C. Lee McKenzie

Young Adult and Middle Grade Author

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February The Big Heart Month

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The co-hosts for the February 6 posting of the IWSG are Raimey Gallant,Natalie Aguirre,CV Grehan, and Michelle Wallace!

Thanks for hosting, everyone.

The Question of the Month: Besides writing what other creative outlets do you have?

Does hiking or gardening count as creative? Well, maybe gardening. Here’s a pictorial answer to the question. A BEFORE and AFTER garden visit.

  • Way Before
  • Before
  • And now the Afters
  • First Pond
  • First Crop
  • First Arbor

The first two pictures are my garden before I started. A house had occupied the space, but it had burned down several years before. I kept looking at this sunny spot until I couldn’t stand leaving it the way it was. About a year later, it had two ponds, flowers, and a vegetable patch. I guess the endeavor falls under creative. It also falls under the category called a-lot-of-work.

This month I’m featuring Michelle Wallace on my Email Connect. The lead article is How To Become An Overnight Success. And there’s a Valentine’s Day Treat. I’m warming to this way of connecting with followers.

Join the February WEP. The theme is 29 Days! It will be so interesting to read how many different takes writers will have on this one.

Join Today!

Quotes of the Month: “To be creative means to be in love with life.” ~ Osho. “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” – Albert Einstein. (I liked these both, so I couldn’t choose just one.)

Comments

  8. That’s so impressive, Lee. Gardening is an immense amount of work. I love it too, until it gets near the end of the season and I’m so darn tired of weeding I pretty much give up.

    While I have enough of a green thumb to make things grow (including weeds), I don’t have the gift of knowing how to turn my space into one of those Better Homes & Gardens extravaganzas. I’m thinking that’s probably a gift you’re either born with or not.

  9. Great work on the gardens! I think that working with your hands—including gardening, building things, even digging ditches—is a good way to get the brain working, and working in different and useful ways. I miss my garden. And it seems like it’s working to get your writing going, too!

  15. Hiking does count! It’s a great way to get your mind off your story, and then the plot gets figured out during your walks:)

    • I’m still surprised at what happens when I take that hike, short or long, doesn’t seem to matter. New ideas and often some solutions to problems I couldn’t figure out.

  16. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
    I definitely think gardening can be creative. I’d like to have one someday, I just have to get over my allergies.
    Nice quotes.

    • I hear you about allergies. The redwoods are my biggest challenge. They send out a yellow power in the spring that makes Sneezy the dwarf look healthy compared to me.

  17. Wow is an understatement for the work you did! Definitely qualifies for creativity! Thank you for sharing those photos. I can’t wait till spring so I can do a little in the yard we have now. Renting keeps me from investing too much into the yard, but I still hope to leave it better than how I found it. Love the quotes!

  19. Gardening seems to be a theme this month from bloggers across the country. I’ll have to round p the troops here and do something to grow veggies.

  26. I love your garden and enjoy both gardening and walking… I have a plot in a community garden that’s locked up like Fort Knox to keep the deer and occassional feral pig out… Enjoying winter vegetables now—turnips, rutabagas, beets, cabbage, mustard greens and Swiss chard (and just dried my first turmeric that I dug up a week ago). It’s all good

    • I’d love to be a part of a communal garden-share the labor and the crops. That seems like a perfect relationship. Is it easy to grow tumeric? I was going to try some out this year. You have my mouth watering at those winter crops.

      • The community garden isn’t really communal as there are individual plots that everyone works. But there’s a lot of sharing of seeds and plants and common work on watering system and stuff. We also purchase together large loads of organic compost, which makes it cheaper and easier than hauling bags of the stuff. The covenants for the community I live in don’t allow gardens in one’s property, so this is a nice alternative (and with the fencing it means you’re not just feeding the deer).

        Tumeric takes a long time (10 months) to grow-but other than good soil and a warm climate, it doesn’t require any additional attention.

  27. “To be creative means to be in love with life.” ~ Osho. Love it. I must love life a lot. I find traveling creative — gives me new settings to explore and new people to find their way into my stories.
    Love your gardening prowess. I love a beautiful garden but not so much the work involved.

