Stop to Smell the Rose

There's one little flower on Dad's rose right now. I noticed this summer that there are fewer and spindlier canes on the rose and fewer and smaller flowers. Maybe I need to feed it?

 

The drawing prompt today was Coins & Money so I dug out a few coins and got drawing. I should have drawn them bigger so I had room for the words or maybe I should have used a finer pen. Anyway, they're not bad.

 

Tonight at watercolor class we drew and painted a color wheel. It was fun to mix all the colors using only red, yellow, and blue paint. Then we made a column of boxes and starting with the bottom box painted full strength then watered the color down for each succeeding box. We also made black-ish paint with Phalo Green and Alizarin Crimson. It's in the upper left of the paper. It looks like dark purple when it's thinned out but black when it's thick.

 

After that we got fresh paper and painted a sphere using shading and shadows and highlights. My first (red) attempt didn't turn out so well but the second (orange-ish) one turned out better. Then she went through all of the brushes in our kits and showed what each one will do. One big thing I learned tonight was how the quality of the paper affects the outcome. They provide inexpensive pulp paper and the paint pools and sits on the paper and makes weird blotches.

 

The rest of the things I did today were not photogenic. I folded the basket of clean laundry (finally) and put it all away. Then I got out the bag of pills and refilled the pill keepers. It's so much easier to do that than have to dole them out every morning and evening.

The most amazing discovery of the day is the fact that LC is as tall as or maybe a teeny tiny bit taller than I am. She's not even 12 yet and she's taller than me. All this growing up is happening too fast. OJ too.

--Barbara 

A Day of Services

That was today. First came the pest control guy. He inspected all around the outside of the house and I showed him where I thought the mice were coming in. He agreed and stuffed the place with copper wool. He placed a few of these bait traps around the outside. (They're much bigger than I thought they'd be. Kind of like a small tackle box.) Then he inspected the basement and set a bunch of snap traps and glue traps. He'll come weekly to inspect and service the traps for a month and then monthly for a year. I don't care as long as I don't have mice in the basement again this winter.

 

Next came MB who cleans my house once a month. It's great to have her clean the bathroom and kitchen, dust everywhere, and then vacuum. I didn't take any pictures of her, I'm just enjoying a clean, nice smelling house.

 

Shortly after she left, the lawn mowers came. My grass doesn't really grow a lot in a week but when I said I'd like them to come every 10 days the guy kind of looked dubious. I guess every week is okay. It never gets scraggly.

 

I watched this Mourning Dove for a while. It didn't get a drink or take a bath either. It just sat there staring off into space.

 

Speaking of Space, that was the drawing prompt for the day but instead of drawing something I tried to replicate her painting of a sky. Unfortunately my paper really buckled (didn't use the expensive stuff) so a lot of the indigo puddled in the middle of the paper. I spread it around but it kept draining away so it looks like a horizon with a black hole. Meh.

 

Tonight I hosted knitting. That meant I went to Zambaldi this afternoon for beer. I don't drink beer but my friends do so I get a six-pack which works out perfectly. I get four Arnie and two Meatball Man so all three knitters are happy. I made Egg Drop Soup, KE brought little egg rolls, CS brought crab rangoons and broccoli with garlic and rice, and DM brought cake. We didn't starve. Also KE bought four copies of Christmas at Seaview to give as Christmas gifts to her book club. Isn't that cool? I'm thrilled.

 

We actually knitted. I worked on knitting the Llama Mitten up to the top of the thumb gusset. Next I have to slide the gusset stitches onto a holder so I can knit the hand of the mitten. I'll come back later and knit the thumb.

 

On my way to Zambaldi I dropped off the copy of Better Than Mom's to my neighbor. I hope she likes it.

--Barbara 

Everybody Into the Pool

That's what came to mind when I saw these Sparrows sitting on the edge of the birdbath. I watched for a while but none of them went swimming, they didn't even get a drink. Disappointing.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Landscape. I drew what I see out the patio door. It's the retaining wall, the fence, the sedum, and the cob corn feeders up on the wall. It's kind of okay, I guess.

