I Thought It Was Snow

I looked out at the suet pellets feeder when I sat down to breakfast and thought that there was some snow stuck to the feeder. Then the "snow" moved. What I thought was snow turned out to be the breast of a Downy Woodpecker that then moved around to the side a little bit so I could see most of the bird. Thanks, birdie.

Once I got dressed I got busy making a batch of Easy Egg Drop Soup. The original recipe has just chicken broth, scallions, soy sauce, and eggs but I like a soup with a little more substance especially if I plan to eat it for supper (which I do) so I added chicken, mushrooms, and chopped bok choy. It's really good and satisfying for supper. And I managed to set off the smoke alarm (I think it cooked over a bit) which meant I had to turn on the ceiling fan and open the patio door for a little while to clear it out. Man, it was chilly out there today.

Mark making for Day 18 was to make a collage with triangles. I like this one a little better than yesterday's arch collage. Only two more collages and we start drawing actual things using the marks that we've learned so far. I can't wait.

Today's gratitude journal page was an easy one. I saw a Nuthatch on the pellets when I went to open the patio door to let the smoke out, I made that pot of soup. the smoke alarm works (twice), and it was sunny. What's not to be grateful for?

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I made good progress on knitting on the fourth little ball of cashmere yarn. This yarn is billed as sport weight (medium thickness) but it's more like fingering weight (almost the thinnest). I think it's a good thing because this is a lot more scarf than the pattern intends. As soon as this color is done then I start decreasing every 8th row so it'll start going faster tapering back down to 3 or 4 stitches. Hooray!

I had a good Women's Spirit zoom this afternoon. I committed to working on adding conflict to my manuscript this weekend. I'm so frustrated with myself because I can't seem to see how to make trouble for Rose. Every idea I have I write a little sentence and then back off. I need to buckle down and be mean to her even if it makes me feel bad doing it.

--Barbara