  29. That beautiful garden is definitely creative. Not everyone can grow delicious veggies and fruits. Trust me. I know. I’ve tried.

  30. I love that quote by Albert Einstein. I putter in my garden and I believe it absolutely counts as creativity. Figuring out what to plant and where, to make it beautiful!!

  34. Gardening definitely counts. I wanted to be a landscape architect in college and it was the perfect mix of art and science. Beautiful work Lee. The quotes are great too 🙂

  35. Gardening is the ultimate creativity, as your garden illustrates. Besides, all creative endeavors require lots of work. Gardening is not unique in that either.
    Love the Einstein’s quote. So nice to feel myself in the ‘intelligence’ camp, assuming I’m creative. I think I’m. 🙂

    • The best thing about this creation was I got no bad reviews. The plants rebelled once in a while, but outside of that, I got 100% approval. Now that made it all worthwhile.

  38. Your garden is very impressive! And a welcome sight on this dreary winter day. For half a second I was wondering where you lived, that you had magical summer weather already! 🙂

    • I should have noted that these are spring and summer pictures. It’s dormant right now, but I am getting some tulips and daffodils an paperwhites. It won’t be long and it will look pretty again.

  39. Yes, gardening is definitely creative. Hiking can be too. There’s a blogger who hikes Joshua Tree and photographs it. That’s what much of his blog posts are about. You should see the pictures…

  40. I love your garden. I still love gardening but not as much as when my husband was alive. But I have had a small veggie garden plot dug out a few years ago. I used to have a vegetable garden too and am enjoying a really small one that’s perfect for me.

    • I’m downsizing mine, too. Now that it’s just me, I can’t raise the vegetables the way I used to and eat them. I always gave some away, but this year I’d be giving most of them to neighbors and friends. Maybe more flowers.

  41. Gardening is definitely an art. I love looking at and walking through gardens, enjoying the visual beauty and knowing the love and care needed to create them. Your results are gorgeous.

    • I loved the title The Constant Gardener. That’s so what it takes, and I have to admit there are times I don’t want pull out that hoe.

      Thanks for stopping in today.

  42. It looks beautiful, well done on creating such a glorious space. I’m sure it gives you much pleasure.

  46. What a gorgeous job on your garden! I hope someone helped. It looks like endless work. And I like Einstein’s quote. For a brainiac, he had a lot of creative comments.

    • I think Einstein was the most honest and modest genius in the world. He always said that people gave him far more credit than he deserved. I disagree with him, but what a wonderful thing to say.

  47. I always have that 2nd Einstein quote up in my classroom - love it!!
    Gardening is most definitely creative - and something I’m not very good at. Your pics are awesome!

  49. Your garden definitely falls into the category of ‘creative.’ My garden has deteriorated to such an extent that it’s now a wildlife preserve. I’m calling it good.

  50. That is awesome! I can definitely see all the hard work put into it, but it was well worth it. 🙂

    • Spring is the best time. I do get out in it a lot in April and May. By June I might have some time for meditative moments, but I’m so easily distracted by a weed here and a needy plant there.

  52. Omigosh! Your garden is absolutely lovely. I would love walking there every day. And sitting there reading a book. I might never go inside, LOL 🙂

    I also love your quotes, especially the Osho one. I’d never heard it before.

  53. I enjoy looking at gardens, but don’t know if I’d have the patience or interest to cultivate my own large garden. I might be able to do a rock garden, though.

  55. Hi, Cheryl-Lee!

    There’s no doubt about it. You created a beautiful garden spot from a vacant space. From the ashes of a burned down home rose an arbor, ponds, lush greenery and an abundant harvest. I applaud you, dear friend!

    Like you I appreciate both quotes of the month. When you are in “up time,” fully engaged in life, you are at your creative best.

    It’s great to see you again, dear friend C-Lee. Enjoy the rest of your week and short month!

    • Hi Shady,

      Thanks. The garden is something very tangible that I love to sweat over, and then walk through. As a creative endeavor, it’s so much different than writing.

      See you at your place soon.

  56. I love what you did with the garden. I should post transformation photos of our back yard. It was so plain and blah three years ago. I envy your pond. We’d like one, but I’d want resident frogs to eat the massive mosquitoes we get here.