And I Turned the Furnace Back On

When I went to bed last night I left the windows open because it was 79 in the house. During the night a cold front came screaming down from Canada bringing cold temps and big wind. It was 55 degrees when I woke up. Brrr. So I turned the furnace back on. I'll turn it off again on Friday when the temps get back into the 70s. Sheesh.

I got some new watercolor colored pencils today. They're the same kind that KA let me play with up at The Clearing a couple weeks ago. They're short and stubby and I guess they're meant for little kids but big kids can play with them too.

 

I couldn't wait to try them out so I opened a sketchbook, drew some flowers from a picture I took at the Botanical Garden on Sunday, colored them in with the new pencils, then used clear water and the paintbrush to make the coloring turn into paint.

Then I did it on the next page with a different picture from my walk at the Botanical Garden. I'm not as crazy about the way this turned out as the first one but it was fun coloring and then turning it into paint. KA used it in addition to watercolor so I'll have to try that next.

The Oriole showed up again today, not on the feeder, but on the crook. I don't care where he is as long as he keeps coming back and I get to see him.

Another of my favorite birds showed up today too. It's a Catbird, called that because it's song sounds like a cat's meow. No, really, it's kind of creepy when you hear it and realize it's a bird. And I like the smooth gray of its feathers, the black on top of its head, and the jaunty angle of its tail when it's pecking at the fallen seed, kind of like a Wren. An all around good looking bird.

Today's drawings were out of the Things With Wings book (I've gotta look at the real title)--a toucan, an angel, a bat, a flying fish, and a bee. I'm enamored of drawing those little things with a pen. I think it's the confidence I feel just going in with a pen and not having to draw and erase with pencil before tracing it over with the pen. I'm having fun.

When I went outside just now to put a postcard out to be picked up tomorrow I saw that the allium had bloomed. It's just one little purple ball of florets about the size of a golf ball but it's a new flower and I'm glad to see it.

I don't have a picture of the big event of my day. Today was the Spring Concert at LC and OJ's school so all the parents and grandparents met and sat in the audience beaming at their performance. It was funny and fun and short. Didn't they used to have concerts in the evening instead of in the middle of the day? How many parents can't break away from work to come watch their little ones perform? We were all in a row--DS, DIL1, HZ, JZ, and me--all happy and proud to see LC and OJ up there on the stage. It was great.

--Barbara