Squirrel!

I went out and filled the birdfeeders this morning and this squirrel was the first to notice. It leaped from the birdbath to the top of one crook to the next crook and then down onto the suet nuggets feeder. It didn't stay long but I'm confident it'll be back soon.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Something Cold so I drew an ice cube melting on a blue table. Not very creative but I didn't want to draw an igloo or a snowman.

 

 I worked on Amazon Ads again today. It wasn't very satisfying because I figured out my cost per sale and it's dismal. I'm underwater when I compare ad spend vs. royalties. I've got that Ads Analysis coaching session on Monday and today's computations tempted me to cancel but it's included so I might as well go. Maybe I'll learn something that will turn the numbers around. That is, if I can figure out how to do the things she recommends. I still can't figure out some of the things said last September in my first Ads Analysis coaching session. Thank goodness I had KM watch the session video and she sent me an analysis with the suggestions outlined. That's the only way I'd know what was said because I kind of zoned out re-watching it. This graph shows Impressions (light blue bars), Clicks (dark blue line), Ad Spend (green line), and Sales (magenta spikes). Impressions are free, I pay for Clicks but set the bid when I make an ad so I can kind of control that. Sorta.

 

When I wanted to paint this afternoon I didn't want to do another "atmospheric" painting so I pulled out Art for Joy's Sake, flipped to pages with various leaves, taped a couple postcards to a board, and played around with brushes and paint. It was kind of relaxing.

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I first worked on the Doublethick cloth. It's pretty good knitting for chatting and I've learned to "read" my knitting so I can glance at it and know what stitch comes next.

 

Then I pulled out the Iron Pyrite Sock to start knitting on the foot. I like the way the yarn striped across the instep just below the leg.

 

And after supper I made a gratitude journal page. 

 

I planned to try taking a walk today to see if my knee could tolerate it but the knee complained when I walked up and down the hill to fill the cob corn feeders and I didn't want to irritate it more so I didn't. Plus it was pretty hot today. I'm such a wimp sometimes. Actually I'm a wimp a lot of times.

--Barbara

My Beloved

I can't let the anniversary of Durwood's passing go without sharing my favorite picture of the two of us. Above water, that is. His retirement job was with the portrait studio in Walmart so we got to get our pictures taken once a year without the sitting fee. I don't know who suggested this pose but we obviously liked it and the photographer was a good friend so there was a lot of laughing and smiling going on. I really miss the old guy. There's so much I'd like to tell him and he'd love watching LC and OJ grow.

 

This afternoon I attended a webinar about making our 7 KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) Keywords work the hardest for us. I didn't learn a whole lot that I hadn't heard before but it motivated me to examine my KDP keywords for The Seaview and change out the ones that weren't working as well as they should. Since that book's the first in the series I concentrate most of my ads on it hoping that once people read the first one they'll go on to read the rest of the series. The keywords tell Amazon's algorithm where to put my ads so that they have a better chance of attracting a reader. Then I made some more new ads for the algorithm to play with. He said in the webinar that keeping creating new ads helps Amazon keep learning where to place your ads. It's complicated but I like making ads and it doesn't cost anything but time.

 

I was surprised when I glanced out to see one lonely little Stella d'Oro lily blooming among the weeds and leaves. The weeds are taking over so I hope the Cutting Edge guys come soon to rescue the plants. I spent some time this morning on stick patrol. That little fierce storm we had the other night, which also knocked out our power, flung a lot of branches from the neighbor's tree into my yard so I went out to gather them up to put at the curb.

 

Just down from the lily is this sedum plant. There's no color in the flowers yet but they're kind of pretty in their shades of green.  

 

Today's drawing prompt was Something Hot so I made up this red candle with its orange and yellow flame. Candles are hot as are red, yellow, and orange on the color wheel.

 

And I even drew a gratitude journal page for today with my pitiful gratitudes on it. 

 

I think I'm most grateful for the chocolate yogurt I whipped up after supper. It's a snap to make. I found a recipe on Facebook that I've adjusted to my taste. I use 2 cups of Chobani Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt (because it's thinner than other brands). Then I stir in one 4-serving-size package of sugar free Jello Instant Pudding mix. The original recipe called for two packages of pudding but that made it taste so artificial and metallic I tried it with one package and that's better. The original recipe also used lemon but I love chocolate no matter what flavor it is so that's what I make. The recipe makes four servings and they're zero points so I can have it as an evening snack without guilt.

 

One of the window wells on the rental side leaks in the rain so I spent some time with the husband trying to figure out a way to divert some of the rain water farther out into the lawn so it flows away from the window well instead of into their basement. We discussed a few ideas that he'll try before I consider having the gutters replaced because there's a downspout right by the window well which, I'm sure, contributes to the water problem. It's always something.

