Summer Field Trips

Sometimes in order to refresh the writing brain, it’s good to get out of the house for a little field trip–especially in the summer in the Pacific Northwest.

Julia Cameron in her book, THE ARTIST WAY calls them “Artist Dates.” Cameron says, “An artist date is a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you pre-plan and defend against all interlopers. You do not take anyone on this artist date but you and your creative self.”

(If you don’t know Julia Cameron’s books, I would highly recommend them. I began my creative journey with these books and I still use many of her ideas–aka..the artist date as well as the morning pages.)

I don’t necessarily plan my artist date trips anymore, and I don’t have artist dates weekly, but I do still enjoy the outing with my creative self.

And last week, I went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. I’d never been to the Botanical Gardens in Bellevue-although they are smack in the middle of the city and free to visit! And, I hear the Christmas light show is amazing! The Botanical Gardens are filled with walking trails through dense, Pacific Northwest woods. It’s amazing to think the whole place is in the middle of downtown Bellevue–filled with sky rises occupied by businesses such as Expedia and Microsoft!

My favorite part of the Botanical Gardens was the Alpine Ravine Bridge.  Here is a picture.

If you live in the Seattle area, I’d highly recommend the Bellevue Botanical Gardens! It’s a great place for an artist date!