Just Missed 'Em

There were interesting birds at the feeders and on the patio today, I just wasn't fast enough to get a picture of them. The female Oriole was back at least once pecking away at the jelly and the Bluejay stopped on the patio after I filled the feeders because there was quite a bit of seed spilled. The neighbor's 2-year-old is very interested when I'm out filling the birdbath or the feeders and she was outside so I asked her to help. Seed was spilled but the feeders got filled. These House Finches were the only birds that posed long enough for me to snap a photo.

I got a text from DS this morning that he was brewing and did I want to come visit? Oh yes, I certainly did. He was brewing a strawberry sour beer that sounds rather dreadful but since I'm not a beer drinker what do I know. The big story this year is Brewer For a Day. More than 30 people have plunked down their money and reserved a spot. He said that he's scheduling into October! And that people come in asking if there are any new BFD beers on tap. This is the little (well, little as compared to the big silver tanks behind it, this one is as tall as I am which isn't very tall but still...) tank that the BFD beer gets put in to ferment. He has two of them and is ordering a third. This is an idea that's going places!

Today I turned to the next project in Ink & Wash to draw and paint butterfly bush. I really like the way it turned out. The extra on this project was to turn to the back of the book and add a Monarch butterfly to the page. Oh, I'm not ready for that just yet.

I got a package today. It was my new/used embosser and folders with the designs. Naturally I had to get it all out of the box and play with it. Luckily it even came with the manual. I cut up a couple watercolors that were kind of meh and tried it out. I can't wait until LC and OJ come over so we can play with it. I ordered blank cards that came with envelopes so we can glue the watercolor pieces on the cards and have something.

The blue star flowers keep opening. This plant is opening little buds at a fast rate. Maybe the warm sunny day encouraged it to speed up blooming.

And the purple salvia is doing its best. This color is reddish purple so I like it better than the blue stars or the blue grass.

Here's today's Gratitude Journal page. I didn't have any trouble thinking of things to put on it today. In fact there were a couple things that didn't make it but I drew the first things too big so I ran out of room.

DS was wearing a new Zambaldi shirt today commemorating their 4th year in business. Four years! Man, it doesn't seem that long but they opened up just a few weeks before the lockdown in March 2020 so four years it is. I wanted one and he even let me buy it. Now I have a new Zambaldi t-shirt to wear.

 

OJ had his first soccer game last night. He's not real sure of how to play but he runs around with the other kids. I guess the teams don't keep score so the kids learn to play but evidently the parents do keep score. OJ's team won 4-3, but who's counting. I've got the schedule so I'll try to make a game now and again. Should be fun.

I almost forgot. I got an email from Audible yesterday and couldn't figure out what it meant. Was it a scam? I'm kind of skittish about email scams lately. Anyway, I looked at it closely and it's my first Audible royalty payment! I sold an audiobook and got paid for it! Hooray! And I've got Horizon's eBook free for the last 5 days and have "sold" 22 of them! Holy moly! Now I need people to read it, like it, and buy other titles. That's the plan anyway.

--Barbara