Day 23 - 5 hobbies

April challenge
Day 23 - List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.

I think this one is going to be easy. Finally!

1. Reading - Hands down my favourite thing to do. I would not be the person I am if not for books and a mother who loved reading to her children and has an incredible knack for finding amazingly interesting and inspiring books.
2. Writing - While not as much fun as reading, writing is very therapeutic for me. Well, sometimes it's frustrating, but mostly it's therapeutic. I find it most useful if I need to get something off my chest and soon I'll just be writing away in stream of consciousness. Ahh, I can imagine stress rolling off of me even while writing this, and I don't even need to get anything off my chest right now.
3. Organizing/cleaning - I'm not quite sure this qualifies as a hobby, but for me it can also be pretty relaxing. I work best when I'm in a clean and fairly-well organized space. And luckily, I quite enjoy getting my space to the level of clean and organized that I work best in.
4. Traveling - It's not a hobby I can afford to do all the time, but when I can get away to travel, even for a few days or a weekend, I just love it. I love exploring and learning about new places, meeting new people, and discovering as much as I can about the world around me.
5. Being in still, quiet places - Again, not sure it's really a hobby, but when I was living at home I often took my dog, Pepper, for walks beside the creek that was just a few minutes from our house at the end of the main road. It was so relaxing and rejuvenating to wander along the trails beside the creek alone with my thoughts, but with a happy companion trotting by my side. Those times really were the highlights of my days.
6. Bonus: Singing - This one isn't a hobby I really think about, but since I do sing quite a bit during most days, I figured it should go on the list. I have been known to sing about pretty much any subject that comes into my head. And what irks my family members (other than my mum who also unconsciously sings) is that I usually don't even know I'm doing it. One time driving around near Southern I sang a very repetitive song about hot dogs for about three or four minutes before one of my siblings finally pleaded me to stop. Most of the time, though, I'll sing actual songs that real people can identify.