Day Two

Today was day two of my re-yoga-ing and I'm feeling it. My stomach muscles are achy from holding the Plank until the program pings to say to switch poses and the muscles around my shoulder blades are squawking from the Cobra pose. I don't really mind. It feels kind of good to be using my muscles again.

 

It snowed overnight. Again. I lay in bed this morning and heard the snowplow go by and wondered if it had buried my trash and recycling bins in a snowdrift. It only hemmed them in a little. I freed them and put them away before using my trusty big red snowblower to clear the driveway. And I salted the top so it's easier to pull into the garage.

 

After snowblowing, I went out the patio door to refill the suet nuggets and the cob corn feeders. I haven't seen any birds or squirrels for a couple days. The birdbath heater is evidently kaput so maybe there's open water for them somewhere else. I just looked on Amazon and found a self-contained heated birdbath that I can shove into the ground next fall and just plug in so I don't have to worry about the heater not being underwater. I put it on my wishlist.

 

I decided I wanted to paint more flowers after supper so I called up the next flower in the 31 days of flowers class. It's supposed to be Lavender. I think it looks more like Wisteria but who am I to argue? The teacher paints fast and isn't too concerned with it looking exactly like the flowers. I like that.

 

This afternoon after snowblowing, bird feeder filling, and grocery shopping (I was out of bananas, mandarins, and grapes. It was busy but not crazy.), I wrote for a while. 687 words that I'm marginally happy with. I had Rose meet her old nemesis at the grocery store and the bad lady apologized for all her nasty rumors. Rose knew they'll never be friends, but she was grateful for the cessation of hostilities.

DS called this evening to say that I could call him for a ride if I get too over-served to drive home after partying tonight. Ha! I assured him that I wouldn't need a ride because I wasn't planning to go out to celebrate. The last time I was out on New Year's Eve was for the new millennium 25 years ago. Man, that's a long time ago. I remember when I was a kid calculating how old I'd be in the year 2000 and thinking that 49 was incredibly old. From 74 years old, 49 looks like a spring chicken!

 --Barbara

Why Did I Stop?

It occurred to me yesterday when my knees and legs were achy that I should never have stopped doing yoga in the mornings. I did it for years--YEARS--and decided to stop a few months ago because it wasn't doing anything for me. Oh really, Barbara? It's only 10 poses and takes about 15 minutes to do and it preserves my balance and tones my muscles and is a little workout. All things I need. So I did it once again this morning. Man, it was an adventure. Especially changing poses on the floor and then getting up. But I managed and I'll manage again tomorrow.

 

I got a package today. It's a red hoodie I ordered off Facebook. It says, Dear person behind me, the world is a better place with you in it. Love, the person in front of you. On the front it says, You are enough. I want to spread kindness in the world and I thought that shirt is one way of doing that.

 

Today's drawings are a Robot & Alarm Clock. Both turned out pretty well, I think. For some reason I really like the robot. Don't know why.

 

After supper I wanted to paint but it was to late to do all the layering and drying that a seascape needs so I signed in to a flower painting class I did last year and painted the first one. I can't remember the name. It starts with a C but it isn't chlamydia, that I'm sure of.

 

I took the time to draw a gratitude journal page for today. On the weather app on my phone it said it was going to snow later today and I knew I wouldn't get the trash and recycling out if it was snowing so I did it before lunch. I'm so glad I did because a whole fleet of orange city trucks showed up around lunchtime and proceeded to trim the trees along our side of the street. I'm not sure what those trucks had to do with me not taking out the trash but I was glad it was done when it started snowing in the afternoon.

 

For most of the afternoon I set up and scheduled short stories on Substack. I have them scheduled into the first Wednesday of February which amazingly enough is only 6 weeks away from tomorrow. I have one story that I wanted to post around Christmas but had forgotten about. Today I remembered and was able to swap stories around so it'll get posted tomorrow. I think it's a fun one. After getting all the Substack stories organized I turned to a blank page and wrote 342 words for the day, just so I didn't skip another day in my streak. I've written every day since October 26, except Christmas Day. I have almost 280 pages written of the 4th Seaview Series book. Not that it's in any shape to be published but it's there and growing.

