How to Go About Creating Your Own Writer's Retreat or Meditation Garden
Some writers need the bustle of the busy cafe to inspire them, others need the solitude of a writer's retreat. Writer's retreats can be expensive and require road trips or plane travel, but they don't have to, not if you build your own private writer's retreat in your own back yard. I built one for myself, and now I'll tell you how you can build one of your own.
Round Magnet by eelkat
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Welcome To My Garden
Why Should You Build a Writer's Retreat?
or reasons why you should read this lens...
You are a writer who needs peace and quite to write.
You are not a writer, but you still would like to have a nice quite place of your own, were you can relax and read.
You love to garden and want to do something new.
Pansies
SPECIAL NOTE: Photo Copyright info:
All of the pictures and photos shown throughout this lens are actual photos on The Private Writing Retreat of Maine author Wendy C. Allen. All photos were taken by and are copyright to Wendy C. Allen and Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts, and are used here with permission.
P.S. After reading this lens, go back and see if you can find The Goldeneagle hiding in these photos.
The House That Is No More
Photographing Your Garden.
Sweet Williams
Why Do Writers Need a Writing Retreat?
A Story of Birds & Roses...
I just love roses, I've got tons of them, they are all over my yard. Best thing for me to relax and rejuvenate is for me to take my cats (13 of them) and my dog, and we all head out to the garden, and that is where I do my writing (both for my books/stories and for my Squidoo lenses)and my sewing (I sew by hand). For me writing and sewing are like my *inner energy* like they are the fuel that drives me forward. Weird I know, but it's true. Both are relaxing to do, and yet both refuel me so I can go on and do everything else I need to do in life.
I've got this huge ancient rose bush in my garden (it's over 200 years old, belonged to my great-grand mother), it's one of those wild white roses but it thinks it's a tree and now it's over 13 feet tall! But it arches across my garden and makes a great little shady nook, and that's where me and my cats and dog hang out while I get my writing and sewing done.
My writing goal is to write between 1,000 to 2,000 words per day. My average per day, is much less, more like 400 - 700 per day, once every three days instead of every day. Well, it's better than nothing, and I'm still inching my way to my goal. Once in a while I get really ambitious and I make up for it, by writing 10,000 - 12,000 words all in one day, but that only happens once in a blue moon.
My problem seems to lie in that I get the urge to write at times when I just can't write, but than at the time I set aside to write, I'm to bored or restless or want to read or whatever, anything that is not writing basically.
I'll be right in the middle of something, say walking my dog, or cleaning the cat box, when this great idea well pop into my head, with not a pen or paper in sight. Than an hour or two later, I'll finally get to some paper, and I find I can't think of what I wanted to write down, or else I can't get it worded right, or worse I've forgotten it all together!
I write amazing outlines. You should see the detailed historical time lines I can come up with for my story ideas, than I sit down, my outline in hand, ready to type the story itself and nothing. I'll just sit staring at a blank screen wondering what to write about.
Than I'll start typing away, got a 1,000 words before I know it. WOO-HOO! I'm done for the day! Than I read what I wrote. Not one word of it goes with the book I'm working on; instead it goes with some book idea I gave up on 4 or 5 years ago.
sheesh! Now I have to start all over again, cause those 1,000 words didn't count!
I find myself doing this all the time, the result is I end up working on 4 maybe 5 stories at any one given time, and never finish them on deadline.
The up side: When I do get finished, I have 4 or 5 stories finished at the same time.
I've got a flower garden, with tall rose bushes over 13 feet tall. There's one on each side of the path, and they grew up entwining to make a natural archway. Little songbirds sing and twitter all day long. It's so peaceful and relaxing. There's these old mossy logs, I sit on to do my writing. I find that if I'm stuck on my typing on the computer, that the best way for me to get back on focus is to pack up a few pens and a lot of paper and head out and sit in the garden. By the time it's dark I'll have 30 or 40 pages written and I get to stay up all night typing them into the computer. For me that is the best cure for "writer's block". I can't explain it, but I do my best writing and my highest word count writing when sitting in the garden, listen to song birds and writing in longhand.
~~EK
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What is a Writer's Retreat?
What Wikipedia has to say about it.
The term retreat has several related meanings, all of which have in common the notion of safety or temporarily removing oneself from one's usual environment in order to become immersed in a particular subject matter. A retreat can be taken for reasons related to spirituality, stress, health, lifestyle, or social or ecological concerns. Increasingly, organizations hold retreats to focus board and staff members on key issues such as strategic planning, enhancing communication and collaboration, problem-solving and creative thinking.
A retreat can...
