Squirrely

I filled the birdfeeders today and attracted a lot of squirrels. I sat and watched them in the afternoon and there were at least three of them, maybe four. The one I tried hardest to get a picture of was the most elusive. Of course. It's the white-footed squirrel. I managed to snap two shots of it, both with it's tail toward me and this is the best one of the two. One of the white feet shows but all four of its feet are white. It didn't jump up on the peanut wreath like the others did and it didn't stick around for long.

This squirrel perched on the birdbath and looked longingly at the peanut wreath for quite a while before it made the leap.

When I put out a postcard for the mailman to pick up I looked down to admire the hyacinth that's still going strong. The flower isn't the big blossom that it used to be. I suspect that it needs to be dug up and separated but I'm afraid that I'd do damage so I might leave it for another season.

Did I tell you that the last time I filled the feeders I spilled some seed on the patio and later when I was sitting at the table I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and turned fast enough to see a little vole come darting out between the birdseed cans to hoover up the spilled seed. I watched it come out twice and then got the camera ready and it never came back again while I was watching. Naturally.

I flipped pages in Sketching and stopped on this page with office supplies on it so I drew some ballerina scissors, a cautious clip, and a disgruntled eraser.

I like today's Daily Practice painting. It's a row of rainbow carrots and I really like the way it turned out.

In the afternoon I sat down and finished the thumb of the second Marl Mitten so now I have a pair and the weather will turn so that I won't need them again until next fall. I'm fine with that. I added a few rounds on the Rainbow Brioche Beanie but it's not enough of a change to warrant a new picture. Brioche knitting is a slow process needing a lot of concentration for me. I'll be knitting on this hat for a while.

Even though I pretend that knitting a new pair of mittens might have the power to repel more snow and cold I noticed that the Juncos are still here and are plentiful. There was a little flock of them visiting once I filled the feeders and what I suspect is a little courting behavior happened. I'll feel like spring is really here when the Juncos leave. (It was snowing to beat the band when I went to bed last night but the snow didn't stick. The street was only wet when I got up this morning. Whew.)

I spent part of the morning finishing up cutting out the Rose-centric scenes from The Seaview2 and putting them in a separate manuscript. I was surprised that I only lost 50 pages of writing by doing that. I thought that I had more scenes with other people's POV. Guess not. I'm up to 102 impressions of my Amazon ads, still no clicks or sales though but it's early days.

Today my baby brothers turned 67! I called them and sang them Happy Birthday and got to chat with them for a few minutes. They're both doing okay despite all the health challenges they've had this last year. It was good to talk to them.

--Barbara