Up the Creek with a Paddle Blog Goes Live

Well, the time has come. There are enough posts here to legitimately start a page that has plenty to read, plenty to enjoy and plenty promise for the future.

I didn’t think launching this blog would be such a stressful event. But wait a minute. I’m up the creek with a paddle! I got this!

In 2010 when I began my freelance writing career, I wanted a business name so I could start a corporation, LLC, limited partnership, etc. I have a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Management so I thought I needed to make this career legal for tax purposes. Wrong…….

I never incorporated, but will probably need to in the next year.

Back to 2010: My family lives on a creek in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia  so, of course, I thought Up the Creek would make a great name for my business. I played with designing a business card and logo for Up the Creek and knew I had something there, but never really used the name.

Last month we had a major snow storm and the creek was iced just right for a photo shoot. A week later, I came home and walked into our great room and through the wall of windows I could barely see the creek. Fog had settled on the land.

I grabbed my Nikon 5300 DSLR which I always keep on my buffet for just this reason. The great room view is the best in the house and the prime location for most of my landscape shots. While snapping away at the view — or lack there of — I let our dogs, Grace and Tucker, out to our backyard deck and it came to me.

This blog is all about a lifestyle that has been hard won by coping with what life throws at me — not always well but I’ve made it this far. The realization of this and watching the occluded view of the creek, I knew the name of my blog, “Up the Creek with a Paddle.”

My paddle is everything I have in my toolbox to get down the creek, cut through the grasses, the mud and other obstacles to reach open water. Unscathed? Heavens no. My paddle has been hard work, a loving family, amazing friends and mostly, God, with a little help from my grandma, Claryce Petty. I would not be who I am today without all the eclectic paddles I’ve dug in the waters to move into a life so grand.

This is a lifestyle blog. It is a composition of all the things I love and want to share: my travels; the characters I have interviewed over the years as a freelance writer/photographer; healthy habits I’ve incorporated into my regimen; food & drink; and lessons learned over the past 50+ years. Okay, I’m 58, but a good 58. My grandma lived to be 100 years old and that’s not the only thing she had that I wish to reproduce in my life.

Welcome to my page! I hope you enjoy the stories, the photography, the tips, the recipes, but mostly the community here.

See you Up the Creek!

Cathy