Storm, at stormiesteele.com has asked me to join in The Blog Tour Award, in which I am happy to participate.
Storm, a published author, offers posts that are spiritual and uplifting, encouraging us to reach deeply within to connect to our inner voice, our true soul connection to Spirit.
1. The 3 nominees that I’ve chosen:
Trini at Love Notes from Angels ~ Beautiful poems and photos that touch the heart and lift the spirit
Rebecca at Twenty-one Words ~ Fellow nature lover with fascinating posts from Australia
Mike at Nature Has No Boss ~ Exquisite nature photography of the American West and a few other places, too
Although there are many, many other bloggers/writers/photographers whose work I admire, I’ve chosen three for this Blog Tour.
2. Rules are below.
I would like to propose the dates: One Time: Monday Post April 27 or May 4, 2015 (Please feel free to vary the date.)
Accepting this award, here are the rules :
3. Rules:
1. Pass the tour on to up to four other bloggers.
2. Give them the rules and a specific Monday to post.
3. Answer four questions about your creative process that lets other bloggers and visitors know what inspires you to do what you do.
Q1. WHAT I’M I WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT ?
Q2. HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS IN MY GENRE?
Q3. WHY DO I WRITE OR CREATE WHAT I DO ?
Q4. HOW DOES MY WRITING/CREATIVE PROCESS WORK ?
4. Compose a one-time post on a specific Monday (date given from your nominator).
I’ve chosen April 20th for this 1 time post. Thanks again Storm!
Q1. WHAT I’M I WORKING ON AT THE MOMENT?
Being a gardener, I’m clearing away debris from winter and trying to stay ahead of the curve so the gardens are all set for summer.
Q2. HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS IN MY GENRE?
My gardening style is informal and I have decreased the area of lawn by half over the past decade in favor of wild field habitat. While nature might look “messy” to some, this experiment has yielded a healthier ecosystem. I think of my yard as a painter’s studio and I am working on many canvases simultaneously.
Q3. WHY DO I WRITE OR CREATE WHAT I DO ?
I have always loved nature and gardening came early in my life. Some of my earliest memories are picking and arranging flowers. Ten plus years ago I became interested in writing as a way to teach others about gardening and lately it has moved towards helping others understand how they affect the natural world and the importance of using native plants to support the greater ecosystem in which we live. We are all connected!
Q4. HOW DOES MY WRITING/CREATIVE PROCESS WORK ?
In my garden beds, each a separate canvas, I use texture and color like I would paint to create beauty. I use plants I love and want to see in my garden. I don’t have a formula, just a feel for what pleases me. Most times it works, when it doesn’t, I consider it a learning opportunity. There are no mistakes in the garden, it is generally simple to do over. My only regrets are Asian invasive species that I planted in ignorance and am now stuck with: Houttuynia and rhizomatous Bamboo. Never plant these!
For my posts, I often take walks with my camera and write from the photos I capture. I see so much beauty all around me, I love to share it with folks in the blogosphere.
Thanks again to Storm for this opportunity and hope you visit her site as well as my nominees, all who have wonderful posts to offer. Enjoy!
Eliza Waters 
Really nice description of who I know you to be!
Thank you! 🙂
We’re all connected – you’ve said it Eliza. Be it with nature or though this blogoshere with each other. Lovely post!
Thanks so much!
I love the idea of the yard as a painters studio!
Thank you, Kim. I don’t have a ‘master plan’ per se, I’m not so organized! It’s more finding how each part speaks to me and working with it.
Like a true artist 🙂
Thanks for that, sometimes I have trouble owning it. 😉
Eliza, I am so glad that you’ve chosen to participate in the Blog Tour”! Your work is exceptionally beautiful. It’s wonderful to read about your creative process. Blessings & love. ~Storm
Thanks so much for your kind words, Storm, as well as the nomination. 🙂
You’re so deserving…
🙂 big hug!
