Inspiration, Ideas, Creativity

       As an artist for most of my life, I've never been at a loss for ideas. They flood my mind and enter my dreams. I have notebooks full of scribbles and sketches and designs for everything from garden structures, storybook characters, rock walls, new studio rooms and book illustrations.

 My life could never be long enough to fulfill all these dreams, all these aspirations. Most creative souls are just like me. Creative people have a knack for turning lemons to lemonade, mud to sculpture and trash to treasure. And they simply MUST do it!

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If you follow this blog, I have a feeling you  are an artist , a writer, a needleworker, a gardener, a creator. What inspires you?? If you are like me, you appreciate and observe all the little details around us, the minutia. An idea can be sparked by the slightest of things, like a melody hummed or a fragrance in the breeze, the texture of paper or cloth, or the feel of moss beneath your feet. Suddenly, you are inspired.

Please come into my studio and my garden and see what inspires me. Perhaps they are the same things that feed your imagination and encourage you to create beauty all around you.

Viewed best on YOU Tube, turn on your volume, the music is lovely!
Please feel free to share with other creative souls, just like you. 

Creating a Frontyard Cottage Garden

 I will be the first to tell you that I am an amateur gardener. I am sure that Master gardeners around the globe would chuckle and guffaw at my meager accomplishments. But to my mind, ANY and every garden is a thing of beauty, whether it be in a window box, a postage stamp yard or a span of  acres and acres. I don't believe there is such a thing as an ugly garden.
    
 (Yes, that is a real, live chicken sitting on my table)

At this time, we have 9 separate and distinct gardens, mostly flowers, but we do throw in fruits and vegetables as well. Recently, I took video of all my gardens, because, well, I want to share my little successes and failures with those of you who garden, or maybe inspire those who wish to start a patch of joy.

 BEFORE

 
This first garden grew from a desire to get rid of an ugly front lawn, a pathetic front lawn, a front lawn rife with grubs and  bad soil and lots of tree roots. I started by claiming bits at a time, a corner here, a section there. It took about 3 years to get to where we are now, in this frontyard cottage garden. Each year, I add another layer of two to the stone wall, as well. This year we added about 2 1/2 feet to the top of the wall.
AFTER

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This is my most unruly and wild garden... it's a mass of harmonious confusion, where promiscuous larkspur  soar 5ft up and daisies and primrose socialize freely... everywhere!

  Now, please take a REAL walk with Fionna and Myself, as we waddle the garden paths of Garden #1, the Front Yard Garden.
  Remember, you can't hurry a stroll through the garden.

       This is best viewed on You tube, runs about 7 minutes and please turn on your volume so that you can hear the birds.  If you prefer the video without commentary, I have also loaded one with only the background sound on You Tube. Forgive the bouncy camera work, after all, it was Fionna holding the camera.