--Barbara

Today We Got the Sunshine

Remember I told you last night that we got all the weather yesterday except sunshine? This afternoon we got the sunshine. We had wind too which made blowing the snow interesting. I waited until the plow had gone through before I went out to snowblow the 4" of snow we got overnight and I aimed the discharge chute so that I only got a face full of snow once. Figuring that out made me very happy.

 

This squirrel had a hard time deciding whether to go shake the snow out of the suet nuggets or leap over to the square green feeder and nestle in there out of the wind. It finally opted for the inside of the feeder but left its head out some of the time. A Sparrow flew over but wasn't brave enough to land on the feeder under the squirrel's nose.

 

Today's drawing is Ghost & Turkey. The ghost is good, the turkey not so much. It's kind of wonky and uneven. Maybe it got into some fermented berries? 

 

I dug around out in the garage and found a bigger pot and some soil so I repotted my Christmas cactus. It was terribly pot bound but I massaged its roots a little and watered it well and so far so good. Maybe it'll even bloom more in its new home.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday and today. Today I was most grateful for the big red snowblower. There is no way I could have shoveled all that snow.

 

The word count today was 930. I wrote that Rose's new grandson arrived with his parents and baby whisperer Rose got him to stop crying when his parents couldn't. Did you know that often a crying baby or toddler will stop crying if you whisper to it? Yeah, it's kind of magic because they have to stop wailing to hear what you're saying. Very tricky but it works more often than not.

I can't believe that it'll be the new year in two more days. I know that it was just Christmas and New Year's comes a week later but still, it feels kind of fast. Maybe I'm just old.

--Barbara 

Fog Then Rain Then Snow

That was today. It was foggy when I got up and for most of the day until the early afternoon. Then it started raining. It rained for a while and it wasn't just a piddly rain. Just now when I went to put out some mail for the carrier to pick up tomorrow, this is what I saw. Snow. Does that mean there's ice under the snow? Probably since it was rain turned into snow. I'm very glad I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow.

 

This morning the squirrel was back on the suet nuggets feeder. I didn't manage to get out to refill the feeder so it had to hang upside down and twine around to get bites of suet. Another squirrel jumped up and shooed this one away right after I took the picture. The second one didn't figure out how to get the suet so it dropped to the ground and scampered away. You can see how warm it's been the last few days by how much grass is exposed. But since it's snowing right now all of that is covered up.

 

I took a third stab at the watercolor project Blue Horizon. I used more indigo as the top layer of color over the layers of phthalo turquoise and cobalt turquoise. I thought the cobalt turquoise was too green. Well, the phthalo turquoise is even greener. I blended them together and added some indigo to get an ocean-y color that pleased me. 

 

Then on the back of that painting I tried out my new Deer Foot brush to paint an evergreen tree. It worked pretty well. The tip of the brush looks like a hoof, slanted and with uneven bristles. Our painting teacher this summer mentioned the brush as one that makes painting trees easier and, since I have the devil of a time painting them, I ordered one. 

 

After that I decided to try my hand at the next project. I can't remember its name but it's a sunset over mountains and rocks and ocean. It's okay. There are a lot of things I'll do different the next time. First I'll let the layers of the sky dry naturally or use the hair dryer longer because you rewet it and my paint lifted so the next layer dried funny. I like the colors. The mountains aren't dark enough but I'll change that next time.

 

I did some writing after I was done playing with paint. I wrote 966 words in a couple of hours and I still haven't managed much conflict but I'm keeping on keeping on. It'll come, maybe not in this version, but in a subsequent one for sure.

--Barbara 

I Had To Do It

The more I sit here and write and draw and paint and knit, the achy-er my knees get so despite not wanting to I bundled up and went for a walk this afternoon. The picture I'm posting shows a dry street but it wasn't dry today. The pavement was wet and in places it was icy but there was sand from earlier applications of it so I could walk pretty confidently. I have to do it at least a couple times a week because I don't want to get to the point where I can't walk anywhere. And I'm creeping up on it.

 

I put my new giraffe pen cup to work on the table. I picked out my favorite pens, pencil, scissors, and nail file, things I use all the time, and now they're where I can grab them when I want them. The extra pencils, ruler, and colored pencils are in the old pencil cup on the counter within easy reach if they're needed. 

 

I enjoyed watching a squirrel leap from the crook to the top of the square green feeder, then drop down and grab the perch, then pull itself up and into the feeder this afternoon. Durwood would be totally bothered by the squirrel in the feeder but it amuses me. I don't mind.

