Last evening when I was turning out the lights I had a plan for this morning’s Creative Potager post. I would post a couple of red tulip photos I’ve been working on with a simple sprout question about “red” and that would be it. I wanted quick, simple and something ready to go as I have a busy day today.
Well, this morning it was all soft, misty and raining. As I sipped my coffee and contemplate the day I think about the tulip draped in morning light with big drops of rain pooling and running down its smooth surface. That is about the very point when my good intentions from last evening begin to unravel.
Sniffing the freshness of green and moisture, I slip into the side yard where two ears wiggle and a curious nose sniffs back at me from the other side of the deer fence – which, as a gardener, is where I like to see these critters… on the OTHER side of the deer fence.
Since we are going round to the front yard, I might as well show you the new garden bed I’m digging while we are here. I wanted a labyrinth but the space is too small so this is my creative solution.
Oh yes, the tulip…
Then I decide to be a raindrop having fallen for thousands of feet clinking and clanking into other raindrops before seeing my destination… oh what a place to land!
Since we have gone this far and I am only slightly damp, why don’t we go part way down the eighty-one steps on stairway-to-heaven and have a quick look out over the valley from under the firs?
Now as an after thought here are the two images I had planned for this morning….
tulip kaleidoscope
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red tulip in mid-day sun
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Sprout Question: What happens to your good intentions when they meet head-on with your creative muse?
© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.
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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.
From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada
Creative Potager 
The best made plans of men and mice…or something like that.
Well, a few months ago (I refuse to say how many) I moved my writing area. This resulted in a collection of boxes in our hall. A collection that I was to weed. Well, I don’t like weeding. I’m not a gardener. So instead of weeding my muse and I wrote. We wrote one book and finished another. Then we had a discussion.
“Look I said. I can no longer play with you. I have work to be done.”
So last week-end I weeded.
I have more weeding to do but…but…I had to write this. : )
I’m giggling Leanne as I can see a few of my boxes poking out waaaaaaay over on the other side of the studio where I have covered them with a sheet so I don’t have to look at them. Thanks for your sprout and good luck with the weeding:)
What happens to your good intentions when they meet head-on with your creative muse?
Creativity and being in the flow is like walking across stepping stones through a stream. My good intentions are built-upon, expanded, and changed when I get into the flow of things, and the end result is something better than I ever could have planned beforehand.
Yes but my day! Where has my day gone Jessica? You are so right though… and what does it matter? There are things that will get moved to tomorrow and other things will be shifted and wiggled until they are fit in and not left behind.
I want to mention Jessica’s brilliant post I read last evening “Your mind should have rain gutters.” If you get a chance it is worth stopping in to have a read.
Terrill, I’m sorry. I can only respond visually to this feast right now. Oh. How. Magnificent! Sweet, sweet deer. Gorgeous tulip center and the red, wow! But that tulip with the one drop that you caught in mid-fall? Just spectacular. And your almost-labyrinth is going to be beautiful. A lot of work, but it will reward you.
You do live in heaven.
Now I’m going to read Jessica’s!
Hello Martha. You know the red of the last tulip image is right out of the camera. I didn’t saturate it all and when I tried to tone it down the whole thing went flat… so I left it well enough alone. And with feedback and appreciation like that – your off the hook for answering the sprout question for sure:)
I always find red tough to photograph. It is one of the colours that they say never wear for a TV interview (or stripes). But even with its challenges, I like to give it a try.
Terrill – The photographs of deer, garden bed, tulips, view of the valley, and riotious tulips at the end are all — each one of them — exquisite! In this case “the best laid plans of mice and men” turned out to be a boon for your readers. Thank you!
What happens to your good intentions when they meet head-on with your creative muse?
I’m usually taken on a joy ride. And I do mean joy (internal combustion) in the truest sense of the word.
Whoa! I think you might have taken that corner just a little to fast there Laurie! You are welcome and thanks for your sprout response.
The post and flowers are so beautiful, Terrill. Thank you and thanks also for your comment on 8-year old Toby’s tulips – http://www.photographyandtransformation.com/the-digital-camera-as-an-opening-for-communication-with-children-self-and-others-tobys-tulips/2010/04/18
You are welcome Sheila and I hope readers drop by and see Toby’s tulip photos… you will be amazed:)
hi terrill,
awwwwwwwwwwww love the photos of tulip..
the flower is so cute…….
miss u
Thank Wulan… see you again soon – don’t work too hard:)
The red of that tulip is incredible!
My good intentions go off in all sorts of interesting directions/new paths when met with my creative muse. I know this is a rather vague answer, but there’s mystery involved- ie, ‘how did I end up down THIS path, when my intentions were to head down THAT path?’ It’s invigorating!
I agree Stephanie and it is always wise I think to be loose and light with our expectations when we find ourselves on THAT path.
Joining the chorus here: great photos and I enjoyed the tulips and deer ones especially.
On your question–I try to let creativity win over good intentions. I think good intentions will always be there, while creativity needs room to run and flourish.
Slamdunk I agree with you and as you can see…. I tend to lean to the side of giving creativity “room to run and flourish.”
Terrill: I was away from the computer yesterday. Thanks for your kind mention of my blog.
As for your day; I’m not sure what to say! Laundry can wait, cooking can wait, cleaning can wait. But appointments must be kept.
I did a little “weeding” of my own several months ago. I have a fierce resistance to attending to the mail. I’ll hide it away in closets and boxes before I’ll open it; mainly because I pay all my bills over the phone and I don’t need the paper version. So I’ve been weeding out the important papers from the junk mail very slowly this winter. I’ve gone through 2 boxes already.
I couldn’t miss the envelope that came in the mail this week, though. An online friend from Manitoba sent me a copy of Soulshaping because I responded online at the Braveheartwomen community she runs. It’s mail like this I love to open, and I’m reading the book now.
You are welcome Jessica… thank you for your sprout response and good luck with the weeding:)