 

Last night when I was taking a walk up to the stop sign I saw a neighbor and she asked about my books. I told her that I'd bring her a bookmark so she could look them up online. Well, she said she doesn't go online. ??? Anyway, I took her a bookmark this evening and sat and visited for a few minutes. She asked me to tell her about the books and decided she wants to start with Better Than Mom's. She paid me and everything. Now I have to deliver the book in the next day or two so she doesn't think I'm a charlatan.

 

I picked out another note card from KA and tried my hand at painting like it. I don't think I did a very good job but I'll show it to you anyway. Maybe there's a part of it that will make a decent card design.

 

And here's today's gratitude journal. I had a critique zoom with cda this afternoon that I almost missed. I went to the grocery after lunch for bananas and oranges and when I got home I spaced on the fact that I had the Zoom scheduled. Fortunately cda was late too. Whew.

 

I made cherry jello but too late for it to be jelled by tonight. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to eat some. Oh, not tomorrow. Tomorrow evening I'm having friends in to knit which means I'll make Egg Drop Soup tomorrow afternoon, they'll bring other goodies to share, so I won't even have room for jello. Although their slogan used to be "There's always room for Jello." Remember?

I got an email this morning from Anji's List asking what I needed done and I emailed back that I need pest control to get rid of the mice in my basement. I got a call almost immediately from a company that is coming tomorrow to start baiting and trapping the little varmints. I went downstairs to move a tote that's under the place I think they're getting in and there were droppings on top of the tote so I was right. Hope they can get rid of the danged things. 

--Barbara 

Well, That Was Inconvenient

The other day I was contacted by my cable/internet provider with a 2-year price guarantee offer so I called them and talked to a lovely lady in El Paso. She worked out a plan that saves me $40/month. But it meant that I needed new equipment. It came yesterday and I tried setting it up. Tried is the operative word. I even called to talk to a tech representative and got so frustrated I asked for someone to come and set it up. Which meant that I didn't have internet last night so I couldn't blog. The tech arrived on time (!) and set it up, turned the internet back on, and showed me how to watch and record TV. And there's no charge for service calls! Anyway, I never realized how much time I spend on the web, reading emails, and scrolling on Facebook. I couldn't even make ads. I tried to work on short stories but I was so frustrated by then I couldn't focus.

 

When I went out to pick up the box with the new equipment in it, I glanced at the front window and saw a green ball sitting on the window ledge. It's a black walnut that a squirrel evidently put there for winter storage. For weeks I've been seeing squirrels running across the top of the fence in the backyard with walnuts in their mouths and seeing chips of the green outer coating of them on the patio table, but this is the first one I've seen "buried" for later use.

 

Before all internet hell broke loose yesterday I decided to paint. I have a notecard by the teacher of the class I take in the spring at The Clearing that I like so I tried my hand at it. It's okay. I wish I'd used more green background toward the center of the paper and made the left leaves more like the right ones but I like it. I'll take another run at it one day soon.

 

The flock of Sparrows was back at the round feeder this morning. The birds and squirrels aren't emptying the feeders as quickly lately. They've especially slacked off eating the suet nuggets. Don't know why. Maybe more neighbors have put up feeders.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Some of My Favorite Things so I drew chocolate ice cream, a lot of it, and my hand drawing. Sometimes I'm better at drawing than other times but I always enjoy it. And I purely love chocolate ice cream.

 

 

Yesterday's drawing prompt was Feathers. The last time I tried to draw them I thought they looked like leaves. I think I did better this time.

 

And I drew a gratitude journal for today on today too. I've been taking a walk just at sundown the last couple days and I like doing it at that time of day. It's cooler then and the air feels soft. 

