He Came Back

Imagine my surprise when I saw the Red-bellied Woodpecker on the suet pellets feeder not once, not twice, but three times today. He's very persistent and dedicated to pecking away at those tiny morsels of suet and grain (I think). You can tell he's a male because the red on his head goes all the way down to his beak. The female's red doesn't go much past her eyes.

I'm glad that I rediscovered my gratitude journal when I was rummaging around looking for more markers (as if I need more). There was bright sunshine for quite a bit of the day and I could have made one big sun on the page and that would have summed up my gratitude for the day but I found a few other things to be grateful for.

I redrew yesterday's Lesson 21 and it turned out so much better. I used less marker, a smaller paintbrush, and a lot less water. I like it.

This afternoon I saw a bird swoop in to land on the suet cakes. It was a Downy Woodpecker that stayed for quite a while in the shade enjoying a snack. This one is a male too. You can't see it in the picture but he has a red swoop across the back of his head. Females don't have that.

Since no one else submitted their pages for next Wednesday yet (and there are four, not three like I figured last night), I was kind of stuck for what to do this afternoon. I played around on FB and then decided to see what Day 2 of Mark Making was all about. Circles and dots. I got the pad of thick paper she recommended at Michaels so I cut the sheets in half and got started. I used my big, thick black colored pencil to make the circles, then watercolors to make green dots and whatever you call those orange marks. I suspect I have to endure a few days of repetitive mark making before something fun or challenging shows up. Time will tell.

Time ticked by slowly so I got out my sketchbook and 20 Ways to Draw a Tree for some actual figure drawing. It's a tree seed, an egg, a shell, and a log. I like the egg the best. For some reason it pleases me.

Tomorrow DD is coming! I can't wait. And tomorrow I find out what time I'm having my procedure on Friday. I hope it's late morning. DS wants to be there too and that would work best for him as he has a beer event late in the afternoon. It feels good that my kids want to be with me for this.

--Barbara