🙂
Great tips re: new websites (thank-you). I too am a gardener but not a very good one or a very disciplined one. BUT I too think of my garden as an art piece; a four dimensional art peice that has depth and colour and changes over time!! Kim
GMTA! I’m glad you enjoyed it, Kim. I’ll look forward to seeing your garden unfold this summer. 🙂
It looks as though you have a lovely wildflower meadow!
Nature does it best and there is something blooming in every season. Quite lovely, thank you!
So interesting you take pictures and write from the pictures. I love creative process. Meadows offer so much life! You are well-connected.
Thanks, Kathy. Once in a while I write from an idea that I have, but most often I reflect what I am seeing out in the world.
Enjoyed your description – gardening is a favorite pastime for me.
Thanks, Mary, it does feed the soul, doesn’t it? 🙂
Great writing and beautiful images, every time, Eliza.
I also prefer the more natural, messy and relaxed looking gardens. Pet peeve: mowed ditches.
Your gardens are so lovely!
Thanks so much, Sharon, for your kind compliments! I’m glad to have another partner in the ‘messy’ garden style…better for wildlife. I wish they would only mow highway corridors in the fall. It would save money and help critters like the Monarch. We all need to write our state DOT!
Congrats Eliza! “I think of my yard as a painter’s studio and I am working on many canvases simultaneously” love this quote from your answers:-)
I feel that “messy” is beautiful!
Thanks, Robbie. We embrace ‘messy!’ 😉
🙂 sure do, but ” beauty is in the eye of the beholder”:-)
Hi Eliza,
I loved reading about your creative process, and I love your blog and the little moments of joy your posts bring.
And thank you so very much for nominating me and my blog to participate in the Blog Tour Award. I’ve chosen Monday 4 May to do my post and it is all drafted and ready to go :). It was such fun to do, and I really felt honoured that you’d pick my blog as one of the three to participate.
Take care,
Rebecca.
Thank you, Rebecca. You make me blush! 😉 Looking forward to the continuing tour. 🙂
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Thanks Eliza, I surely enjoyed reading your post about your creative process.
Thanks, Micheal. Good to hear from you. 🙂 Hope the dust is settling out there. 😉 Even as the temps. continue to rise!
Yes, it’s calming down out here. Oddly enough, this house is further from the ocean, but not as hot as the other house.
Must be all the mature trees and vegetation acting like an air conditioner. Gotta love those trees!
Eliza, you certainly fulfill all aspects of your most altruistic mission 😉 You certainly teach a great deal from this wonderful site, and help us all feel connected to you,and to the wonders of the planet. I love you observation that each of your beds is a canvass. What a lovely way to look at the process of creating a bed or border. While I want to collect interesting plants and THEN find a way to weave them together, you ‘begin with the end in mind.’ (Have you found those new shrubs yet for the area you are re-doing?) Creating habitat for wildlife within the beauty of our gardens remains the challenge for all of us, Eliza. Our personal gardens must also help to sustain the planet, and our bit of the web of life. Thank you for this beautiful piece. ❤
Thank YOU for this lovely comment! One never is sure how one comes across and it is pleasing to know that there are others who understand my path and walk it with me, as I know you do. It is interesting to note that the older I get, the less important ‘perfectionism’ is and the emphasis is more on the greater whole, the balance of a system that starts with my little patch and ripples outward to encompass the whole earth. The little birds that lay eggs here will fly thousands of miles away come fall, so the impact of what I do & we all do, affects many.
I did find shrubs and only yesterday found the white dogwood I was looking for at New England Wildflower Society (their stock is natives and their cultivars). Laurel, ninebark, enkianthus and azalea are the others that are already in the ground. May they live long and prosper! 😉
May your entire garden, and all who live there, live long and prosper, Eliza 😉 Yes, if we could all expand our thinking to recognize that what we do in our own little corner of the world “ripples outward to encompass the whole Earth” our planet would be healing already. Your palette of shrubs sounds absolutely lovely. So glad you found the white Dogwood. Just in from an entire day in the garden- new bed finally constructed and planted 😉 Oh, how I love May! Giant hugs, wG
Looking forward to seeing your new bed grow. May is my favorite month as well. Today was absolutely perfect! Wish I could bottle it!