Joni Mitchell is beloved by all women of a certain age. Joni Mitchell, one of my all-time favorite singer-songwriters, explained her creative process like this:
"Anytime I make a record, it's followed by a painting period. It's a good crop rotation. I keep the creative juices going by switching from one to the other, so that when the music or the writing dries up, I paint."
I don't write songs (not well, anyway), and I leave the painting to my sister, Sarah. But I have my own approach to creative crop rotation. In addition to writing books, I'm always working on at least one outdoor project. I've blogged a bit about my prairie restoration project. The other thing I've been working on for the past year or so is trying to clean up an old muddy pond. I wish I had a picture to show you how awful my pond looked this time last summer. Think brown and muddy. Think big blobs of algae covering it. Got the picture? Now check this out:
"Anytime I make a record, it's followed by a painting period. It's a good crop rotation. I keep the creative juices going by switching from one to the other, so that when the music or the writing dries up, I paint."
I don't write songs (not well, anyway), and I leave the painting to my sister, Sarah. But I have my own approach to creative crop rotation. In addition to writing books, I'm always working on at least one outdoor project. I've blogged a bit about my prairie restoration project. The other thing I've been working on for the past year or so is trying to clean up an old muddy pond. I wish I had a picture to show you how awful my pond looked this time last summer. Think brown and muddy. Think big blobs of algae covering it. Got the picture? Now check this out:
Kate's newly pretty pond (July 1, 2015)
My friend Joyce visited a few days ago. "What did you do to your pond?" she asked. "It looks like a spring-fed pond in Switzerland!" I laughed and then told her my secret formula. If any of you have a muddy pond that needs a makeover, feel free to borrow my 100% unprofessional, completely made-up, not guaranteed to work (though it did work wonders for me) five-part plan for:
How To Clean Up A Country Pond
1. Add ten grass carp to eat grass and weeds. Give them a year to do their job. (I bought my carp at Raccoon Valley Fisheries.)
2. Eliminate or limit nitrate run-off into pond, which feeds algae growth. (In my case, this meant using rocks to create a barrier between the pond and a creek that fed the pond. In your case, it might mean not fertilizing the grass around the pond or anywhere near the pond.)
3. Add three big squirts of black dye and one squirt of blue dye once a month for four months. (I bought my dyes from a golf course supply company called Super's Choice after staying at a hotel near a golf course for a week in March and asking the grounds crew guys how they kept the golf course ponds so pretty.)
4. Add rain to raise the pond level to a lovely level. (Okay, this one's out of our hands. Just hope for the best.)
5. Enjoy!
And then get back to writing.
How To Clean Up A Country Pond
1. Add ten grass carp to eat grass and weeds. Give them a year to do their job. (I bought my carp at Raccoon Valley Fisheries.)
2. Eliminate or limit nitrate run-off into pond, which feeds algae growth. (In my case, this meant using rocks to create a barrier between the pond and a creek that fed the pond. In your case, it might mean not fertilizing the grass around the pond or anywhere near the pond.)
3. Add three big squirts of black dye and one squirt of blue dye once a month for four months. (I bought my dyes from a golf course supply company called Super's Choice after staying at a hotel near a golf course for a week in March and asking the grounds crew guys how they kept the golf course ponds so pretty.)
4. Add rain to raise the pond level to a lovely level. (Okay, this one's out of our hands. Just hope for the best.)
5. Enjoy!
And then get back to writing.