Creative Potager’s summer blog schedule begins the first week of May
budding possibilities - wild rose
The first post for Creative Potager was December 27, 2009. I have been posting a blog Monday to Friday, except for power outages caused by windstorms battering our little island in the Pacific Northwest. Including today, there are 83 posts each with their own sprout question. There are 1,165 comments documenting our creative conversations and 8, 596 times you have come to visit. Creative Potager has become an enjoyable habit to wake up to during the week where I say to myself “what shall I post today?” However summer is coming. I yearn to be outside in the garden, tramping the trails and painting on site rather than inside snuggled up to my laptop. Like the summer wild flowers in this post, I bloom best in untamed places.
each day is precious - wild tiger lily
So after giving it some serious thought, I am changing my posting schedule to twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from the beginning of May until the beginning of September. I may on occasion post an additional submission. But these will be bonus or value-added posts rather than an expectation.
petite lady slipper
I am hoping you can live with this change and that we both will benefit from my scrambling around in the valleys and on the hills and down the beaches of Mayne Island and afar. I am hoping that we can still have rich and engaging conversations between posts even during the long days of summer. I am hoping that the sprout questions will be juicy enough to keep us inspired for the in-between times. I am hoping that you will trust that winter will come with its short days and unpredictable weather and we shall again be glad for our Monday to Friday sprout conversations fueled by the fruits of summer experiences.
drops of rain on white fawn lilies
Please let me know what YOU are hoping and what you think of this change – because most of the fun of this blog is my conversations with you!
Sprout Question: Does your creativity have a summer schedule?
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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.
From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada
Creative Potager 
Terrill, your posts will still be happily anticipated. Since I’m a regular subscriber, I’ll be here no matter what!
Those wildflowers are spectacular. My sister has a place in the woods where nature groups regularly go for wildflower walks. I need to get out there with them.
Thank you Martha and I think regular subscriptions is a great option – there are now 28 regular subscribers though I know a good many who use facebook and twitter as a way of know when my post are up. I also use my blogroll as a way of checking in on favourite blogs I am following. I think it is whatever works. I am glad Martha that you can live with the change:)))))
Martha may I suggest… a magnifying glass and clothes you don’t mind getting snagged and dirty from scrounging around on the forest floor as this is what is required to get the close up view of the wild flowers like the ones I have shown you here:) I am usually flat on my belly to get the lady slipper and Fawn lily photos. And the lady slippers are so small. Mind you, the wild roses and wild tiger lilies are taller but hardly ever in a convenient spot!
Hi Terrill,
Like you, in late spring to early fall I am outside more than I am inside. My creativity tends to move towards the outdoor canvas of my garden and time is spent gardening, riding, hiking, and swimming. I tend to gather inspirational photos while going about these outdoor activities that may appear on canvas on cooler days. I think twice a week sounds wonderful and will be looking forward to what inspires you while you are out and about.
Thank you Sue and like wise I will be looking forward to what appears on your canvases (both inside and outside canvases)
Readers, the rose and tiger lily photos were taken in Sue’s woods outside of Armstrong last year.
Hi Terrill, I, too, am very happy with my subscription to your delightful blog so full of stunning pictures. It doesn’t matter how often it comes! Sprout question: How I wish my life lent itself to having any schedule at all. Looking after elderly folks defies planning much of anything! But I’m looking forward to wheeling my dad out onto the porch again this summer so he can watch the birds at his bird feeders. Maybe this year I will discover the trick to photographing them!!!
Barbara thank you so much for your kind words and your sprout response. I encourage you to try photographing the birds…. maybe even something you do together. If you have a camera that can sit on a tripod with a remote switch attached, maybe even your dad could push the button and take photos of the birds he is watching (I don’t know his capacity level so it is really just me being my usual creative self that dares to suggest such a thing).
This year I have had change both in what I do and the freedom to be out and about as well… but this is all shifting for the better. What it taught me is that I can create freedom without going anywhere (sometimes that has been by having a late night cup of tea on the side porch wrapped in a blanket listening to the rain in the trees). I have learned how much being on-line offers connection and access to those that are house bound because of illness or disabilities or because they are caring for others.
Thanks, Terrill, I’ll have to try the tripod idea. Dad’s got dementia and is starting to have difficulty operating the TV remote, but who knows? Maybe he’d enjoy pushing a button to take a picture. 🙂
It may not work then Barbara unless you are sitting with him. But the nice thing about a remote switch is that your hands can be shaking and you can still end up with a good picture. It is a bit better than the TV remote though because only have to push one thing.