 

Today's drawing is an Acorn & Candy Corn. I like them and I especially like the little comments she wrote next to the drawings. But I think the candy corn is wrong. I like it and I know other people who do. DD does not. She had a bad dream about candy corn when she was little and never got over it. I'll eat her share.

 

I got out the watercolors again and tried my hand at the Blue Horizon project from the Seascapes lessons. I like this sky better but I'm still not crazy about the water. Maybe it's the color. She uses Phthalo Turquoise and I use Cobalt Turquoise. Mine looks too greenish to me or maybe I don't layer darker blue on top of it enough. I'll give it another try.

 

In the afternoon I wrote thank you notes. DIL1's mom is a big one for thank you notes and once she joined the family I got back into the habit of writing them. I like it.

 

And drew a gratitude journal page. I was most grateful for my walk, although the leftover pizza was delicious, and I was grateful for writing 988 words. But I need more conflict in my story. I'm thinking about it.

 

--Barbara 

Whirlwind

Today felt like a whirlwind. DD and family picked me up to run around town to places they wanted to visit. First stop was Zambaldi to pick up beer for SIL1's dad and to have a short visit with DS.

Then we went to Seroogy's, a local candy store, where we walked around sniffing chocolate and making poor (good tasting) choices. The store is owned by the family of Tony Shalhoub the actor who grew up in Green Bay. And whose sister gave me the recipe for the best cheesecake I've ever eaten. Shh, it's a secret recipe.

After that we drove up the road to Lambeau Field where DD, SIL1 and IM went over to the Lambeau Leap display and took pictures of each other. There weren't any parking places so DD parked in a loading zone and I stayed in the car so we didn't get towed away. So I didn't see the leaping or take any pictures.

 

Next we went across the street to Kroll's for lunch of burgers and cheese curds. IM wasn't impressed with his burger so I offered to make him a PB&J when we got back home but he declined.

 

Both DD and SIL1 have colds so they went back to the Airbnb for a nap and IM and I came back here so he could play video games and I could show him the scuba gear which he was very interested in.

 

A squirrel wrapped itself around the suet nuggets feeder and hung there for quite a while not moving. I assume its jaws were moving but I couldn't see it.

 

While I waited to be picked up this morning I wrote a bit. I was a little distracted so I only managed to write 314 words but I left myself someplace to go next time I sit down to write. Which will be tomorrow.

 

After DD's nap she picked up IM and me and we went to Meijer for Packer shirts for a bunch of people and a six-pack of SIL1's dad's favorite Zambaldi beer which they were out of in the taproom. It's no wonder I'm tired. We ran around like crazed weasels all day. 

 

I made a meatloaf, baked potatoes, steamed carrots, and steamed cauliflower for supper. It's been a very long time since I made a meal like that. It took longer than I thought it would but it was good. Of course I forgot to take a picture of it. There are lots of leftovers from the last three days--pizza, Texas breakfast & coffeecake, and the whole meatloaf dinner. I won't have to cook for the next week, just reheat things.

--Barbara 

Merry Christmas!

 We Christmas-ed the heck out of today. First thing, DD and her family came over and we opened gifts, then I made Texas Breakfast for brunch. It was so good, if I do say so myself. What's not to love? It's a layer of hash browns with onions and bell peppers (Potatoes O'Brien), beaten eggs, then crumbled bacon, shredded cheese over the top, cooked until the eggs are done, then broiled to dry and brown the top. Mm.

 

I fried up bacon to crumble into the egg mixture and used Mom's old aluminum grease canister for the excess. It's such a handy way to deal with something that is hard to dispose of. This canister was part of a wedding gift in 1950 and it's still going strong.

 

DD, IM, and I played Quicktionary, which is a word game that's so fun and easy to play for even an 8 year old to play along (with a little coaching). I got this cool wooden giraffe pen holder, a red journal, a book of crochet amigurumi patterns, and an IM calendar too.

 

A squirrel twined itself around the suet nuggets feeder doing its best to nibble some of the yummy stuff. I watched to see if it would leap across and get into the square green feeder so IM could see it but it didn't.

 

I took a couple minutes to draw this afternoon when we had a lull. It's a Campfire & a Bat (flying mammal, not baseball). I drew the campfire logs too close to the top of the page so the flames almost went off but I managed to keep it on the paper.

