Ablaze

Well, it would have looked more fiery if the sun had been out but I noticed when I went out for the mail this afternoon that the trees across the street had decided to flash their autumn colors.

It was warm and sunny yesterday. Not today. It was chilly and rainy all day. I thought about taking a walk but instead I did the laundry so I walked up and down the stairs a few zillion times because I also carried up and exchanged my summer socks for my winter socks. The socks are the only clothes that shift to the basement for the seasons. Since I live alone I use the guest bedroom closet for off season clothes. It's more convenient.

I pulled out 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish first when I sat down to draw. The seahorse looks a little goofy but I like the squid. I'm neutral on the starfish and the walrus.

Then I turned to the next page of the Zentangles book. Today's lesson was drawing in white gel pen on black paper. I didn't do that. Instead I drew in plain old black on white. Maybe tomorrow I'll try my hand at white on black.

 

The Downy Woodpecker came back to the round feeder in between rains this afternoon. It settled right down with a couple Sparrows to peck away at the seeds trying to find the best ones. I like the way it's learned to crouch down on its haunches to reach the hole in the feeder.

In addition to my stairs climbing today I did a lot of standing at the laptop rereading the 1st person version of my manuscript. I'm finding that I miss the 3rd person parts of the other manuscript. Maybe because I've just got small indicators of what's happening "offstage" but I miss the action of those parts. I might rearrange the chapters again and see what happens when I read it that way. One thing I did accomplish was taking out a jillion "just"s. I use it too much and it's annoying.

I watched the weather and we're under a frost advisory overnight. Ugh. I'm glad that the landscapers came the other day so there won't be a raft of dead stuff out there to clean up. The only things left for me to take care of are the geraniums and coleus in pots. I probably should have snipped them all off yesterday when the weather was beautiful but I didn't.

--Barbara