Red & Blue

Birds. I saw red and blue birds today. First thing the Cardinal came and happily there were enough safflower seeds left in the feeder to keep him there long enough for me to take his picture. I can't imagine why the chipmunk left any seeds, it usually hoovers them all up the first day.

Then a Bluejay landed on the cob corn and I was fast enough with the camera. A split second after I snapped this he/she took off and I didn't see it come back so it was a lucky shot.

After breakfast I went out and blew the leaves into a better pile, then raked them onto a tarp and dragged them to the curb. It only took five trips to get them all moved. Now I can't say that there are no leaves left on the lawn but the great majority are gathered up and since they're talking about snow overnight (SNOW!!!) the rest of the leaves are staying put. I guess it's time to swap the mower for the snowblower.

My little Pacific Sunset maple tree is holding onto its hundred leaves and they're the prettiest colors.

After I wrote the first NaNoWriMo segment today I went over to the dive shop to see if they had a dive site guide for Bonaire that I could borrow, and they did. Now I can add details to my story that aren't made up. When I got home I cut down all of the mums and put them at the curb too but I kept this small bouquet of the purple ones that was nestled closest to the house. The purple ones are the first to bloom and the last to fade.

I worked on the untimed challenges of the drawing lesson I did day before yesterday. I was supposed to draw five towers of ten "boxes" and then embellish the daylights out of them. I did my best but was less than inspired. I'm having a hard time putting in the extras he demands.

Then I drew the next lesson in the You Can Draw in 30 Seconds book which was "table." I'm working through the timed and untimed challenges of that one and drew this 10 table tower with holes and posts. I quite like it although I'm not enjoying this book as much as I have the others. I think I'll go back and start over when I've finished with this one. Repetition can be a good thing, right?

Today's toss was a couple boxes of tea lights. I don't burn candles and for sure don't use tea lights. Out they go.

The prompt today said to list every writing medium you can thing of. Hm, let's see--novel, short story, poem, biography, autobiography, essay, article, opinion piece, romance, historical, children's, young adult--the list seems never to end.

I managed to write two NaNoWriMo segments today. I have to write 1667 words a day to get to 50,000 by November 30. So far I'm on track but it's early days. When I got home from the dive shop my garage door wouldn't stay shut so I had to unhook it from the opener so it would stay down. I guess that's better than having it not open. So Monday I call the fixit guy. *sigh*

--Barbara