Yes, over eighteen thousand creativity seeking visitors have been to see Creative Potager since the beginning of the 2010. To be exact, there had been 18,086 when I checked and 8:00 am PST this morning. After 141 posts and 2, 262 comments it is time to pause, celebrate and offer thanks to these regular Creative Potager supporters…
Laurie Buchanan: I don’t think Laurie has missed even one sprout question. She has faithfully come by and offered her heartfelt answer no matter what the question. Laurie has cheered, encouraged, engaged and inspired me to reach and stretched. We have been connecting online even before Creative Potager existed – in fact for years now. I consider Laurie a colleague and a friend though we have never sat across a table from each other in the same time and space. Thank you Laurie for being Creative Potager’s most regular sprout responder. You can read Laurie’s even day posts at Speaking from the Heart where there is a Colour of Wellness class under way.
Jeff Stroud: Jeff is here leaving comments and sharing almost as often as Laurie. He is a soulful and thoughtful photographer that never takes the easy road just because it is there. Jeff introduced me to the redbubble storefront through his photography a couple of years ago. Jeff has his own growth question for contemplation on each of his post at The Reluctant Bloger that will add another boost to your creativity. He is a passionate practitioner of Julian Cameron’s The Artist’s Way.
Kathy Drue: Kathy is a blogger extraordinaire with her Lake Superior Spirit blog receiving 64,311 visits since the beginning of the year. She often appears on the front page of WordPress and is interviewed from time-to-time about her blogging experience. Writing is Kathy’s passion and photography her supporting anchor. I am proud and thrilled that she finds the time and interest to drop in to Creative Potager.
Sam Juliano: Sam, like Kathy, is part of the blogosphere elite with his Monday Morning Diary posts at Wonders in the Dark sometimes receiving over 2,000 visitors in one day. Oh! Fair warning, horror films are the focus of current reviews. Remember it is make up. Each week, from almost the beginning, Sam has visited Creative Potager and reported back with a live link to his readership. Not only that, he did a full interview post Artist and Nature-Lover Terrill Welch: Mayne Island’s resident ‘Creativepotager” this past August. Sam will always be noted in Creative Potager’s hall of fame for his generosity, warmth, intellect, and inspiration for the arts and in particular film.
Jerry Shawback: A self-portrait artist, Jerry doesn’t always leave one of his reflective and thoughtful sprouts but I find him everyday in my tweet stream. He is passing along the latest post or just mentioning Creative Potager as he goes about retweeting from his outstanding list of artist and writers. Jerry is one of the reasons that about 40% of Creative Potager visitors come from Twitter. Some of these visitors leave comments but many more simply read, then tweet the link out to their tweet friends. Jerry is an important part of that exchange. Jerry is another artist and painter that I feel a deep resonance with and you can see some of his work at his profile on TheWhole9 website. His dedication is inspiring and his work shows this commitment to daily practice.
Leanne Dyck: Leanne is a fellow Mayne Islander who takes every possible opportunity to send a “shout out” on her website OKnitting.com or on her blog Author Leanne Dyck about Creative Potager or my recent solo art exhibition. She leaves sprout comments as time permits as she is a full-time writer meeting deadlines for manuscripts and revisions with publishers. It is a joy and a pleasure to have someone who lives just down the street drop in online, connecting my virtual home with my physical home.
Kimberly Grady: Kim is a butterfly sprout responder that brings her transforming presence as she is inspired. It might be here or it might be a comment on Facebook but wherever she shows up, I am always glad to see her and enjoy her unguarded reflections. She may visit her blog Butterflies Are Blue if you leave a comment…but again, she just might drop by and comment on your blog instead. Whatever, happens I know Kim will be inspire you to be genuine, to be yourself and to be creative.
May I request dear readers is that you visit these generous and gracious individuals and leave them a comment of thanks for helping make Creative Potager the inspiring garden of creativity that it is?
Thank you, dear friends, for hanging out with me in my creative kitchen garden.
Sprout Question: Who would be the top seven on your list of creativity supporters?
© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.
Liberal usage granted with written permission. See “About” for details.
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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.
From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada
Creative Potager 
Congratulations on these milestones. Great idea of thankfulness. Great post, indeed!
Thanks Scott and while we have you here do you have any tips or opinions regarding using a tripod for yesterday’s post “Taking Photos of the moon” at https://creativepotager.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/taking-photos-of-the-moon ? Your contributions always a welcomed addition to any conversation. So glad you stopped in:)
I love to celebrate along my journey through life. And it is fun to surprise people when I do. None of the seven featured Creative Potager supporters had a clue this post was coming. How could they? I just decided this morning:) So much fun.
Wow….I am clapping and jumping up and down!!
If anyone wants to vist me, Please visit: http://www.snoopykg2.wordpress.com
Butterflies Galore….
The “Butterflies are Blue site is not working…
Thanks
Kim
Kim I can see you clapping and jumping up and down clean across the Strait of Georgia! I wondered what was happening with the blog you signed in with when you comment… it isn’t even your real most loved and used blog…. Yes, dear readers, please go to Butterflies Galore where Kim regularly posts. She even has some popcorn on the wall:)
i dont think i could narrow it down to seven but if i did Terrill would make the list.
