Again

Look at what greeted me when I opened the drapes this morning. Snow! Wet snow with rain. Uck. Happily it didn't rain all day, just in the morning, and it was quitting by the time I left for my oil change at 10:30. Speaking of my oil change, Steve the mechanic fixed the tire service monitor thingy that's been blinking at me for a couple weeks. It added to the bill but now that little yellow tire icon isn't lit and blinking. What a relief. Oh, and the snow's all melted away because it's 48 degrees and foggy at 9pm. Crazy. It was 28 last night. And we didn't get the ice that they got north of here. Whew.

 

Even though we've had overnight snow a couple times in a row the daffodils and tulips in front don't seem to mind. If you look closely you can see yellow-green daffodil buds in with the leaves. I keep hoping to see a crocus or two but the leaves keep being eaten so I wonder if the flowers will come. I'll keep watching.

 

Today's drawing challenge was cups and mugs. I picked out a couple of my favorites to draw and then added a couple small ones to fill in the spaces. I made the last mug of WW hot chocolate mix to sip while I was drawing too.

 

Speaking of that, I hauled up the food processor and whirred up a fresh batch of mix. It's so simple to make, it makes a whole quart, and it tastes good. Oh, that reminds me, I need to order more cocoa from Penzey's. I get Dutch Processed Cocoa from there. It's a little pricey but it's so good it's worth it.

 

I also drew today's gratitude page today, not waiting until tomorrow to do it. The two best things are hugs from LC and OJ, and selling a copy of Better Than Mom's to JR, my car guy.

 

I washed the sheets today and they managed to twist themselves around and together so well that I had a heck of a time getting them out of the washer. They were really braided together. I wonder if there's a better way of putting them in there so they don't get so tangled. They're king size sheets, maybe I should wash them one at a time?

It being Wednesday, I posted another short story on Substack this afternoon. It's hard not to post something every day but since I do this blog daily it's probably enough.

--Barbara

Still Blooming

I'm happy to report that my Christmas/Easter cactus is still blooming and the second bud is growing. There's a third bud but it's tiny and I'm not sure if it'll make it. This whole blooming out of season thing is blowing my mind.

 

Look at how much of this Goldfinch is yellow! When I saw it at a distance it didn't look too yellow but cropping the picture brought it closer and I see that there's plenty of yellow on this guy. Such a happy sight.

 

The Starlings invaded the suet nuggets feeder today and this one clung to the mesh and twisted around to peck away at the few remaining nuggets. I am amused by these birds. They descend in a bunch of three or four, poke around, and then they fly off. Usually all of them leave but this one stayed for a little while.

 

I drew a gratitude page for yesterday. I was mostly grateful for ordering books but was very happy to get all of the laundry taken care of too. I should probably throw the towels down the chute. Yesterday there just wasn't room to include them. All of the baskets were full. Now it's time to start piling it up for the next laundry day.

 

Instead of drawing a flower today I flipped forward to the official prompt/challenge #1 which was Pattern. I used a ruler to draw boxes on my paper and then got out the colored pencils to fill each box with a different pattern. It was surprisingly challenging to think of something for each space. You'll notice that I kind of cheated and ignored the half boxes on the page's edge. Hey, I was glad to get the square ones filled.

 

This morning I had a critique session with cda. Neither of us had a load of comments on each other's pages so we didn't spend all morning on Zoom. Now I get to transfer her corrections to the main manuscript. In one place I have the word "she" about 10 times in three or four sentences. That has to be fixed. 

And tonight was Writers Guild. We had a speaker from UWGB talking about the opportunities for publication and classes available to the community. It was good to be reminded of what's out there on campus. Then a few people read some of their writings for a quick critique. It's always interesting to hear what people have to say on paper.

--Barbara

Some Snow/No Snow

This is the time of year that snow is fleeting, especially a light layer like we got last night. You can see it behind these two squirrels. I couldn't resist taking their picture since they were both stretched out hanging from their hind feet on both suet feeders.