I’m a very contented participant on this blog. I will miss reading it Monday to Friday but will look forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays. This June I will waiting on pins and needles for three publishers to give me a thumbs up or thumbs down on three manuscripts. I’m currently working on Plan Bs. As well as attempting to make myself as visable as possible in cyperspace. To this end, I just started a new Word Press blog — http://www.authorleannedyck.wordpress.com
I hope you will check it out. So far I have one post. : )
Good to hear Leanne and I am going to send some good wishes on the the success of those manuscripts you have out there. Thank you for your link to your new blog… I will be by later to have a wee look.
Oh that’s cool I just noticed my name changed to authorleannedyck. I like that.
Me too! It is clearly another step in the right direction.
Tuesday & Thursdays Cool.
I dont think i have a summer schedule for creativity I am sure i have a different schedule during the summer for entertainment. The longer days do seem to change things dont they?
The longer days do I agree… now if I remember right Jerry you are the person who invites guest for dinner as part of celebrating and unwinding after painting. Does this mean you paint more in the summer as part of entertaining or does entertaining take on a life of its own? And glad to hear you are cool with Tuesday and Thursdays.
Oh my looks like it is going to work swimmingly well with making these changes – touching wood.
I love the Lady Slipper photo!
I am from Minnesota, Lady Slipper is the state flower!
Yes, please enjoy the Spring and Summer….
Do it for me, while I am usually stuck in a n office! I have worked full time for over 30 years with very little time out during the summer to enjoy,, or any other season for that matter! Especially when the kids were younger,. Work, homework, kids activities, church activities, and sleep pretty much were and still are my life. Not much left for creativity, as I would geuss my creativitiy is more in the problem solving I do every day in the health care field.
I have always been a novice in the art world, but keep dabbling….Kim
Thank you Kim… your sprout remembers me of the years of going to university, working half-time with two young children as a single parent. I remember the first year I was only working full-time after I graduated… it was like a holiday. However, something happened in the spring eight years ago… I woke up realizing that I had successfully navigated the whitewater of my life up until that point. I was forty-three years old. I was in a beautiful lake of peace, reflection and joy. I calmly gave notice for my senior leadership position in the provincial government – even though I had a nagging fear I might end up homeless under a bridge with a shopping cart. Now I can tell you I have seen little whitewater living since and I get farther from being under that bridge each year. I live my life each day with simple abundance, gratitude and joy. I am still growing and learning and changing… maybe even at a greater rate than before.
Writing, Painting, photography and executive leadership coaching for women leaders provides purpose and meaning to my everyday.
Thanks for splashing me in the face to the reality and the joy of it all…..
You remind me of my interesting situation 3 years ago. After working for a major national medical laboratory in Atlanta and Chicago for 20 years, I gave notice one day and left that same day!! Now being a pretty conservative, straight shooting, by the book kind of person, this was against my better judgement to just walk out same day. I just was not in for the two week notice thing to spend basically almost two weeks at work explaining to people why I was leaving! It actually was better for the company I left same day, as they did with sales dept, because they were afraid of trade secrets being disclosed. Now, I am in a position I love, free to set my schedule, travel a bit, do inspections at other labs than ours, take off if I have an appt, do things I never dreamed of.
Creativity? Its coming slowly but surely…:-)
So is simple abundance, gratitude and joy….My challenging blogger friends are helping me assure myself of that!
I bet you would make a great painting teacher!
Kim
Kim I am not sure about being a “great painting teacher” but I have found that one way to really learn something is to each it to others. However, I have no plans of taking on that adventure just yet;) Always good to be doing work we love.
Terrill:
That’s a sensible plan, as this time of the year can’t be compromised by being trapped indoors, when the remainder of the year simply doesn’t offer such opportunity. And just looking at those absolutely beautiful flowers, gives the visual evidence for some moderation. But Tuesday and Thursday are great, and I’ll be sure to join in the fun.
Summer creativity for us will be a planned week down the Jersey shore in Wildwood, where the Cape May houses and shops offer limitless opportunities for various arts and crafts, not to mention a trip to the Cape May museum and zoo, and a three day trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania with their famed chocolate factory and amusement park. (We visited here last year, and the family loved it enough for a second go)
Good Luck with the new schedule; I’m sure it will work very well.
Ah Sam sounds like you have a great summer planned and it is great when you like someplace so much you want to return. Also thanks for the thumbs up on my new summer schedule. I am looking forward to being outside in the early morning dawn light. And thank you as well for the link on your Monday Morning Dairy post.
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This is such an interesting question, Terrill. Does my creativity have a summer schedule?
Well, it hasn’t thus far. Sometimes in the summer I write and photograph more than in the winter when the days seem quieter and more stark. Have been thinking a bit about seasons of creativity, though, and how the desire to be and share creativity may wane at times and then grow strong again. I will still look forward to your posts, no matter how many times you post!
Great sprout response Kathy and I am glad you will still drop with the change to my summer schedule:) I’m looking forward to it.