--Barbara 

I Finished It

I can't believe it but I actually listened to all 48 hours and 7 minutes of Barbra Streisand's autobiography. It was a monumental listen and, while I wasn't riveted, for some reason I had to finish it. All I can say is, unless you're a superfan, skip it. That is one driven and opinionated woman.

 

For most of the afternoon I watched Ad School Profit Challenge videos. He remade them since the last time I watched them. They're shorter and have a little new info, so I made a couple new ads and learned a few new things. I had to relearn other things, like that I had to enable an extension in Chrome to get one of the tools to work. That only took me uninstalling it and reinstalling it before I checked the settings and flicked one toggle to make it work. *head, slap* I figure I have to be up on the Ad School stuff because I've got a group coaching session scheduled for Monday with a coach who will look over my ads dashboard and give me suggestions on improving things. Part of me is looking forward to it and the other part of me is dreading it.

 

Mm, lime jello. The perfect late night snack. So cool, jiggly, and refreshing. Lime is my favorite flavor of jello.

 

I painted this watercolor of forsythia this morning. It's a style she calls "atmospheric." I'm not sure I like it, but it's less rigid than my usual painting so it's a learning process. KA gave each of us a painting book at her workshop in May and this is from the one I chose. I like to paint flowers and it was the only one with them. The lady who the books belonged to had a whole stack of books by this author/artist so I'm guessing she was a fan.

 

I didn't spend much time staring out the patio door today so there aren't any wildlife pictures. And I only spent about an hour working on story starts. I added a little bit to one about a woman and a bear and it might be finished but it's pretty short, maybe too short to put on Substack. Or maybe not. I can call it Flash Fiction and get away with it. 

Tomorrow is the 7th anniversary of Durwood's death. I think of him nearly every day but with fondness now rather than sadness. Sometimes it seems like yesterday that he was here making me smile but other times I can hardly remember the times we struggled. He was one in a million. I was so lucky.

--Barbara 

The Power Was Out

We had a short but fierce storm yesterday at suppertime that knocked out the power until 1:42am so I was unable to blog last night. I missed it. I missed doing a lot of things because the internet and cable was out too. So I worked on a short story or two and then went to bed early.

 

I forgot to show you on Sunday that Zambaldi's hops are really growing. Look at how far up the cord this one has grown! DS is hoping that next summer the hops will be thick enough to provide a sunshade for the patio. Late in the day it's broiling out there with nothing to shade the patrons. They have umbrellas but they're only really good for sun right overhead. Plus growing hops is just cool.

 

The lawn mowers came! He'd said they might come and just about noon here they were. They were fast, thorough, and very polite. The kid called me "ma'am" which surprised me. He also consulted with the owner and they'll come to weed the retaining wall when they can get to it. I was so pleased I texted the owner right away to tell him I'm glad I hired them. None of the other 4 Anji recommendations have called.

 

Garden was the drawing prompt of the day so I drew the birdfeeders since I don't have a garden. I think I did okay.

 

The purple mums are going great guns. There are two big clumps of them around the base of Dad's rose and there are too many flowers to count.

 

Speaking of birdfeeders, this House Finch visited the round feeder. There's not much seed in there for him but he diligently poked around in the port to see what he could find.

 

Before it got too dark, I drew a gratitude journal for the day. I was extremely grateful that the mowers came and I got a good report at my financial advisor appointment. She predicts I have enough invested to maintain my current lifestyle until I'm 90. I guess after that I'll go on the dole.

 

And that was my day yesterday. It was too dark after supper to knit because I couldn't see what I was doing so I worked on a couple story starts and then tucked myself into bed.

--Barbara

A Ball of Squirrels

Just before I took this picture these two squirrels were wrestling and looked like a furry ball with 8 feet and two tails. Now they've stopped rolling around and are just growling at each other.

 

Well, I did it. I got online and searched "lawn mowing services near me." Anji showed me 5 names so I pushed the button to contact them. Within an hour one of them called and said he'd stop by today. He did, we looked at my 2/3 of the lawn, and I hired him. He said one of his guys will be here tomorrow. Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't hire him to send someone to weed the retaining wall too. One thing at a time.

 

While the air conditioner tuneup tech was here going over both a/c units I worked on another story start. This one has gotten 6 pages long so far and I'm stuck for where it's going next. So I put it away for the night and I'll look at it again tomorrow. Maybe.

 

Also while the tech was here I decided to try my hand at painting the Black-eyed Susans up on the retaining wall. I probably should have used pale gray or green in between them because they're close together without sky showing between them. Actually the gray fence is behind them. But I did manage to paint three bees again. Getting better at them.

 

My online assistant designed a Christmas at Seaview bookmark and sent me the pdfs today. I got right on the GotPrint website and ordered some, along with more hang tags and regular bookmarks. The front shows the book cover and the other three Seaview Series books, so I'm showing you the back side of the bookmark because I like the graphic. KM does such a good job. Thanks again for the referral, GBB!