 

And then a couple hours later when the Cardinal visited the platform feeder the snow was almost melted. By suppertime it was all gone, even in the places that the sun didn't touch.

 

I can look out the patio door and now the daylily sprouts are tall enough that they show over the retaining wall stones so I took their picture. I just love seeing that spring-y green color out there, especially when there's a little snow. 

After lunch I took a few minutes to draw a gratitude journal page for yesterday. I was glad to stay inside on such a rainy day and I was ecstatic to publish my latest book.

 

Just before I came back here to blog I realized that I hadn't done any art today. I spent some time refilling the cups of my watercolor palette but I didn't paint. I did have one tube kind of explode when it opened, naturally it was red, so I spent a bunch of time scrubbing paint off my hands, my hoodie, and the quilt on the guest bed. I even had the palette on a plexiglass board but it spewed a bit and got a few spots on the quilt. Anyway, I sat down to draw the next prompt in Sketchbook Challenge. It was an orchid and I was sure that I couldn't draw one from memory. The yellow one is my attempt. The branch of pink orchids is copied from a drawing book. It occurred to me that using a drawing book goes against the sketching challenge but I'm the boss of my drawing so I say it's okay.

 

Today was laundry day since when I tried to throw my dirty clothes down the chute it was full. Up to the tippy top. While the wash was sloshing around I spent time reading short stories trying to figure out which one I'll post on Substack on Wednesday which is story-posting day. It was fun strolling down memory lane, revisiting stories I haven't read or thought of in years. Some of them aren't done but a lot of them are and maybe I can finish the unfinished ones I like.

I ordered new bookmarks with all 6 of my book covers on them and I ordered author copies of the latest release. They should be here in about 2 weeks, just in time for the April 12th Market. Fingers crossed.

And Spies Don't Retire is now available in paperback as well as eBook. I've sold four of them on Amazon today! Woohoo!

--Barbara

I Had To Do It

I meant to wait until tomorrow. I really did. But I woke up this morning, turned on the laptop, and couldn't help myself. I published Spies Don't Retire today instead of tomorrow. I had a good reason. Really I did. See it takes Amazon a day or two to approve paperbacks and get them up on the sales page so I thought if I published it today then maybe, just maybe, the paperback would be available tomorrow. The eBook is available already (and I already bought a copy because I want to have the first one).

It's another rainy day. On the first birdbath picture I took, the autofocus focused on the raindrops on the patio door glass instead of the birdbath, so I had to try again. The next time it worked. I'm not thrilled that it's raining but ecstatic that it isn't snow or ice.

 

I was sure that the birds would stay out of the rain but they swarmed around the feeders just like it was a sunny day. These Sparrows tossed seed and cracked corn out willy-nilly just like always.

 

And the bunny showed up as usual to reap the benefit of the tossing. I thought its fur would be all wet and matted down but it wasn't. Maybe bunnies are waterproof.

 

Today's Sketchbook Challenge said to draw wildflowers or weeds. I chose weeds because I figured I could draw just about anything and it'd count. So I dd. I like the fact that my tall leaves aren't symmetrical and I like the dandelion I drew.

 

The wildflower out of the watercolor book has a great name. Viper's Bugloss. It's a member of the borage family and grows in Europe. It even turned out pretty well.

 

When I wasn't drawing or painting this afternoon I was writing. I added a scene to the new manuscript and added more to yesterday's scene. I don't know anymore if I've written the forgotten scene or if I'm making up new stuff. I don't care, I'm just glad to write something.

This evening I watched 2 episodes of White Collar on Netflix. I'm addicted. I can't decide which character I like best but I'm leaning toward Mozzie, the con man and best friend of Neal Caffrey. Thank you, MH, for the recommendation. I'm in Season 2 and I'm savoring it. 

