Another Hot One

It was so hot and sticky today that squirrels were melting again. This one young squirrel scampers around in the sunshine and heat and then heads into the shade and sprawls with its belly on the concrete to cool off. I can't resist taking its picture because it makes me smile.

I was happy to see an Oriole on the grape jelly today. He didn't stay long because the jelly was mostly liquid from last night's rain and Orioles are not fans of liquid jelly. He did stay on the crook long enough for a single photo though.

Some of the day lilies in the shade are surviving in the heat and humidity this weekend. The yellow lily is so pale and delicate looking.

The orange one looks like it's got more body, more endurance, to withstand the weather.

I went back to Ink & Wash for today's watercolor flower. She calls it a Cosmo but we know it as a Cosmos. In my mind a Cosmo is a pink drink. Isn't it? Anyway, I am amazed at how much better today's efforts look compared to yesterday's. I'm going to have to think about what I can do to rectify the problem. Maybe I'll just keep painting out of books and leave off extemporaneous paintings.

While the paint dried between steps I spent all afternoon working on making new keyword ads for The Seaview because the guy teaching the Ad Challenge says to advertise the first book of the series. I made ads for Open For Business when I launched it and now I'm circling back to make sure that the 7 keywords on The Seaview's detail page are the best, most appropriate ones I can dream up. So I spent hours searching different terms that I thought might apply to my book, looking at the other books that came up, and making a list of the keywords that seem to apply to mine. I started by searching with the 7 keywords that are on there now to judge how effective they might be. Some of them are okay and others are like a shot in the dark, not really aimed in the right direction. I'm working to fix that. This authoring thing is a lot of work.

After supper I added a few rounds to the Monterey Sea Life beanie. It goes so much faster now that I've only got one strand of yarn to wrangle. There are just under 15 more rounds to go before it's finished and I can soak and block the hat. Then I get to figure out how and where to duplicate stitch (basically embroider) on the orange fish which I am so very glad that I didn't have to knit in. I solemnly swear that this is the last two-color knitting I will ever do. Cross my heart.

 

I have an invasion of fruit flies. They're very annoying and are all over. They're too small and fast to swat but I remembered a way to corral them. They like apple cider vinegar so I poured a little into a Pyrex dish and set it up on the shelf in the kitchen and look. A bajillion fruit flies! It doesn't do away with them, it just congregates them so they're not bothering me. I can live with the vinegar smell if I'm not inhaling the little buggers.

Tomorrow morning I have the first meeting of my new critique group on Zoom. I've got the other critiques done and will have them all booted up and ready when we sign on. I'm really looking forward to it and hope that the other critters have some sage advice for me and my manuscript.

Oh, and the woodchuck was back nibbling things in the lawn but it didn't get too close to the house or come to check out the birdseed. I didn't have to chase it away and I didn't take its picture.

--Barbara