Woodpeckers & Sparrows

Today the Woodpeckers didn't hang out alone. They hung out with Sparrows. First the Red-bellied Woodpecker landed on the round feeder and for once didn't shoo away the Sparrows. It just perched there pecking away at the seed in the feeder minding its own business. It stayed long enough for me to take one picture. I spent most of its visit just staring at it waiting for it to fly away so that when I finally thought to get the camera I only had time for this one. That's okay. I like looking at it.

Almost as soon as the Red-bellied took off the Downy Woodpecker showed up. It landed first on the top of the crook, then flew down to the back side of the suet cakes. It took pity on me and flew over to the birdbath to get a drink but it landed on the icy part of the basin and it evidently didn't want to argue with the Sparrows because it took off without getting a drink. Maybe it came back when I wasn't looking. At least I hope it did.

The flower today was a berry, Orange Firethorn. I should have used a smaller brush and darker brown to paint the branch that the leaves and berries were on but I followed her directions and used a huge size 12 brush to try to paint thin little branches. Didn't work so well but I like the way the berries turned out.

I spent a bit of the afternoon transcribing the list of categories and keywords I wrote down off Kindle Direct Publishing yesterday for all of my books. I thought that it'd be smart to send my assistant, KM, a copy of them so when we meet to talk about them on Tuesday she'll have the same info in front of her that I have. 

After supper I drew a gratitude journal page for today. On the day of the gratitude, no less! I got to do the afternoon school run so I got to see and hug LC and OJ today. Also I noticed the other evening when I came home from Writers Guild that one of the outside light bulbs was burned out. So just before dark I when downstairs for a new bulb, bundled up, lifted down the Cosco stepladder-thing I have that's much more stable than a regular ladder, and changed the bulb. Without falling. Whew.

After after supper I knitted on Alpaca Mitten #4 and finished the cuff and knitted the three rounds between the cuff and the start of the thumb gusset. This cuff looks longer than the cuff of Mitten #3 but I knitted the same number of rounds. I suspect that putting Mitten #3 on a couple times readjusted the circumference of the cuff so it's wider from being stretched over my hand and wrist. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

I'm more than halfway through the next reread of the manuscript. Now is when I get to the parts that are newer and less edited so this is where I need to add emotion, a little more conflict, and flesh out the story. I tend to write pretty spare prose and that's not always good. I also realized that this is the first year in six or seven that I haven't done National Novel Writing Month in November to get a new manuscript. What will I have to play with when I'm done with this one? There are a couple old stories hanging around that might have possibilities. But first I have to finish this one. I'm getting there.

--Barbara