This year, I am trying to tap into my creativity and intuition. On a practical level, this is unlikely to bring be more money, but it does mean broadening, or rather finding an outlet for, my wider interests.

I, like many people, have varied interests: writing, reading, education, yoga, playing guitar, singing, gardening, hiking, basket weaving, drawing, sewing, baking, and other artistic endeavours as take my fancy. I consider myself lucky – I have (usually) always found work that sings to one or more of these interests. This year, I will continue freelance writing and editing, I will continue my own writing and journaling, and all of the things I love doing in my spare time, but I will also find opportunities to apply my creative thinking and skills. I am so excited!

So moving forward with my blog, I will include bits and pieces of everything from life. I think this will be a more personal blog than I am used to writing, and will track my journey through the challenges in developing a creative space in my own life. I am not sure how often I will actually blog…let’s see how busy I get! I will aim for AT LEAST once a month – hopefully twice a month.

To get us started then…

I have changed global locations in the past 6 months, from a cold to a warm climate. I have been gardening and watching things grow. I thought a weather tree might be a nice, quick, daily activity that could bring my awareness to the weather and how this impacts on the garden…and on me!

The idea of the weather tree is that each branch represents a month of the year and that on each branch, there is a leaf for every day of that month – so, 365 leaves on the entire tree. Beside the tree trunk, is the key of colours to kinds of weather. This is what it looks like so far.

My vegetable garden has brought immense satisfaction, not to mention yummy veggies! Here’s a quick poem I wrote about the garden:

Sky overhead, dirt at my knees
Altogether complete in green
And all around is sound
Listen closely to what is heard
The soundtrack of frogs, the chorus of birds
Lend your ear to the earth
Seeds within swell and crack
Dirt on my fingers, sun on my back
She makes space for me in this little patch
She gives what I need
Time to meditate, to find peace
To feel empowered, to find release
To effect change by our force of will
To be present, stand tall and still.

And finally, I will leave you with a glimpse of the weather in my corner of the universe today.