 

We went to DS's house for supper. We had roast turkey, roasted potatoes, roasted broccoli, salad, crescent rolls, and chocolate cake. Yum. It was great to be all together for a few hours. I insisted that someone take a picture of me with my children. We haven't all been in the same place for over a year. The occasion called for a picture. You can see I used up all the height when I made DS. DD got short changed. Get it? Short changed. I crack myself up.

 

I didn't write today so I'm breaking my streak of writing every day but I don't have two awake brain cells to rub together tonight. It's a Christmas miracle that I'm getting this blogging done.

--Barbara 

Merry Christmas Eve!

I know it's almost over but I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas Eve. I'd wish you a merry Christmas but that feels too early. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just being pedantic. Oh, what the heck. Merry Christmas!

I was lucky enough to notice the Red-Bellied Woodpecker on the suet nuggets today. When I took the picture I realized how low the nuggets are getting. I think I have another bag of nuggets in the can. I'll have to put on the big boots and go out to check. Maybe on Friday. When it's supposed to rain. Can you believe it?

 

The sky was bright pinkish orange when I gave up on writing this afternoon so I grabbed the camera and went out onto the porch to snap a picture. It was so overcast all day I was surprised to see that the sun figured out how to weasel its way through to make a sunset.

 

While I waited to hear from DD that they'd arrived safely in town, I decided to try my hand at the first project in my new seascapes watercolor class. It's called Blue Horizon. Just sky and water but I think it turned out okay. The sky isn't as blue as I'd like it to be. I need to call this a study, a practice painting, and have another go.

 

I only managed to eke out 416 words today. They just weren't cooperating so I gave up before I finished two pages. Some days are like that.

DD and family arrived around 6 o'clock at the end of a loooooooooong drive. SIL1 and IM settled into the Airbnb and DD came over to have supper and visit with me until she got too tired and went back to hit the sack. They'll be over for presents and breakfast/brunch tomorrow, then we'll have Christmas dinner with DS and family at suppertime. There are a few places they'd like to visit on Friday and then they leave on Saturday. It's a short visit but so much better than no visit at all.

--Barbara

Birds

 I saw some birds today. Naturally they were in the shade so they're not very visible except as silhouettes against the white snow. These Mourning Doves were slowly exploring the fallen seed under the square green feeder. The squirrel was in there this morning but not very visible so I skipped taking a picture.

 

These Sparrows were probably tossing seed down for the Mourning Doves. Two of them sat side-by-side which was unusual. Most of the time they shove and flutter, driving the other one away, but not today. 

 

I caught up on two days of gratitude journal pages and today too. I'll only pop today's page on here. It'd be too boring to see all three of them in a row.

 

Tonight I'm having the last of the lemon-lime jello. It isn't the last forever but it's the last of this batch. The odd thing is this flavor jells the firmest. Cherry is the wiggliest, orange is kind of in the middle. All lime is pretty firm but the lemon-lime combo is the winner.

 

I did a lot of piddly things today like Dryel-ed three sweaters and hung them up to air out. I shoved another lime into the garbage disposal and started grinding it up to keep the crud back. Then I washed a sink full of plastic containers that held the last 10 nights' servings of Investment Cooking. Some of them made me want to write out a huge shopping list and cook for a week. But first I'd have to defrost the freezer. It's a real glacier in there. I got some containers and sorted out some English Toffee and Chex Mix for DS and DD. If it all stays here, I'll just eat it and that's not a good thing. I'd eat them all exclusively. Nope. No can do.

I had a Zoom with cda this afternoon and got some good suggestions and an idea for my manuscript. I also splurged and bought a series of 6 separate online watercolor classes that were on sale. They'll give me something to do this winter when I'm not writing. And in between all the chores today I wrote 960 words. They're okay, not great, just okay.

Tomorrow DD and her family are driving up from Lexington, KY for a few days. I've got a couple things to pick up tomorrow for the meals while they're here and then it'll be Christmas! I'm excited. I kind of dread going to the grocery tomorrow, though, because I suspect it'll be a madhouse.

