Tulips The Bunnies Haven't Eaten

Yet. I glanced out the kitchen window and saw that red tulips are blooming up on top of the retaining wall. I'm astonished that the rabbits haven't eaten them. I probably shouldn't say this out loud. They'll hear me. Watch, they'll all be gnawed down in the morning.

I saw this flash of red when I was eating breakfast and there was a Cardinal on the platform feeder. He stuck around for long enough to have a few shots taken so that I could pick the best one and then flew away.

Today's Daily Practice watercolor is a bouquet of flowers. It was a challenging picture to paint because we didn't have a pdf to look at and the camera didn't spend a lot of time on the bouquet. Naturally they spent a lot of time on her painting but it was kind of frustrating not to have a picture to look at and sort of copy. I think it's okay.

I was drawn back here to the laptop this morning to finish going through LL's comments on The Seaview: Open for Business. I took a break for lunch and got done in the early afternoon. I added about four pages of improvements over the last few days--a little here, little there. It adds up. One thing that I haven't added yet is a confrontation between Rose and an island woman who had designs on Iggy and now is spreading rumors about Rose. I'm not good with confrontation and I don't know where in the story to put it. But I'll figure it out.

Once I was done writing I went out with a paring knife and 4-cup measuring cup and cut rhubarb stalks to make a pan of rhubarb sauce. I used Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener instead of sugar so it doesn't "cost" any points and I can have it spooned over plain Greek yogurt which also is a zero points food. It isn't the most attractive thing I've ever made but it sure tastes good.

We had crazy weather today. It was sunny, very windy, and got up to 79 degrees. Seventy-nine! It's supposed to rain all day tomorrow and get up to 50 degrees. It's a wonder we don't all have colds with the crazy yo-yo-ing weather we've been having. You'd better bet I put the sunshine and heat on the Gratitude Journal page, along with the rhubarb sauce and my painting.

I'm so excited about the way my manuscript is going. I feel like every pass through takes it up a notch. One of these days it'll be ready. I can't wait.

--Barbara