--Barbara

Rainy

I'm pondering an existential question about myself. Why did I wait until it was pouring rain to go to the grocery for bananas? I drove past the road to the grocery when I was coming home from visiting my brother and his wife but didn't remember to stop. It wasn't until it was pouring rain an hour and a half later that I remembered the bananas so I put on my coat and took off. It wasn't exactly pouring when I had to walk from the car to the store but it was windy and spitting rain in my face. Not pleasant.

 

It was barely drizzling when I took this birdbath picture. I tried to take a Cardinal picture later in the rain but he didn't stay long enough. I don't blame him.

 

Since I spent a few hours driving to Brussels and visiting and driving home in the middle of the day I didn't spend as much time doing stuff as I usually do. I did try my hand at a watercolor of Bush Vetch. Twice. The first attempt wasn't very good so I tried again. This is a little better so you get to see it. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening writing, trying to force myself to remember the idea I had the other night and didn't write down. Can you tell it's still bugging me? I wrote a couple pages of a scene with those two characters but I'm absolutely certain that it isn't as interesting as whatever that other idea would have been.

 

I drove 35 miles up the peninsula this morning to visit TW and his wife ARA. They have four huge Golden Retrievers that they mercifully kept penned up while I was there. I'm not a dog lover. In fact, I'm pretty much afraid of dogs (except for Porter) so I was grateful. TW gave me a tour of their new house and then we visited and after that went to lunch at a little country diner near their house. It was a nice visit and I was glad to see that TW is doing okay.

--Barbara

Itty Bitty Green

I walked up the hill in the backyard to check on what's sprouting up there. The daylilies are twice as tall as they were last week. I swear they're thicker too.

 

But next to the lilies is this patch of sedum. It too is sprouting but the blue-green parts are itty bitty. Just barely poking their noses out of last year's stems.

 

Indoors the Christmas/Easter cactus blooms are growing and turning pink. I don't know what this plant is thinking. It bloomed last year and did a good job of it and now it's blooming again. It's only supposed to bloom once a year but I'm not going to tell it that.

 

I was quick enough to snap a picture of a Chickadee on the platform feeder. In fact, I got three shots but only this one shows off the bird. They're so quick and stay such a short time that I was very lucky to get this shot.

 

Today's flower was Poppy. I took a couple stabs at drawing them without something to copy and then I used the 10-Step Flowers picture for the lower one. I think I did okay. Much better than yesterday's roses.

 

I also managed to draw a gratitude journal page this evening after supper for today. It took me a while to decide what to include but I finally managed four things. Four fills the page nicely.

 

Wednesday I crocheted the mane of the unicorn Wooble and tonight I sewed it onto the body. Then I made the bangs of the mane and sewed them on too. I think all I have left to do is crochet the ears and embroider a little blush under the eyes. There sure are a lot of steps in this beginner project.

 

At Friday Night Knitting I added an inch or so to the Zauberball Sock. I kept waiting for a color change to make the knitting go faster but it never came. I finally gave up and gave my fingers a rest.

 

Last night I said I had an idea of something to make two characters do and that I should write it down. Well, I didn't write it down and do you think I can remember what it was? No, I can not and I am so frustrated and disappointed in myself. Why didn't I write it down? There's plenty of paper and pencils right here. Sheesh.

--Barbara

Making Beer

Not me, DS was making beer today and I got to visit him at the brewery. He was just milling in the grain and starting to add water to make the mash when I snapped this picture. He's up on the brewing platform watching to make sure that the grain and water are mixing correctly. He's such a nice man and son. I'm so glad he's mine.

 

The chipmunk came darting out to scarf up some fallen cracked corn this morning. Chipmunks are very skittish and don't stay in one place for long.

 

This Robin sat for the longest time on the frozen birdbath dipping its beak in the very edge of the ice where it had started to melt. It peeves me that the heater went out. I tried very hard to keep it underwater but I guess when I was away at the writing retreat earlier this month it was too exposed and burned out. *sigh*

 

My prediction the other day was right. I'm no good at drawing flowers without a picture to copy. The daisy two days ago was a fluke. See the first rose I tried drawing? Garbage. Then I remembered I have a book about drawing flowers and copied the rose. Much better.

