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Some of you might have already known that I love gardening. I consider this activity as one of my fun-tastic hobbies. When we get involved in growing plants and edibles, we discover new things that make gardening an endless yet fulfilling activity. Part of dealing with plants is to discover other living organisms that benefit or even destroy the garden especially when the infestation comes.

It is very important to know whether the alien in a garden is a friend or a foe. Since I’m not an expert in dealing with insects, I google some information about it and ask people who are more knowledgeable so I could combat the problem. Knowing some useful tips and tricks would save money and effort, thus there’s more time to enjoy the garden. There’s always so much to learn and I try my best to be motivated as much as possible. That’s why I would keep this hobby until the world ends… :P

This activity has led me to evolve to another hobby which is raising caterpillars. You’ve probably read some of my blogs about it months ago and you might even comment on them. So this hobby is not really something new but I consider it as my latest so far.

Since we’re talking about ‘raising’ something, I would like to give you a tidbit of the verb ‘to raise’. It has multiple meanings and it even functions as a noun. But I would not lecture you on all of its meaning. In fact, you can learn more about this word here. So the verb ‘raise’ as for my description of my hobby is to ‘keep a particular type of animal/insect or grow a particular crop’. (Macmillan Dictionary)

For example; I raised a butterfly for weeks and let it in the wild, but it was eaten by fire ants!

And here are some idioms about ‘raise’…

Raise a laugh or smile ~ to cause someone to laugh or smile

• Nigel raised a laugh to the ladies when he passed by with pigeon poop on his shirt.

Raise someone’s spirit ~ to make one happier or carefree

• The band Daughtry raised the veteran’s spirits by performing their hit songs.

Raise (one’s) hat ~ to congratulate or pay tribute to someone

• The film critic raised his hat to Emilia Clarke who won a best actress award.

Do you know other idioms about raise? Don’t hesitate to share it here. I hope you learn something from this blog. Let’s raise our glasses for more success and happiness to our hobbies! Thank you for reading!