 

Like I said, I couldn't believe how bereft I felt without internet yesterday and last night. Of course, the level of frustration I had over not being able to set up the equipment myself had something to do with it too. I watched the tech and I almost had it but I'm glad he did it for me I just wish I'd plugged the router back in so the internet would have been back. Losing TV I don't mind. Thank god for audiobooks.

--Barbara 

Foggy Morning

I was surprised when I opened the shade this morning. It was foggy. Really foggy. When I opened the patio door drape I scared all of the Sparrows away from the feeders, birdbath, and ground. They flew up to the top of the fence along the back of the yard so I tried taking a picture of them lined up. It's a little blurry but then everything looks blurry in fog. They're a little hard to see with that gray roof behind them but, trust me, they're there.

 

Later in the day a House Finch landed on the round feeder and stayed there long enough for me to take its picture too. I like the raspberry red color of its head and breast, although it's starting to drab out for winter.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Sport so I drew something from the only sport I ever participated in voluntarily. It's my scuba mask and snorkel. If I got back into diving I'd have to get a new mask because this one has my vision correction prescription in it and I had my vision corrected when I had my cataracts removed. 

 

At Friday Night Knitting tonight I worked on the first Llama Mitten. I finished knitting the ribbed cuff and then started on the hand and thumb gusset. This part goes pretty quickly. It's the hand that will take a long time, then I'll do the thumb. And then make another one. That whole second mitten is a real slog sometimes.

 

 I spent a lot of the day reading emails I've been ignoring for the past few days. And in my Junk file I found another email from a British book club. I'm leaving that one in Junk and ignoring it. There's also one from another book club wanting to present Island Dreams to its members. I'm leaving that one in Junk too. I'm just too skittish to take any more chances.

I also spent time on the phone with Spectrum which is my internet and cable provider. They've got a 2-year price guarantee promo going so I thought I'd see if I could save some money. And I can. She shifted me to a different plan and added a landline (which I won't install) but it's saving me about $40 a month. A not insignificant amount. There's a whole list of streaming services that are included in the plan so I spent some time getting signed up for those. Not that I'll spend a lot of time watching them but there are shows people talk about I'd like to try watching and now I can.

That was my day. I did take a walk after supper and before knitting. Mostly I walked from the desk here to the kitchen and back. I still haven't carried the clean laundry upstairs but I did take the last load out of the dryer yesterday and folded the towels before bringing them up. I'll get there--eventually. I'm out of ankle socks so I guess I'll haul it up tomorrow. Those little socks are more comfy to walk on than my mismatched socks.

Oh, and when I went to pick up my prescriptions from the pharmacy I stuck around and got a flu shot and Covid booster. I'm going to The Clearing in 2 weeks and have that book event in 1 week so I'd like to be a little more prepared. They say it takes 2 weeks for them to be at peak effectiveness so I figure it's time.

--Barbara 

Confused

You know how I complain about not knowing what day it is? Well, all week I've been thinking that I have a book event in Sturgeon Bay on Saturday September 20 and that it's this coming Saturday. It isn't. Today is September 11 and there's no way nine days can be crammed in before Saturday. I even packed my backpack of books, bookmarks, and keyrings. I love this rolling backpack. It holds a lot of books and has pockets for the keyrings and bookmarks, and even my water bottle fits on the side. At least now I'm ready for next week's book event.

 

Figuring I'd be sharing a table, I set up the book display rack and slotted in the books, putting in Christmas at Seaview, and rearranging them until I liked the way it looked. Then I talked to the bookstore owner this afternoon and kept talking about this Saturday and he corrected me that this Saturday isn't the 20th, that there's a week in between now and then. *head, slap* Well, that was embarrassing. 

 

I spent a little time, maybe an hour, making a couple more Amazon ads for Better Than Mom's using keywords I found yesterday. I did that instead of working on writing more short stories. I'm not too inspired right now so I'm working on the marketing part of being an author instead of the authoring part.