 

I drew yesterday's gratitude journal this morning. I didn't have time to draw today's because I had knitting tonight which also explains why I'm blogging so late.

 

We did a lot of talking and eating and very little knitting at knitting tonight. There was a lot that needed discussing. My key lime pie (store bought Kenny's) was a big hit. KE made chicken rice soup that was divine. I added a few rounds to the Zauberball sock but not enough to warrant a new picture.

I spent a lot of the afternoon rewatching the Substack webinar from the Wisconsin Writers Assn. and learned a lot of things that I missed last night. I changed the name of my Substack from Barbara's Substack to Stories That Need to See Daylight. Much more likely to attract readers, don't you think? I also found a stock photo to use to illustrate my first post and put a graphic of my novels at the bottom of the post. Next time I'll invite people to check them out online which I forgot to do.

But I did manage to scribble a scene for novel #7. It's under 500 words but it puts two characters together who hadn't had much to do with each other. Ooh, I just had another idea for something to make these two people do. I'd better write it down.

--Barbara

Sprouts on the North Side

This afternoon when I went out to fill the birdfeeders I saw that the daylilies on the north side of the house tucked in behind the privacy fence have sprouted. I don't know how things turn green there because it never gets sunny hemmed in by the fence and the house but there they are giving it their all.

 

House Finches showed up on the platform feeder today. There were two pairs and they were billing and cooing like courting couples. The males would feed seeds to the females, they would tolerate the attention for a while, and then drive the males off when they'd had enough. Kind of like humans.

 

This morning I woke up thinking about the Wisconsin Writers Assn. webinar I attended last night about Substack. I decided that is a place where I can share my short fiction. I dived right in and set up my account and in the afternoon I couldn't resist sharing my first story. Click the link and tell me what you think. I hope you like it. I got a million of 'em. Well, maybe not a million but at least a hundred. I plan to share a story every Wednesday until I run out. Then we'll see.

 

Because all of the feeders except the suet cakes were pretty much empty the squirrel was reduced to hanging on there gobbling up suet. I could see crumbs falling on it and on the ground, the glutton.

 

I pulled out my watercolor sketchbook from last spring's class at The Clearing and attempted to paint a trillium. I tried to follow my notes and it isn't terrible, just not very good. I like the varied blue green of the background the best.

 

I ordered a book from Amazon yesterday called Steering the Craft which is a small book of writing exercises and advice by Ursula K. LeGuin so I read the intro and started the first chapter. I did the first exercise. What I wrote is pretty terrible but we were supposed to use flowery language to make our writing "sing." I don't know if what I wrote sings but it's flowery. Lots of interesting words.

 

Before I went out to fill the feeders I saw these bird prints in the snow on the patio. They have to be Mourning Dove prints because they're so big but I never noticed that they basically walk in a straight line. It kind of looks like the bird was hopping on one foot.

 

I went to the grocery store to get a few things (again) and I kept forgetting what day it was. That's important because I bought dessert for tomorrow night's knitting group and left it in the car when I got home thinking I'd be going tonight and it would stay cool. Fortunately I remembered that today is Wednesday and went out and got the stuff to put in the fridge so it isn't ruined. The only way I know what day it is is looking at my pill keeper. I suppose I could look at my phone. It's on there too.

I don't know if you've heard but a pair of river otters escaped from our local zoo during last Wednesday's snowstorm and were caught on camera cavorting in the snow. They've called in trackers and the otters haven't gone far but I haven't heard an update in the last couple days. At least they're not tigers. (we don't have a tiger at the zoo here.)

--Barbara

Lots of Snow Melted Today

It was warmish and sunny today so most of the snow on the hill in the backyard melted. The snow in the front yard was not as quick to melt but it's going away too. This Cardinal visited the platform feeder this morning. You can see the snow on the hill started to melt and the snow on the feeder roof dripping to make an icicle. Yesterday I kept hearing clinking sounds from various parts of the house and thought I might have mice but it turned out to be all of the small icicles falling from the eaves. Whew. I do not need mice.