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The Cherry & The Pine
Books For Writers
National Wildlife Federation's Alaska Natural Resource
National Wildlife Federation's Alaska Natural Resource Center is committed to protecting Alaska's wildlife and wild places for our children and grandchildren. Working in partnership with concerned citizens, grassroots groups, and communities, we work to f
Yellow Iris, Marsh Marigolds, & My Brook
How Much Space Well I Need?
How much land you need to create your writer's retreat is totally up to you and what you have available to use.
If you live in the city, than it may be harder for you to create an outdoor retreat. In this case, you would take a corner of a room, put a comfy chair or desk and chair near the window. Hang bird feeders outside of your window. Buy several plants: a couple of tall tree-like ones, several hanging potted plants to hang from the ceiling. A window box. Small potted flowers on your desk. I have done this, myself, turning a corner space barely 4 feet square into a jungle like writing corner. This is were I write on days when I can not write outdoors, such as when it is raining, or during our cold Maine winters.
If you have a front porch or a balcony, you can turn it into your private writing corner. You don't need much space, just a spot where you can sit and write without being disturbed.
If you live in a place where you have a plot of land than you can expand greatly on this. The larger your plot of land is, the larger you can build your writing space. My outdoor writing space is quite large and covers approximately one-eighth of an acre. It started as a plot of land about 12 feet square and over the years my garden grew and expanded and grew some more as each year I added more and more plants to my garden. As the years went by my garden expanded to include a small barn for my bantams and a final resting spot for my dearly departed car.
There is no limits on how big you can make your writing garden.
Black Eye Susans by eelkat
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Info To Help You Get Started:
- The Definitive Guide To Gardening
- If you long to have a beautiful garden, whether that means flowers or vegetables to you... if you want to see the astounded looks on the faces of your friends, and the sidelong envious glances of your neighbors... this letter should be of real interest to you. Here's why:
Anyone can grow a beautiful garden! - How To Plant & Care For Your Rose Garden
- Roses are a great addition to anyone's life, home or yard. They add color and beauty and they smell great, too!
Roses are also a symbol of peace, love, and friendship and they have come to represent great taste and ever-lasting love. Unfortunately, growing roses successfully has always been difficult %u2026 until now that is!
Why is now different? I invite you to keep reading to find out! - Japanese Gardens Made Easy!
- Finally: Here's GOOD NEWS For People Who Want To Experience The Tranquility and Peace of a Japanese Zen Garden In Your Own Backyard But Haven't a Clue Where To Start...
- Growing Herbs and Herb Gardening
- Learn How to Grow, Cultivate and Use Herbs. Create your own Amazing Herb Garden.
You'll learn how to;
- Plan your herb garden
- Grow herbs from seed
- Propagate your herbs
- Preparing the soil for planting
- Learn which herbs compliment each other - When and how to harvest your crop
- How to use herbs as a garnish & in cooking - How to dry and store your herbs for future use
Impatians
Lenses To Help You Out:
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Rocky Mountain Columbines
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Columbines grow wild and under cultivation all over the world but are perhaps best known as "The Rocky Mountain Columbine", a stunning blue eye-catcher and the state flower of Colorado. Growing up in the Rockies, these gorgeous blooms color my memori...
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Grapes
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Grapes are my fave fruit. Here is my lens devoted to this sweet purple taste of heaven.
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Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest
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An introduction to a brilliant show of wildflowers from British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. If you love flowers, your spirit will be lifted by the peace, serenity and beauty of Wildflower DVD that can be purchased here. (Lupinus arcticus) a.k....
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Seed and Garden Supply Catalogs and Product Reviews
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Time to order those seed catalogs, so you can start looking through them to order your seeds for your gardens! Or for faster , easier ordering, order right here from their websites! You can also look over the beautiful pictures of flowers and vegetab...
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Nikon PictureTown
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Anyone can start taking amazing digital pictures the minute you hand them the compact easy to use Nikon D40. That's what Nikon told the world, and to prove it they gave 200 to them to people of Georgetown, South Carolina.
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Roses
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Roses, beautiful fragrant, and the crowning glory of any garden. They are amoung my favorite flowers. Here is my lens devoted to all things to do with roses.
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Our Garden of Veggies and more
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My husband and I started a garden this past spring. This lens is to share our garden with you. This is the first garden we have grown. It is great to have your own organically grown vegetables and herbs. It saves you money at the grocery store, pl...
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.JPG)
How Does Your Garden Grow
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The Winters here can get to a seriously low temperature and, unless you have a walled garden, an array of plants is ruled out. Of course, I know of an old walled garden not a mile from here which has (well, it was there about six years ago) a massiv...
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Small Gardens for Small Spaces
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Are you ready for spring yet? Start shopping here for some fresh, new ideas. Plant a herb garden. Grow strawberries. Meeting the challenge of creating a delightful garden in a small space. No space is too small to make a big impact! Keep the rhododen...
