A Lucky Shot

I saw movement on the suet pellets this morning and realized that there was a Red-bellied Woodpecker on there but it was on the side away from me. I still got the camera up and managed to snap one shot where you can kind of see the bird. It has visited a few other times that I saw but never stayed long enough to have its portrait taken.

Today I finished the skill levels of the Steps lesson, thank goodness. I can't say that I enjoyed drawing these things. I feel like I don't get the perspective right or the angles or something. I'm sure if I stuck with it and drew these over and over I might get better but I'm just not motivated by them. I'll be glad when I'm through with this book's lessons.

The next figure in 10-Steps: Everyday Things was a calendar. It wasn't hard to draw although I did have a time getting the days neatly set up in rows. I put the days letters a little too close together so I had to squeeze the numbers when it got into the 20s but that's okay, it looks alright.

Once I was done drawing I fell prey to the lure of the computer and sat here going through Better Than Mom's. Mostly I just changed stilted language to contractions. Manuscripts that start out as NaNoWriMos always have "let us" and "did not" because those count as two words and "let's" and "didn't" only count as one. I got through the whole manuscript this afternoon and evening but the story isn't done. None of the threads are wrapped up and I've got characters hanging. Never fear, I'll get there but it won't be fast. Although I did find a website that has free photographs so I did some searching and found a few photos that might work for cover art. This is not the manuscript I plan to work on next week at The Clearing.

My Canadian yarn came today. I had a skein of this yarn that I bought in Bozeman, MT a few years ago that was a dream to knit into a sock so I wanted more of it. It's a tiny bit thicker than regular, Fingering weight sock yarn so it knits up faster. It wasn't cheap but I'm worth it. Teehee. Happy Birthday from me to me!

The cat was back on the retaining wall, snoozing in the same spot. I wonder what's so attractive about that spot.

Today's toss was a handful of metal circular needles. I realized that I avoid using them like the plague, preferring wood or bamboo needles. The metal ones are too slippery.

--Barbara