 

In addition to painting I also drew the next prompt which was Snowflakes. That was an odd thing to draw especially since it was over 80 degrees today but it's what was next in the book so I did it. 

 

Dad's rose has just one tiny little flower on it. It doesn't have as many petals as the big ones do but it's just as pretty and fragrant as the others.

 

I had a Zoom with cda this morning. Neither of us had sent writing to be critiqued so we just chatted. We'll reconvene September 1 (which is Labor Day and my 74th birthday) with writing for critique unless either or both of us gets a better offer. 

--Barbara 

A Blurry Squirrel

A squirrel was hanging on the suet nuggets feeder this morning and I swung the camera up and took its picture. I've taken a dozen pictures of squirrels hanging on this feeder and most of them have been fairly sharp. Not this one. I couldn't even see what part of the whole frame was in focus. So here's a squirrel, not really blurry in real life.

 

I met CS at Zambaldi around noon to sit and knit for a few hours. She worked on a baby sweater and I worked on my doublethick cloth. Naturally I forgot to take a picture so I dug this one out of the archives to use as a place holder. Just look at the next picture and pretend it's next to a bottle of root beer.

 

And here's my doublethick cloth with another inch or so added to it. I realized that I could "read" my knitting to see what I was supposed to be doing so I didn't have to look at the pattern and count every row. I can just knit until I get to 7" and then look at the pattern to see what to do next.

 

When I got home I pulled out my sketchbook and turned to the next prompt. It was Buttons & Beads so I drew a few buttons and a beaded bracelet and earrings. I also colored them which I haven't been doing lately.

 

Before lunch and after supper I worked on turning a story start into a short story. I think I might have finished one in the morning and got a bit of traction on another one this evening. Last week I transcribed 48 of them into Word so I have a lot of things to play with.

 

I have just over 5 hours of audiobook left to listen to. Barbra Streisand must keep detailed journals, either that or she's got a phenomenal memory. I can't believe the depth of her memories. I'm not riveted but now that I'm this far into it (over 42 hours) I have to finish it.

My knee is still achy but not painful like it was last week. The lawn is getting long and I'm wondering if I can mow it without re-injuring my knee. Maybe it's time to call a lawn mowing service.

--Barbara 

Standoff

There were a couple tussles over fallen birdseed today. The first one was so fast I barely saw it much less had time to picture it. A squirrel was eating the fallen seed and a chipmunk came up to share. Well, the squirrel wasn't sharing. No, sir, not sharing. There was suddenly a ball of fur and legs and tails, and then the chipmunk tumbled out onto the patio and scampered away. This standoff was much more restrained. I suspect the chippie was gun shy. It stayed a distance away from the rabbit that kept a wary eye on the intruder. But there was no further fighting. At least I didn't see any.

 

Look what came today! It's the very first copy of Christmas at Seaview. It's in its place on top of the pile of the first copies of all of my titles. I love this whole publishing thing.

 

The Christmas keyrings also arrived today. There are 10 different designs on the Amazon page but I only got these two--a snowman and a tree. They came individually wrapped in a little plastic bag which was a pain to deal with. Oh well, I got them tagged and bagged so I'll be ready for my next book signing in late September.

 

The drawing prompt today was Clocks, Watches & Time so I just drew a watch and a couple clocks. I wasn't in the mood to color them so they're just plain ink outlines.

 

 After supper I sat watching TV and knitted the heel gusset of the Iron Pyrite Sock. It's my least favorite part of sock knitting so I'm glad to get it done. Next comes knitting the foot for about 7" and then the toe decreases. I'm meeting friends at Zambaldi tomorrow afternoon to knit for a while so now I'll have two things to work on. I have to concentrate and count when I'm knitting the gusset so that's something not to do in a chatty group.

 

We had a stormy afternoon but that made the sunset awfully pretty. I was closing the shades when I saw the sky had turned that beautiful orange-ish pink so I went out onto the porch to snap a picture.

 

This afternoon the sky turned dark and the wind picked up. DS called to ask if he could shelter at my place because he'd just dropped DIL1 off at work and the tornado sirens were sounding. Of course I said yes so I got to have a little visit with him while it rained and blew. No tornado sighted, at least around here.

My knee is a whole lot better. I don't know if it's the arnica get or the passage of time but I don't care. I just want to be out of pain and be able to stand up and walk without hurting.

Yesterday I cleaned a bunch of the green beans CS brought for me (which are totally delicious) and pushed the cut off ends down the garbage disposal. I turned on the water and flipped the switch and it made a groaning sound and didn't do anything. When I opened the cupboard to feel for the reset button I smelled that hot smell that told me I probably need a new disposal. I'm wondering if I can just get pipes put there instead but it'd probably be more expensive than a new garbage disposal. I don't remember if this one is original equipment but if it is, it's over 45 years old.  It's always something.

--Barbara