #趣味

Biwa Beachcombing

11月

15日

On Saturday I took a daytrip to Biwa Lake. I went to Maibara Station by train, then rode my folding bike (折りたたみ自転車) down* to a beach near Hikone Castle, where I found a couple of small rubber balls, a lure, a float, & some lighters with a little gas left in them (I was going to use them to make a small fire to make coffee, but there was a convenience store across the road, so I just bought coffee there instead).

I didn`t ride far on Saturday, but when I packed up my bike & carried it up** the stairs at the station, my legs felt tired. I guess I walked a lot without realising it.

Vocabulary:
- 'down' = *南 or 下
- 'up' = 北 or **上

#アウトドア #アート