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Gardening with Native Plants
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Using native plants in the landscape and sustainable gardening are 2 hot topics, today. This lens will provide you with native plant lists, techniques, and links to more information that will get you started on the way to creating an ecologically hea...
Chup & Twinkle
Google Searched and Found:
- Raising Chickens
- For example, if you want to let your chickens run through your garden once in a while to gobble up i...
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Gingerbread
Gardening with your hens? Find out how:
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Raising Polish Bantam Chickens
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Out of the many breeds of chickens that I raise, my White Crested Black Polish Bantams (whew! Their name is bigger than they are!)are one of my favorites. They are very active, funny, and sociable. If you want a very unusual and animated breed of chi...
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Raising Baby Chicks
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So you've already read my lens on why you should raise chickens (No? Click here), and now you want to know how? You've come to the right place. Learn how to protect them, what to feed them & more. Even if you don't think chickens are for you, stay f...
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Green Eggs & Chickens: How Raising Chickens can Help Save the Planet!
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No, my eggs and my chickens aren't actually green. The eggs are brown and the chickens are black (but they do have a green sheen in the sun). We mean "green" in terms of earth friendly. If you want to know: *How chickens can be earth friendly, *Why...
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Keeping hens in your garden
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Keeping hens in your back garden is easy. They make great pets and provide fresh eggs for the kitchen. They'll even eat slugs and snails for you, and you don't need to keep a rooster. And chicken manure is great for the garden!
Xavier III
Books to help you get started:
Hype
First Coast No More Homeless Pets
The mission of First Coast No More Homeless Pets (FCNMHP) is to eliminate the killing of dogs and cats in our community through free and low-cost spay and neuter programs.
Creating an Indoor Writing Retreat
You Don't Have To Live in the Country To Have a Private Writing Retreat!
this section is being edited
Great Stuff for You Writing Space from Amazon
If You Have Pets or Children, Make Sure Your Plants Are Safe!
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Safe Houseplants For Children & Pets
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Are there houseplants in your home that pose a danger to your children? Houeseplants are wonderful for making our homes more beautiful and relaxing. They bring a feeling of nature and the outdoors into our lives and even help to purify the air that...
Georgie & Emily
More Info To Help You Create An Indoor Retreat:
- The Right (and the Wrong) Way to Learn Floral Design
- Get Started Designing Flower Arrangements Like a Professional%u2026Without Spending a Fortune!
- Bonsai Trees: Growing, Trimming, Pruning, and Sculpting
- The art of bonsai has been around for years. Its culture is deeply rooted in the Asian culture and it adds not only a touch of class to your garden and home, but it also can provide a beautifully sedate focus for relaxation and meditation - right in your own home!
- The Home Of Indoor Plant Care Info
- Learning to care for house plants is a journey. It doesn't matter if you're a house plant beginner, seasoned plant owner, work at a garden center or care for indoor office plants professionally.
Our goal is to help you learn more about house plants care, avoid mistakes, introduce new plant varieties and help you enjoy plants indoors and outside more. We'll also share the benefits of indoor plants along the way like their ability to clean the air. - Bonsai Gardening Secrets
- "Man Discovers Secrets of the Bonsai Masters...And Finally Breaks Years of Silence and Reveals How ANYONE, from Beginner to Advanced, can Create and Care For Beautiful Bonsai Trees!"
"Who Else Wants to Discover the Step by Step Secrets the Bonsai Masters Use to Create Stunning Bonsai Trees - With Very Little Work? "
If you answered "Me!" to the above
question, you'll definitely want to read what's next...
Lenses To Help You Out
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Your First Goldfish
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I love goldfish. They are such wonderful pets. This lens is for anyone who loves goldfish too, but was created specifically for those just getting started.
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What's on My Bookshelf?
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A glimpse inside one author's private book collection. Find new books you haven't read before as well as books to help you write. This lens is here to answer the question: What's on your bookshelf?
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Framed Art for Children's Rooms
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Looking for unique and original designs to complement your child's bedroom decor? Look no farther! Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts has just what you are looking for. Over 100 designs to choose from! Framed prints reproduced from hand painted origin...
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LibraryThing
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If you love books, than you'll love LibraryThing, the massive online book cataloging system, that allows you the chat with others who own the same books you do. Allows comic book collectors to catalog their comic books as well!
Books to Help You Build The Indoor Writer's Retreat
Woodland Garden With Brook (During Winter)
Woodland Gardens
My personal writing garden, also happens to be a woodland garden. Woodland or shade gardens are a bit more difficult for beginning gardeners, however, not so much so that a beginner should not try it.