 

The sedum are blooming and the bees know it. I glanced out the window and the raspberry colored sedum has bloomed this week so I went out with the camera and snapped a picture of the flower with a nice chubby bee on it.

 

Then I moved down the retaining wall to find the copper colored sedum blooming with its own bee. There were two bees when I showed up but one flew away when I was getting focused so there's only one.

 

Speaking of taking pictures, today's drawing prompt was Technology so I drew my digital camera. I think I did an okay job, not great, but it's recognizable as a camera. I'm happy with that.

 

Last night at watercolor class we used painter's tape to mask off birch tree trunks in one of our squares. I painted mine in blue and yellow, which kind of turned green. So I decided this afternoon to paint birch trees using real colors like brown and rust. I'm semi-pleased with the way it turned out.

 

And I drew a gratitude journal page. I got to do the after school run again today and had to deliver OJ to a sports bar near Lambeau Field where his Cub Scout den parked cars before tonight's game. DS was there too as was the other den leader so it wasn't just a bunch of 9-year-olds parking cars willy-nilly in a field.

 

There was a flyover before tonight's game but I missed it. I heard it but thought it was too dark so didn't go out to see if I could see the plane. It was plenty loud. I didn't miss that part.

I watched The Birdcage tonight. I was looking for something I didn't have to think too much about. It's such a good movie but it makes me sad to remember that Robin Williams took his own life. 

--Barbara 

Focused

Today I was focused on making Amazon ads for my book, Better Than Mom's. I had a lot of trouble figuring out comps I could use to scrape keywords to populate my ads. BTMs doesn't seem to go with any other books I can find. Almost all of the most likely titles are romances and my book is not a romance. It has romance in it but it doesn't follow the romance formula. I finally found a couple books that are kinda like it so I scraped the Also Boughts (I have a tool to use online) and used those titles and authors in my ads. Then I made a few Category ads to give the Amazon algorithm something else to think about. Evidently old ads kind of fade after a while so you have to make new ones. I'd forgotten that so I'll be over here making new ads for my other standalone titles.

 

There was a large flock of Sparrows around the feeders this morning. Two were on the platform feeder, two were on the suet nuggets, and four were on the round feeder. There were more on the birdbath but they didn't fit into the frame of the picture.

 

Underneath the round feeder this chipmunk was reaping the benefit of the Sparrows tossing seed down as they picked out what they wanted from the feeder ports. I'm surprised you can't see seeds in its fur because it was raining down on it.

 

The drawing prompt today was Jewelry so I drew the jewelry I was wearing. I did have on two earrings but only drew one of them. I was surprised that my watch drawing looks quite a bit like my actual watch. The little silver ring is one that Mom's high school boyfriend made for her out of a 1942 silver quarter. You used to be able to see "Liberty" and "1942" on the inside but I've worn it so long that the letters are rubbed off.

 

Tonight was the first watercolor class at the technical college. Former neighbors, DT, MK, and I are taking it together. The school provides all of the supplies like paint, brushes, and paper so all we have to do is show up. Tonight's lesson was washes. We also used masking fluid and salt to make different effects. I think it'll be a fun time. There are two Marys and two Barbaras in the class of nine students. What are the odds?

 

I got a package today. In it were ten more copies of Christmas at Seaview. I have a book event on Saturday in Sturgeon Bay and then in a couple weeks I'll be going to The Clearing so I want to have plenty copies on hand. I have no clue how popular it'll be. I don't want to run out.

 

I did not carry up the clean laundry today. I haven't even taken the last load (towels) out of the dryer.

--Barbara

This is the Day We Wash Our Clothes

My pile of undies is getting low so I had to break down and do laundry today. I confess I really let the dirty clothes pile up before going down there to do something about them. Now they're all clean, just not all upstairs and folded. I'll carry the basket upstairs tomorrow or maybe Thursday and then procrastinate folding until I'm down to the last pair of undies. I know how I work.

