I'm Ready Now!

I got an Amazon delivery this afternoon (finally, it was a very long 2 weeks since I ordered) and have 10 glorious copies of Open For Business to sign, put a bookmark into, and stash a few copies in the car box, keeping the rest handy for extemporaneous book selling. Woohoo!

Today the Cardinal played king of the patio umbrella for a very short time but I was fast enough to snap a photo. I'm glad I didn't wait for him to turn around because as soon as I took this he flew away. He was accompanied by a trio of fledglings that all looked kind of like a Cardinal female but all the first season birdies are colored like that. Happily Sparrows don't like safflower seeds so the platform feeder still has seed in it for the Cardinals, House Finches, and Mourning Doves to peck away at.

Dad's roses are blooming like crazy in bunches that look like bouquets. I can't remember a time when there were so many flowers all bunched together. And this isn't the only bunch. Beautiful!

And at the foot of the rose bush is the purple mum rushing the season AGAIN tossing out buds and blooms in July instead of September like all self-respecting chrysanthemums are supposed to do.

I was a little nervous about today's insect in Ink & Wash. It's a caterpillar, a little worm-like being, but I was sure that I'd do something wrong to goof it up. Well, I didn't. It turned out just like the picture. Even the leaf that it's on turned out pretty well. Tomorrow's insect is a Monarch Butterfly. Now I'm really nervous.

Today was a drawing day. I turned to the next figures in 20 Ways to Draw a Butterfly and got brave. I especially like the grasshopper because of the way it turned out and because I felt a bit intimidated by it.

I spent a lot of time working to add things to my manuscript and then breaking it into chapters. I'm not very good at chaptering but it has to be done. Oh, and I wrote the July Writing Progress email. Every month I'm sure that I won't have enough to write about and every month I find things to say.

I just finished listening to Kristin Hannah's The Women last week and I can't say enough good things about it. I know I'm late to the party on that book but it's a triumph.

--Barbara