Something I have always wanted to do.

I’ve been going to watercolour classes for a couple of years and learnt that yes, everyone can paint and/or draw. We all have completely different styles. Small and exact or huge and abstract. It’s a case of finding your style. The lesson bit is learning to control the paint and put it where you want it. I started classes because I found that, although I could paint on walls, a sheet of blank paper just too daunting.

What I would really love to do is play the piano, but my eyes are dyslexic when it comes to reading music and I can’t see which line the notes are on, and I have an appalling memory so chances of learning by rote are negligible. Maybe the drums ....!

My friend and I have for a long while wanted to do a walking holiday ... so we are! First week in September we will drive up to Scotland from S Wales and walk as much of Hadrian’s Wall as we can. We are both well into our sixties, reasonably fit and well so fingers crossed. Oh and for the entire week we will be camping much to the hilarity of our adult children!

Since the 1970s I've wanted to build a straw-bale house .....maybe one day!!!

I'm in awe of all your abilities!
I would love to be able to sing and have joined choirs but one stopped because the choirmaster left and the next became too advanced for me, alas.
I always had the ambition to have my own horse but 15 yrs of helping with RDA got that out of my system.
I would love to have a boat but then again I get seasick so perhaps not.
Nope I can't think of anything I still yearn to try.

I can sew, do embroidery & cross stitch also I can crochet but can't knit. No-one succeeded in teaching me, I wish MiL had tried to teach me because although she was left handed she had taught many right handed people successfully. I envy those ladies who can "Knit'n' Natter"

Wish I had not given up learning another language. I did make an attempt many years ago and found it much easier when I visited my relatives who at that time were living in that particular country and I was able to mix with the local people Too late now.

Re piano, just saying in case it encourages anyone else....

At my group class a while ago I met a woman in at least her late 40s who'd recently passed grade 3, having started as a complete beginner only a few years previously.

Having been too chicken to face exams - fear of failure through sheer nerves - I admired her enormously.

Bradfordlass - love the sculpture and also the Clarice Cliff. Well done you!

NanaandGrampy you may have small hands and stumpy fingers, but don't let that stop you playing the piano. This Chinese girl has NO fingers on one hand, and plays beautifully!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MU2Y--nfFI

I would love to be able to crochet. I enjoy knitting fairly simple things but cannot get the hang of crochet. I've bought a book and watched online tutorials, sadly to no avail!!

I am so like you MaggieMaybe.. I have a keyboard, call it piano,, have rudiments so I could tinkle out a tune,, get free music on line, but still can`t make myself sit and play with it..

lots of enthusiasm so little get up and go..

Like PageTurner, learn to swim.

I had a horrible experience in water as a child and ever since I've been absolutely terrified of swimming... even the smell of a swimming bath's makes me I'll!

Every now and again I think I'll try and I just can't do it....

Now that I am taking retirement, I would like to start that book and do a few scrapbooks

Hazel Soan..10-minute watercolours..published by collins gem).. full of useful basic information... not at all scary!!

I took a few watercolour classes some years ago wuth a wonderful teacher.. she saud if you feel you cant draw then don't... just paint... make a mark on the paper... anywhere.. as a big blank sheet of paper is really intimidating.. and she was right... I cant draw(!)... I am not artistic.. my paintings are awful.. unrecognisable... but I love it.. and I am not going to stop.. its just for me..

Don’t know where the ‘now DH’ came from! He’s always been DH.

Sometimes the faster you try and get something down on paper, the more effective it can be. I made this scruffy little sketch on the back of a piece of paper I was writing a list on. It is GS and now DH putting decorations on the Christmas tree. It just seems to sum up the scene perfectly. I have tried to replicate it several times but it never seems to come out right.

Good luck NanKate I can sketch a little, you would certainly know what it is but would love to be better.

What I've always wanted to be able to do is sing in tune. I so envy people who have beautiful singing voices. If I could accompany myself on the guitar, even better.

What a lovely Time Circle BradfordLass. I adore Clarice Cliff work and all the vibrant colours.

You paint a brilliant picture in my mind Sharon of sketching in the outdoors.

I started the book last night and made sure I didn’t do my usual skim reading but took in the helpful, simple advice. I then did the first exercise of just putting lines on a page and seeing the difference in the result with the thinness and thickness and lightness and darkness dependent on the pressure of the pencil. Today I will be buying a couple of pencils recommended. I also sketched an Art Nouveau style vase I have and was surprised at the positive result.

Does anyone else feel ready to take up the challenge and have a go at something they have always wanted to do ?

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201906/medium-906704-my-sculpture--time-circle.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201906/medium-160373-clarice-cliff-teapot.jpg

Yes, I was a sculptor and painter in all mediums, carver and potter (I loved making Clarice Cliff replicas.)

Here's one of my sculptures; it's in Cornwall and called Time Circle. You stand in the middle and your shadow falls on one of the slabs which have Roman numerals incised into them. The caption under the title says, 'You are time itself'.

I've done most of the things listed here (including cutting hair and pulling pints.) The one thing I cannot do is play piano.

I very much wanted to when I was younger and was offered a free piano but my parents wouldn't agree to it.
We lived in a small terraced house and I suppose they didn't want to tedium of constant scales every night!
I can play a recorder and mouth organ though.

I would love to learn to swim, however, having a few scary moments in deep water where my feet couldn't touch the bottom, I don't think I ever will learn.
I played the flute when I was about 12. I got a flute a few years ago and can't seem to get a single note out of it ?
I can sew pretty well but don't enjoy it much.
Mostly I like to be outside doing yard work, creating beauty spots out of bare areas. I should have studied horticulture.

I want to run, but every time I start, I realize I hate it, then injury sidelines me!

I can picture you sitting in a field wearing a straw hat and a pretty floaty dress on a warm sunny summer's day with your easel, sketching the wild flowers swaying in the breeze.
A new artist in the making I wonder?
Drawing and painting is a lovely hobby. I used to be good at art and was told by my art teacher that I should have stayed on at school and taken art exams. My two older brothers used to be really good at drawing and have lovely handwriting. Sadly the only paintbrush I hold now is for home decorating.
I hope you'll get some pleasure with your new venture. Can't wait to see your first masterpiece

I wish I was good at something - anything , but I'd really love to be able to make something, with the sewing machine my husband bought last December - he's used it, once, but it's just taking up room on the table...

crystaltips* I have always wanted to do wild swimming but naked. No wet suit for me. Doubt I ever will now though as I am nearly 75 . Ah well. !