 

The drawing prompt today was Something That Smells Bad. I wasn't sure what to draw and then I thought of feet. So that's what I drew. My Great-grandpa Gerst had very smelly feet. So smelly that Great-grandma Gerst made him leave his shoes out on the porch so they didn't stink up the house. I was lucky enough that they were still alive when I was a kid so I got to get to know them. Same with the Stephan great-grandparents. She was named Barbara, same as Aunt B and me.

 

In the afternoon there was a loud noise outside so I looked out and it was the lawn mowers. Here's the kid racing around the yard. He starts at the driveway and goes all the way around the edge, front and back, and then makes smaller and smaller passes until he finishes in the middle. Another kid wields the string trimmer and blower so it's all trimmed and tidy when they race off after only about 20 minutes.

 

I did a gratitude journal page today for today. It was a good day for getting things done. I even took out the trash and recycling for pickup tomorrow. Since there's only me I don't make much trash so I only put it out about once a month, maybe even less frequently. The banana and orange peels in the garage trash can make the fruit flies very happy. I have a thriving colony out there.

 

After my trip to the grocery for bananas, milk, and yogurt I spent a few hours making ten new keyword ads on Amazon. We're supposed to work up to 100 ads for our "first in series" book. I'm getting there. I don't know how many I've got since there are also ads for my three standalone books. I should probably make some new ads for those books too while I'm making ads. 

 

Yesterday I made more jello. This time it's lime, my favorite flavor. Every time I look for it there isn't any lemon. I should probably go to a different store. 

 

Tomorrow night is my first watercolor class through the technical college in town. It's a beginners class but I'm going with friends and figure it's always good to have a refresher on the basics. I'll report.

--Barbara 

Mm, Smells Good

When I put the shade up this morning I noticed that Dad's rose had opened a new flower over the last day or so. That meant I had to go out to take its picture but I waited until I was decently clad before going out to do it.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Something That Smells Good. I picked bacon. I oven fried a pound of turkey bacon last week to make suppertime BLTs and it smelled pretty darned good. Not as good as "real" Neuske's bacon which, as far as I'm concerned, is the best bacon there is, but the turkey bacon's edible. Quite a bit better than last summer's precooked chicken bacon.

 

 A few Sparrows were hanging around the birdbath this morning and one of them decided to hop in to have a bath. I tried to snap it when it was flapping around but didn't manage to get a decent shot. So you get this one of it in between splashes.

 

The purple mums below Dad's rose are really blooming like crazy these days. I noticed that the earliest flowers are dying but many more are taking their places. And the other color mums have started to show buds so they're coming.

 

I got to do the after school run today so I finished this dishcloth while I waited. It's been nestled in the door pocket all summer just waiting for me to have to sit there waiting for the school bell to ring. I'll have to cast on another one.

 

This afternoon I was looking at my Amazon Ads chart and noticed that I'm getting a lot fewer Impressions for the last couple weeks. (Impressions are the light blue bars on the graph.) Things changed when I went through my ads and eliminated "book," books," and "romance" from the keyword ads because "book" is too broad and my books aren't romances. Right after I did that there was a screen to click to check on what search terms were most popular and "book" and "books" were the top two. Now I have to be patient while the Amazon algorithm learns my new keywords. It all takes time. 

 

The fridge fixit guy showed up half an hour early this morning! A whole half an hour! I had just started to empty the freezer into a laundry basket with a blanket in it when the doorbell rang. It didn't take him long to take the back off the freezer compartment and steam away the glacier plugging the drain hole. He's a nice guy and very efficient. Not too expensive either. And he showed me how to catch the water to keep it from flooding the fridge if/when it happens again. 

I went to lunch with part of the St. Agnes Class of '65 today. There were three classmates there from out of town so it was fun to get to visit with them. I handed out bookmarks. One woman said she reads a lot and one of the guys in town said his wife reads a lot so maybe I'll get some book sales out of it. That'd be good. 

--Barbara