At the heart of my own garden grew two Great White Pines, both over 150 feet tall, each over 200 years old. Both casting shade over most of my garden, nearly all day long. There are other trees off to the sides, bringing in more shade, and a forest at the back, that blocks out the sun.
My garden is limited to what it well grow, not only by Maine's very short growing season, but also by these giant pine trees, which block out the sun.
The result, is that my garden is filled with "specialty" plats, that well grow in the shade and withstand deep winter frost. Below is a list of plants that you well find when walking through my garden.
Woodland Fern Tie by eelkat
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Woodland & Shade Loveing Plants:
- Bamboo
- Hosta
- Lily of the Valley
- Wild Roses
- Trilium
- Spider-Wort
- DayLily
- Tiger Lily
- Ferns
- Moss
- Ajuga
- GoldenRod
- Mornada BeeBalm
- Lemon Balm
- HorseTails
- Bearded Iris
- Garden Plox
- Honey Suckle
- Chock Cherries
- Billberries
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Low Bush Blueberries
- High Bush Blueberries
- Jack-in-the-Pulpit
- Lilacs
- Forsynthia
- Queen Annes Lace
- Elder Berry
- Jewel Weed
- Crocus
- Dalodil
- Dill Weed
- Bitter Nightshade
- Woodbine
- Concord Grape
- Hyacinth
- Snowdrops
- Hydrangea
- Solomon's Seal
- Star of Bethleham
- Bishop's Weed
- Marsh Marygold's
- Buttercups
- Black Eyed Susans
- French Marigolds
- Money Bush
- Scila
- Bleeding Hearts
BeeBalm
Oak
Great Stuff on Amazon
Snapping Turtle Crossing Garden
Ross Forest "EarthDayContest2007" greeting cards by eelkat
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See more Nature Landscapes Cards
Old Tree
Help For Your Woodland Shade Garden.
Hosta by eelkat
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Astilbe by eelkat
Create custom postage Using Zazzle
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White Crocus by eelkat
Design custom postage stamps Using www.Zazzle.com
More Maine Postage
Black Eye Susans by eelkat
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See more Maine Postage
Google Searched and Found:
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- Woodland Garden Plants - plants suitable for growing ina a woodland garden. Url : http://www.pfaf.or...
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- Forest Garden, Woodland Garden and Agroforestry advice, tuition and discussion. Url : http://thefore...
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- W.'s Tags: gardening, landscaping, native plants, garden design, bibliophile, libraries, new eng...
- Woodland Garden
- Find ideas on creating a woodland garden today with tips from the experts at HGTV.com. Url : http://...
- Woodland Garden
- Find ideas on creating a woodland garden today with tips from the experts at HGTV.com. Url : http://...
- Mayapples can add contrast to a woodland garden - Topix
- Mayapples can add contrast to a woodland garden. "Mayapple" seems an unlikely name for a p...
- Beginner Landscaping: Woodland garden information
- Oct 22, 2007 ... I am looking for information on woodland gardening. I have been clearing out some w...
- Tower.com: The American Woodland Garden (Hardcover) by Rick ...
- Tower.com: The American Woodland Garden (Hardcover): Books: by Rick Darke (Author) Url : http://www....
Distressed Border - 2-sided Ringer Mug by eelkat
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Christmas & Merlin
Attracting Birds To Your Garden.
Moss Gardening
Great Bird Stuff on Amazon
Bird Lenses
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The Cardinal's Nest
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Every bird-watcher and most children recognize the male Northern Cardinal, but many people know nothing about its nesting and courtship habits. Through the years, we have been able to observe and photograph most of the mating behavior of our beautifu...
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Blue Jays
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My fave blue birds. This lens features items from Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts. To see all of the products available from The Copper Cockeral and it's sister galleries, please click on the links below: Copper Cockeral Cards & Gifts The Pidgie Fun...
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Ornithology for Everyday Bird Watchers
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You don't need to be a scientist to enjoy ornithology. This lens is for the everyday bird watcher who just plain loves birds. Written by a New England bird lover, this lens features birds found in Americas North East, but is useful to all who love bi...
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Hummingbirds and Gardening for Them
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Who wouldn't want to attract hummingbirds, nature's flying jewels, to their yard? Hummingbird feeders will help bring them into view, but to really sustain them it is necessary to plant for them. Planting a Hummingbird Garden full of nectar rich flow...
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Butterflies and Gardening to Attract Them
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What is more beautiful than a garden full of colorful flowers with gorgeous butterflies flitting around? It's really not that hard to create a haven like this right in your own yard. All you need to create this sanctuary for you and the butterflies a...
The Wild Animal Sanctuary
The Wild Animal Sanctuary, formerly the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Conservation Center, near Denver, CO and is a state and federally licensed zoological facility. They have been rescuing exotic wildlife and endangered species since 1980. The residents of our
