Orange All Day

This morning I heard an unfamiliar bird song and went to the kitchen window to see if I could see what was making the sound. It was an Oriole! 

 

 

It clung to the window and rested on the crook, singing the whole time. It hung around all day singing and trying different windows, clinging to the screen, warbling away and pecking at the window. I assume that it was pecking at its reflection. I had the windows open so often it sounded like the Oriole was in the house. I put out a dish of grape jelly but don't have any oranges to put in the feeder too so I don't think he found the jelly. I made some Hummingbird nectar and put that out but the Oriole didn't find it and I didn't see any Hummers yet. My honeysuckle died so I don't have that nice swath of tubular flowers with nectar to attract them. I thought maybe the lilacs would do the job. Time will tell.

I flipped to the next page in Seuss-isms and found this colorful fish to draw.

And in Draw 20 Trees I found clouds, a winter tree, and a feather that made it onto my sketchbook page. The feather is my favorite.

It wasn't until nearly suppertime that I got out my paints and a little piece of paper to paint a trio of tulips. This time I got out the hair dryer so I could dry the background and the flower heads before adding the stems and leaves. So much quicker than having to wait for things to dry naturally.

I was surprised to see the female Cardinal come to the filled feeder this afternoon. She looks a bit thinner and bedraggled, probably from the stress of nesting and raising her first brood. I was glad to see her.

 

When I was emptying a box of donated books at the library on Thursday I had a flashback to my youth. There was a copy of the first Nancy Drew book, the first one that I read as a kid, so I tucked it into my purse and brought it home for LC. I'll reread it to make sure that it's suitable for her and she might not be interested but I couldn't leave it behind. I remember how much I loved those books.

I did laundry today (ugh) and swapped summer and winter shirts, socks, and shoes. There are no pictures of those dreary chores. It got up to 75 degrees today so it was time.  It's supposed to be in the 70s and maybe the 80s until Wednesday when the high is predicted to be all of 59 but that's only supposed to last for a day or two and then get back into the 70s. I'll keep a cardigan handy.

I made a few more ads today, one keyword ad and two category ads. The keyword ad already has a few impressions but the category ads still say "no data available." I'm not having a lot of luck with getting impressions on category ads but I'll keep trying. One of these days I'm bound to get a sale. I called the two bookstores where my books are yesterday to tell them that I've raised the prices and found out the dates of the tour bus stops at the Sturgeon Bay store. Unfortunately the June dates cancelled but I've got the July, August, and September dates in my calendar. I'm excited for the opportunity.

--Barbara