Wednesday morning I woke up and checked the temperature. Negative 19 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of negative thirty-two. It was our second day in a row of bitter cold.

The sun is shining, warm and bright. The garden is humming with bees and I catch the scent of roses, mint and spicy tulsi. I step among the blooms with my scissors at the ready,

When I think about the word EASE, I imagine serenity and calm. I picture being able to do hard things with confidence. I see myself flowing through my days with lightness, finesse, grace.

“Thanksgiving is not just a day, it’s a lifestyle.”

In Wisconsin by the time November rolls around, we’ve usually had our first frost. Sometimes we’ve already had our first snow, too.

I’m never certain if I’ll have flowers blooming in my garden in October or not.

When’s the last time you noticed something that made you pause to look, to think, to wonder? A little moment seemingly outside of time?

Right now zinnias, dahlias, cosmos and marigolds color my garden and feed the bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

It’s hard to believe this is the last week of my month of gratitude. August has flown by.

I think back to childhood Augusts with school looming and days of freedom dwindling. Back-to-school was both exciting and welcome but also tinged with sadness for the ending of summer.

If July’s garden stars were purple poppies, August’s are sunflowers.

Noticing beauty needn’t be limited to seeing it. Last week we focused on COLOR, something we experience with our eyesight, but this week I want you to awaken your other senses.

Did you end up writing a Gratitude List after my post last week?

Are you ready for today’s prompt to help open your eyes to the beauties and joys of summer*?

This week I want you to focus on COLOR.

Summer is speeding past and before it’s gone I want to make sure I savor all the things I love about it.

To remind me to slow down and savor the days, I’m devoting the month of August to gratitude and joy.

The days are flying past faster and faster. I can’t believe June has already come and gone. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’m trying to slow down and enjoy summer’s magic and yet, time still flies.

Yesterday Matthias and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary.

Wow. So much has changed in the garden from April to May to June. As I mentioned last week, summer is well and truly here.

Two weeks ago nights were in the 30s and there was danger of frost. Summer weather quickly arrived and today heat index values could reach 105.

I recently purchased Sarah Greenman’s Oracle Deck and this is the first card I pulled: “Prioritize Your Big Work.”

My main intention with my blog is to encourage and inspire you. To discover beauty. To look for joy. To embrace your creativity.

The Get Re-Inspired Creative Retreat is now over. I’m not sure if it ended up being what I planned, but it was nurturing, fun and I learned a lot.