Thistles, Inspiration, iphones

As my less-than-regular posting might suggest, things have been pretty busy lately.  Work has been particularly demanding of late and this has pulled some of my energy away from other projects.  But today when I was walking from my office to the bus stop, I had one of those moments where a very little thing helped shift my focus and renewed my creative energies.

The `thing`was this little dried up stock.

Not the prettiest state for a flower (Queen Anne`s Lace, I believe), but seeing it suddenly brought back all of these memories of walking through the fields where I grew up, clear skies, crab apple trees surrounded by fallen apples, frost on corn stocks, cool quiet mornings. The types of things that bring me an immediate peace in a very indescribably way.  Now my mind is full of dried out husks of milk weed and thistles and leaves on the ground - beautiful ugly things that immediately inspire me to write and draw (especially in pen and ink!)

So tonight when I got home, I drew this little sketch in homage and, once I’ve finished this post, I’m going to see if I can extend today’s inspiration into a little writing session.  

With Thanksgiving weekend approaching, this is exactly the type of unexpected motivation I am truly thankful for.

P.S. The subtitle of this post should be `Why the iphone4 is the best thing in the history of the world (after dried up stocks of Queen Anne’s Lace)’ because I’m also completely enamoured with my new tech toy.  T and I each got one after his Blackberry died (it mysteriously fell into a mud puddle a few days after we discussed how cool it would be to get iphones...).  I`ve never really had a cell phone, let alone a portable device that takes photos, has internet, houses doodle apps, etc..., so I`m enjoying my new found sense of connectedness (people actually call me again!) and the sudden advantage of having a camera with me at all times... should any inspirational thistles appear!

I hope you are all finding little bits of inspiration out there in the world.  Make sure you use them!