--Barbara 

Coffee With Old Friends

I had a great time today. A former neighbor reached out the other day and invited me and another former neighbor over for coffee today. We juggled our calendars and got together in the late morning. It was great. We did a lot of showing off of grandkids and kids on our phones and talked about this and that. All three of us paint with watercolor, we took a class together at the technical school this summer, and are planning a trip to an art gallery and store about 30 miles away after the first of the year. I took bags of English Toffee to share and DT gave us each a little bag. Mine had this tube of sumptuous face lotion in it. I can't wait to smooth it on and look years younger. Or at least not as dry and flaky.

 

But first I went over to Michaels to ask them to frame one of my watercolors from last spring's class at The Clearing. I've looked at it a hundred times and thought, I should frame that. Well, yesterday the decision got made and today I followed through. Of course, it'll be a few weeks before it's ready and it cost half again as much as I thought it would but it's this long skinny painting of hollyhocks. I love the orange/yellow against the teal background. I'll show it to you again when it comes back.

 

Walking to the back of Michaels on my way to the framing department I noticed that they'd moved the drawing books to an end cap near the sketchbooks so I skimmed over them. After I'd signed on the dotted line for my framing job, I went back to look at the books and found this one of step-by-step drawings. I'm much better at copying someone else's drawing than thinking things up on my own. The funny thing is that the book I'm drawing out of right now is called Drawing Cute. The new book is called How to Draw Super Cute. Are you sensing a theme?

 

When I got home the squirrel was hanging out of the square green feeder again today. I was glad to see its furry little face and know you'll be able to see it instead of just seeing the lid of the feeder at an angle and having to trust me that a squirrel was under there.

 

The drawing today is of a Mum & Jack-o-lantern. I don't think the flower turned out big enough but the jack-o-lantern isn't bad. 

 

I got a late start writing today and wrote some more about the arrest of the fleeing, non-paying guests. I only managed 756 words before I lost steam and quit. By then it was dark and I was tired.

 

It snowed overnight. It was supposed to snow this afternoon but evidently it came early. That meant I got to go out and shovel the driveway before going anywhere. It wasn't too bad, kind of crunchy, but on the west edge of the driveway there was a long drift of blown snow that was heavy and hard to shovel away. But I persisted and got the job done and salt spread on the top half. Whew.  

Tomorrow I need to take things out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge. Can't forget or there will be no coffeecake on Christmas morning or meatloaf on Friday evening. I made sure that the places I need to go to on Christmas Eve will be open to pick up a birthday cake and a pizza. Both important food groups.

--Barbara 

As Ready As I'll Ever Be

I did the last Christmas prep thing on my list today. I stirred (and stirred and stirred) up a batch of English Toffee. I splurged on a bag of dark chocolate chips to melt over the top because it's my favorite and I'm all about pleasing myself these days. Once it cooled, I got out the cleaver which is the easiest way to chunk it up without getting my hands all chocolatey, then I bagged it. And I only ate a little bit--just to make sure it was edible, you understand.

 

Just because English Toffee tends to smoke when it's almost ready, I opened the patio door before I started and scared the bejeebers out of the squirrel in the feeder. The lid clanked shut and there was a furry gray streak across the back yard. Sorry to interrupt your meal, squirrel.

 

The Red-bellied Woodpecker visited the suet nuggets again today. For all I know it comes every day but I don't always see it because I don't just sit at the kitchen table staring out the window. I do a lot of other stuff, you know.

 

Today's drawings are a Sunscreen Bottle & Sunglasses. The perfect things to draw on a sunny but cold first day of winter. You know what that means, don't you? It means that every day it'll stay light for another minute or so longer. More light! Hooray!

 

After supper I sat down to watch a movie but couldn't get into it, so I switched over to the crackling fireplace and crocheted on the Fiesta & White Crocheted Hat Redo. I'm finished with the crown increases and now I just go around and around and around until it gets long enough. Then I cut the colorful yarn and crochet the last few rounds in the white. I also looked and looked for a crocheted Christmas stocking pattern I used when DS was a baby, one for OJ, and one for IM. I'm not sure why it was so important tonight. It isn't in Ravelry or in my Dropbox so I went downstairs and searched through patterns and binders and didn't find it. Then I noticed a few page protectors tucked behind some pattern books in a file and there it was. So I brought it upstairs, scanned it, and put it in Dropbox and two other places in the computer so I won't ever have to hunt for it again. 

 

I had an  idea when I sat down to write this afternoon and wrote 1,117 words in a little scene about guests paying with a stolen credit card but not getting off the island before they got caught and arrested. Fun times! 

--Barbara