Big & Small

Or ginormous and tiny. That's the birds that I had this afternoon. I came out into the dining area after writing this afternoon (successfully, too) to see this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk perched in the birdbath. It sat there for at least 15 minutes so I could look at it to my heart's content. I took picture after picture but only saved a few of the best ones. My favorite part was when it stood up in the water and dunked its bottom in like it was taking a bath but it was too big for the basin so only the very lowest feathers got wet.

Almost as soon as the Hawk flew away I saw a tiny blur at the new feeder and there was a Hummingbird. I'm disappointed that the picture is blurry but I had to be fast because they just don't stay long. I was happy to see her at the new feeder. I was afraid that it'd take a while for them to show up.

The lilies are blooming like crazy. There's a whole line of orange ones up on the retaining wall...

...and a shorter row of red ones behind it.

Then there's the sole surviving Stargazer lily that grows along the lot line. This year it braided itself through the fence and by the time I noticed it was too late to thread it back through to my side of the fence. Maybe I should just take that little piece of fencing down one of these days.

Today was the last drawing Daily Practice and it was Telephones. We drew some old phone styles and some new ones but we didn't draw the candlestick kind. Oh well.

When I came back to write I decided to start a watercolor so that I could do both things at once, write while I let the paint from each step dry. I'm not patient enough to just sit there watching paint dry, I have to have something else to do. These are California Poppies. I like the way they turned out.

The scene I wrote this afternoon gave me a hint of the end of The Seaview 2. I'm not telling what happens but will say that I was surprised at the way it turned out and it paves the way for a nice ending of the book.

I got the first chapter of corrections/suggestions for Island Dreams back from the editor this afternoon so I sat right down and read through the 10 pages. They really tightened up the language and there was only one suggestion that I nixed. So far, so good.

--Barbara