I feel incredibly lucky to have found so much creative support on line as well as in my circle of friends. As an artist who works alone so much of the time it can be very isolating. I do not think i would be able be productive and focus on my work without a creative support system coming from all over. I try to be available to others in a variety of ways to support there creativity, and this has been returned ten fold.
thanks terrill
You are welcome Jerry and I can relate to your comment “I do not think i would be able be productive and focus on my work without a creative support system coming from all over.” This is what inspired me to start Creative Potager. Studio work and writing and photography are often things we do alone. In fact, I need the alone time to do my best work. However, there needs to be a place to connect too. Otherwise I get lost in my a back eddy of own thoughts and ideas.
Terrill – How fun is this?! WOW! Your stats are amazing!
Sprout Question: Who would be the top seven on your list of creativity supporters?
In alphabetical order, the top seven consistent readers of Speaking from the Heart are:
Kathy Drue – Lake Superior Spirit
Kim Grady – Butterflies Galore
Barbara Kass – Eternal Presence
Jeff Stroud – Reluctant Blogger
Beth Weiss – Celebration Goddess
Terrill Welch – Creative Potager
Sandi White – Under Southern Skies
And Laurie there you are with your list and even in alphabetical order. You are amazing! I will be over for class soon:)
And here is a very long but fascinating article that fits with today’s discussion “Two is the magic number: a new science of creativity” by Joshua Wolf Shenk – Slate Magazine that was passed along to me by Stacey Curnow from Mid Wife for Your Life. Yep, you guessed it. She sent it out as a tweet.
Wow! How exciting!! I just got home from work~~a bit tired and achy today, not quite sure why~~and am DELIGHTED to have been featured here, Terrill. What a wonderful tribute to your regular commenters.
Your blog feels very special, indeed, to me. I love how your sprout questions really make us think deeply about our creativity. I love your depth, your seriousness, your quiet force, your creativity. Yep, that almost sort of starts to describe it!
Kathy it feels like the least I could do for those of you who regularly stop in and enrich the conversations here. I sometimes forget that I am perceived as quiet and serious… giggle, you are not the first to describe me this way. The reason is that in my childhood home, I was the loud and sometimes absentminded, silly one. Funny how things change over time and in different settings.
Congratulations! What a Beautiful and inspiring tribute!
Fall Blessings,
~Antonia
Thank you Antonia for your comments and for being part of Creative Potager.
Thank you so much Terrill for mentioning me in your blog. I’m thrilled to be included among such fine company. Wow, I’m not sure if I could list seven. Let’s see how close I’ll come. I presume that you want current so mentioning my now deceased parents and my high school English teacher probably won’t count. So, how about my husband, my aunts, my brothers, the members of the Mayne Island writers group, an everyone who has asked, “Hey, Leanne, when’s your next book out?” So I’m two short. Hey, that’s one thing I’ve never been called before.
Oh, yeah, and the reason why I come here is for the fun I know I’ll have and the questions that will challenge me. So, congratulations, Terrill. This is only the beginning.
Leanne you can count whoever you want dead or alive! There is something about being supported that stretches out into infinity. I like how you honour that. And you are so right… this is only the beginning – the beginning of a community that loves to sink into creativity and one that always seems to have something to say, something to add and something to give.
I am extremely touched to be among the list here! Thank you my sweet sweet friend.
Laurie Buchanna
Kathy Drue
Terrill Welch
Peter :
Barbara Krass
Linda; My flesh friend
Barbara Rodgers
You are welcome Jeff and like Laurie, it seems your list was just waiting in the wings to called upon.
Been a most pleasant day of celebration dear readers. Hats off to all of you who stop by and read and never leave any tracks for identification. Hats off to those of you who have only commented once or twice. There is room for everyone here at Creative Potager. The only thing we call weeds is spam which seem to be carefully selected and pulled out before they can even take root.
Tomorrow will be a short post… one image as I will be preparing to go away on Friday afternoon.
Terrill, I can’t thank you enough for your kind words and the infectious spirit you convey in this amazing post. Those numbers are amazing, but there isn’t a digit undeserved. This site took hold only weeks after it was launched, and yes, I was fortunate enough to be there very early. Thanks for choosing me for this lineup, I am certainly in esteemed company with the like of Laurie Buchanan, Jeff Stroud, Kathy, et al. You have made us feel like part of the family, and I been enriched and ravished by post after post here.
I’m afraid to name just seven, as WitD has attracted some great people over the past months. But if I restricted it to 7, you my friend would easily finish in that lot!!!
Dear Sam, in your case the task is likely much larger and maybe would be more like a shortlist of between 700 and 7,000 dedicated and committed supporters at Wonders in the Dark. But whatever the number, I am happily one of the many who love to come by and see what you have to say. I am glad you feel like family when you come here. That is how it is suppose to be. Creativity thrives in a relaxed, supportive and engaging environment. At least it does here!
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