 

A Mourning Dove landed on one of the stones I use to weigh down the seed can lids and posed so nicely I took its picture. You can see how warm it was because the birdbath is thawed in this picture. By the end of the day most of that snow was all gone too. I'd remove the broken birdbath heater but I've taped it to the base of the birdbath and really don't want to go out and get all wet untaping it. It'll be okay until real Spring shows up.

 

The only other visiting bird I saw today was this Sparrow taking advantage of the suet cakes. Sparrows are equal opportunity eaters. They visit all the feeders, except the safflower seed in the platform feeder. They leave that one for the House Finches, Cardinals, and Chickadees.

 

The Sketchbook Challenge today was to draw a gerbera or daisy. I was overly proud of myself that I managed to draw these without having a picture to draw from. We'll see if I can keep it up. I know what most stuff looks like, I just can't get it to travel from my brain, down my arm, to my pencil.

 

Today's watercolor was an all-over floral page. My leaves aren't as fine as hers but I think the flowers aren't too bad. The pinkish ones are supposed to be anemones and the red-orange ones are supposed to be rosebuds but I think they look more like tulips. I don't know what the yellow dot flowers are supposed to be.

 

After lunch I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday. I would have done one for today but the webinar this evening took more time than I thought it would. I suppose I could have skipped Jeopardy! after supper but I didn't want to and I knew the Final Jeopardy answer. Sometimes I really need that.

 

I spent a lot of the afternoon writing a new scene for my next novel. I managed to bang out four pages and I even think I know where in the story it's supposed to go. There's kissing, but only a little.

Tonight I attended a webinar about Substack which is a website for writers that isn't social media. It's a place to post your writing that counts as publication. I have a huge file of unpublished short stories that I can mine for things to post. I need to do more research but it sounds interesting. Just what I need, something else to work on.

--Barbara

Rooting Around

The snow added up to between 1 1/2" and 2" so it covered up all the fallen seed and cracked corn but that didn't stop this squirrel. It was enthusiastically rooting around in the snow under the round birdfeeder for any seeds or cracked corn that the Sparrows, Mourning Doves, and rabbits left ungobbled.

 

I like the look of the snowy roof complete with icicles on the suet cakes feeder. After lunch it started to slide off slowly until there was more of it hanging off than on and it fell to the ground.

 

I was amazed this morning to see that the Christmas cactus seems to be doing an Easter cactus impression. There are two buds on it. One looks like it means to bloom and the other one is a maybe but my mind is boggled at this off-season flowering.

 

The next challenge in the Sketchbook Challenge was to take a small object and sketch it 18 times, turning it every time and setting a 1 minute timer for each time. The directions specified the time limit and the pencil or pen or marker to use. I have a tiny cup on my desk so I took out the junk in it and used that because I figured I could draw a cup since it's not a complicated design. I was supposed to use a bigger piece of paper but I wanted the drawings to be in my sketchbook so I drew them smaller and drew over some of them on the right-hand page. It was an interesting challenge. It's hard for me to go fast when I draw. My instinct says to slow down and be more precise so I tried to speed up and let go. It kind of worked.

 

I crocheted the unicorn horn and sewed it on, then I crocheted on the tiny little arms. I have to say that I don't think that this is a good beginner project. There are too many separate parts and too much shaping for a beginner. I'm not a beginner and I'm having to focus to make this stuff. How do they expect a novice to figure this stuff out?

 

Here's the sock I knitted on Friday night. I always like to see the color changes. I've got knitting on Thursday night at KE's house (I'm bringing dessert) so this sock will be the perfect project.

 

 

I had a critique Zoom this afternoon with cda. And before that I exported Spies Don't Retire so that next weekend I'll be all set to publish the eBook and paperback on the 31st. Woohoo! Check out my Facebook page to see the cover reveal and read the blurb.

--Barbara