Birds

 I was so excited to see a Red-Bellied Woodpecker at the suet pellets this morning and then to be able to catch a decent picture of it.  This is a female.  I can tell because the red doesn't go quite down to her beak in front.

I saw this bird on the feeder and was struck by the stripes on its wings.  Then it occurred to me that this is a male Goldfinch in its winter coloration.  Two months ago this bird would have been bright yellow.

Just after the Woodpecker was there this Nuthatch took its turn at the suet pellets.  This is another bird that's quick to arrive and quick to leave so I'm always happy to capture a shot of it.

This afternoon I drew Lesson 30 in the Draw Squad book so I've drawn my way through two Mark Kistler books, 30 lessons each, in six weeks.  I'm a little more confident than I was at the beginning so I started right into the next two books.

In You Can Draw It In 30 Minutes, the object today was a chair.  It's a book of realistic drawing so I hope that my effort looks like something real.  I think my chair is pretty darned good.

 

 

The first lesson in You Can Draw In 30 Seconds (!!!) harks back to the beginning of the 30 Days book, having you draw a ball with a horizon line and shading.  Then once you've drawn it a few times there's a page of timed challenges using the techniques you learned just before.  I had to start a new sketchbook for this book, which means I used up 100 pages drawing through the first two books.  I'm kind of addicted to sitting at the table with my mechanical pencils and stick eraser all afternoon hunched over and drawing little pictures.  Sure beats working.

 

My tiny Pacific Sunset maple tree's leaves are finally starting to turn.  Since there are probably no more than 100 leaves on the whole tree it's not a problem but the neighbor's giant maples are still dropping leaves like falling snow and filling up my side yard again.  Better keep the leaf blower batteries charged up.

Tonight I knitted on Bib #4 and got the body of the bib done and the first cord set up.  

Today's toss was an old, frayed patio umbrella that had been hanging, unused, in the garage for years.  I stuffed it into the back of the car and stopped by the municipal garage where you can dump your too-big-for-the-bin household waste on my way home from Zambaldi Beer.

The prompt today said "She knew she would never be the same again after she'd..."  Learned to SCUBA dive.  She learned about the undersea world and all the creatures that live in it.  She learned that she's adventurous and brave and can do something that not many people can do.  Learning to dive changed her for all time.

I spent an hour or so at the brewery this morning.  I hadn't been there for a few weeks.  It was good to have the chance to spend a little time with DS.  He was brewing a batch of brown ale and transferring a batch of cherry wheat into a brite tank for finishing.  I even got to taste some of the Maple Brown Ale and the Double Secret Meatball Man which is their popular Meatball Man amber on steroids.  Pretty tasty, both of them.

--Barbara