With the slate gray of winter loping around cavorting with my finer spirits, tempting them into the gloom, I went in search of colour.
There is this leaf amongst the twigs with the sun soaking through it.
An orange calendula is there to greet me in its last rain-soaked days before predicted weekend frost will pluck its brilliance.
These yellow calendulas will fair no better.
Then I go to the Japanese Garden. At last I feel satisfied. I take this image home and render it in a painterly fashion.
View and purchase full resolution image here.
I prefer the simplicity of this version rather than just a photograph… but I do have that way as well.
Sprout question: What keeps your spirits up when the sun fails to find you?
© 2010 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.
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Creative Potager – where imagination rules. Be inspired.
From Mayne Island, British Columbia, Canada
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Creative Potager 
Terrill – I love these photographs, but especially the last one. It seems to beckon quietude.
Sprout question: What keeps your spirits up when the sun fails to find you?
Laughter! (and in my part of the country, a daily dose of Vitamin D3 – also known as the “sunshine vitamin.”
Laurie we were just chatting with our local health food store about the value of Vitamin D3. Apparently there is a great 60 minute youtube video on the subject and she is going to send me the link. Do you already have something written on your blog about this wonderful “sunshine vitamin?” I know you have specifically mentioned it in replies but my mind’s index can’t quickly come upon a single post dedicated to this subject.
Terrill – I LOVE what you did with the last photo, it sort of has a “dreamy” feel to it! I’m surprised to see some flowers still in bloom this late in the year, but they are lovely!
Sprout question: the last time we had a gloomy day here, I was walking my son home from school, when he looked at me and said, “It’s a beautiful day today, Mama!” He is a genuinely happy person, and can find beauty in anything!!
Every once in awhile Holly, I play with my photos using a tool in paintnet that allows me to render them as paintings. I have control over the brush size and the coarseness. I do not use photoshop so my manipulation of images is relatively limited. I’m still learning and deciding what I like.
Holly your sprout response brought a big smile to my face. Your son is like my father. His cheeriness was contagious.
Terrill,
I do what you do, I go to find the sun, whether in the light cast on a leaf, the view of a painting or a photograph, the language of a poem, or well write prose, that may allow my spirit to shine brightly forth. Of course I have my two dirty smelly golden retrievers Muffin and Riley who make sun shine all the time. (If I am looking for outside source) The Sun/Light has to shine from within!
I am Love, Jeff
I so agree with you Jeff that “the Sun/Light has to shine from within!” Your statement reminds me of the people who go a round with a little black cloud hanging over their head no matter what the weather is doing. Sometimes I even giggle when I see them because they seem so unaware that they are packing around their very own doom and gloom.
Dear readers, have you ever looked up and seen your own little black cloud and then laughed and watch is disappear before you very own eyes?
Embrace the night as well as the day. It has much to teach.
Your comment reminds me Leanne of how the moon drifts in and out behind swiftly drifting mist outside our window at night. I have come to treasure our nightly sleep near the trees connected to the the outside world because of the large windows with no curtains in a room that sits on the edge of the steep hillside part way up the side of the valley.
Gorgeous cornucopia of fall colors! Write, read, see, and visiting sites like this feeds my soul Vitamin C.
Glad Creative Potager is part of what feeds your brightness. Good to see you here Yolanda.
(Shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone Terrill, but when I get to “V is for Vitamins” I’ll make sure to cover D3)…
Don’t worry I will not whisper a word before we get to “V for Vitamins” Your secret is safe with me. When some tells me to be quiet I always listen. Nope no worries here about mentioning that vitamin D3 will be covered in “the V” Have a great day Laurie!
Terrill – You just pulled a Sandi and made me shoot tea out my nose with laughter!
Laurie, I was pretending I was that great big mouthy rooster in the cartoons that I used to get to see on occasion as a child… did I succeed? Well, even if you didn’t think of the rooster… you still ended up with tea up your nose so I suppose that was success in itself:) You did say laughter was part of your search for sunshine. I think we might be on the right track.
I love your blogs Terrill…this morning i was feeling blah, lacking in creativity…wondering why i try to write etc…trudged off on my morning walk with my dog, hating the sleeting rain, grumble, then i stopped…thought of your sun drenched leaf picture from this morning and OPENED my eyes to see bright yellow blackberry leaves trailing down through a group of cedar trees…bright sunshine in my world again…the rain felt fresh and clean…I’ve been writing for the past three hours. thank you for encouraging me in my creativity and lifting me from the blah. BTW i have been a fan for a month and just discovered we have a friend in common…Dee whom I have known for 20 years.
Oh my gosh Liz! My heart sang with pleasure reading about the transformation in your day from a small reframe that was inspired by this mornings post. Glad I could be of assistance. And the world is so very small sometimes. Say hello to Dee from me the next time you are in touch. And welcome to Creative Potager.
Beautiful Zen-like photos. Splashes of color as winter descends… I like the simplicity of bare trees, like bones, on the horizon. The subtle flavor of the world. Its stark simplicity eases and inspires the deepest parts of my soul. Sometimes–when the sky is gray for days and days–it gets a little challenging, though…
Thanks Kathy… there is that bare bones simplicity of winter which seems to strip us down to our core. I like that too… for awhile. Then I find ways to break through the gray. Sometimes it is making cookies and inviting friends over to eat them… in our pajamas like we did last winter. It was giggly silly delicious fun which has led to more laughter in the retelling.
Beautiful & heart warming.
Being creative seems to keep my spirits up. Photos, writing, journaling, music…. Also my children, friends….people. But today I’m feeling a bit rough, probably due to the flu jab I had yesterday and your blog is the first I visited & your photos helped cheer me up – thank you!
Kat X
Katina sorry to hear you are under the weather so to speak with a flu bug. I am glad your read here provided a bit of a bright spot in your day. Cheers Terrill
The Japanese Garden is a feast for the eyes, and a real masterpiece! Do you plan to do anything further for this one Terrill? I can’t convey here just how beautiful it is. Well, in the northeast color is still abundant, with fiery reds dominating in some tree varieties. The pall of winter is still a few weeks ahead, and color denizens can still have their fill. Your investigation of course yielded some beauties.
The answer to your sprout, alas, is constant. The family continues to provide the deepest inspiration and most positive outlook. Isn’t that the way it is.
Sam I am not sure if I will do anything further with the Japanese Garden photo. Anymore, If I get a photo I am satisfied with I don’t usually paint it. But we shall see. You never know.
Psst! Dear readers we have snow this morning on Mayne Island and I posted a bonus post that you might enjoy checking out.
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