Mm, Gloopy

I made a half-batch of Pimento Cheese this morning. The recipe says to add mayonnaise until it's spreadable and gloopy. Is gloopy a real word or did Rosanna make it up? (I used her recipe.) Anyway, I just had a cracker with a little spread on it and it's pretty darned good. Pretty gloopy, though, but garlicky and cheesy too.

 

The drawing prompt today was Bags. I had this little gift bag from Easter handy so I drew it. I tried to draw the tissue paper in the bag and got part of it but the other piece of it eluded me. I did a lot of erasing and a small amount of cursing.

 

A Downy Woodpecker visited the suet cakes feeder this afternoon and was barely visible. I took a few shots and this one is the best. You can almost see the bird's head. Birds are so independent, they just don't pose.

 

I bought some navel oranges yesterday and cut one in half to put in the Oriole feeder. I also spooned a little grape jelly in there too. Years ago I made a note in the Audubon bird book to put the Oriole feeder out the first week in May and tomorrow's May 1 so I did. Now I just need those beautiful black and orange birds to show up. Watch, they'll come next week when I'm at The Clearing and I'll miss them.

 

For my last watercolor before I let my brushes dry so I can pack them to leave on Sunday I painted figs. I like the way they turned out, especially the green gold and green of the skins. The shadows are a little hard-edged but I like the color of them.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday this morning. I was grateful for MB, my cleaner coming, for my books arriving (which I bookmarked this morning), and for my Zoom with cda.

 

I got cda's comments today so I'll be able to go through them and make changes in my manuscript. I won't take all of them but the ones I agree with I'll accept. It's good to have someone else look at your writing because if you're like me, you think every word is a pearl. And it isn't. Trust me.

You should have gotten an email with a new Substack story today. I hope you like it, it was a whole lot of fun to write.

--Barbara

Time Out

The Mourning Doves that come to my backyard feeders are courting. Every time a few Doves congregate one of them puffs up its chest and coos at another one. Then it chases after the object of its desire. After a few rounds of this they all agree to have a snack and this is what I see. It's entertaining.

 

A female Cardinal landed on the platform feeder today and didn't tolerate the House Finches that tried to share the feeder with her. She lunged at the Finches and drove them away. Must be the wife of the bully male Cardinal.

 

I got a package today. It had 10 copies of Spies Don't Retire in it. So I got them all autographed and stickered, and I just realized that I forgot to put a bookmark in them. Dang it! I'll get them out of the box tomorrow and rectify that oversight. Now I can confidently take copies up to OtherWorlds Books & More in Sturgeon Bay on my way to The Clearing on Sunday. And when I get home I'll get in touch with Caramel Crisp Bookstore in Oshkosh to tell them they need copies. I ran across another possible craft fair in the fall and sent in an application to be a vendor. I'll call tomorrow for more information like how much it costs to have a booth and other important things to know.

 

Today I flipped to the Flowers page in Sketchbook Challenge and just drew the outlines of flowers. I thought about coloring them in but decided I liked the simplicity of them just the way they are.

 

The baby bunny was back. It tried to hide by the step on the patio but I snuck (sneaked?) over real slowly and snapped this picture. You can see how small it is. I'm not sure if its name is Flash or Bobo but I think it's Bobo because it moves slowly and hides a lot. Flash zips across the patio like its tail is on fire.

 

Just before I wrote this blog post I scheduled tomorrow morning's Substack post. I'm really enjoying sharing the short stories I wrote that never got published. I have 18 subscribers. I don't know how to get more. Just keep posting and hope for the best, I guess.

I had a critique Zoom this morning with cda. We gave each other comments and encouragement. Her manuscript is longer than mine but we figure that we'll run out of pages at about the same time. It's good to have another pair of eyes on your work. When I started writing 20-some-odd years ago I never thought it'd become the huge part of my life that it is. 

--Barbara

Hawk!

When I was eating my breakfast I heard a noise outside the patio door and looked out to see this. It's a Cooper's Hawk that had just caught a Sparrow on the patio. I'm sorry that the bird bought it but I was thrilled to see the hawk.

 

Here's another shot of the spring bulbs that are looking glorious out front. I'm so tempted to pick them and bring them in but then they'd die faster than usual so I'm just going out to visit them a couple times a day.

 

I spent most of the day reading through the manuscript and making small changes. Like making contractions and changing pronouns, little things that will make the book easier to read. Oh, and I fixed a couple place name changes that didn't all get changed. I got to page 168 of 281, so in 113 pages I'll email it to my Kindle and go through it again. It'll be fun!

 

There isn't much to say about today's watercolor. Painting it got me out of my desk chair every hour or so when I figured the paint had dried on the previous step but I seriously don't think it's anywhere near my favorite one. I will say that the example in the book isn't a whole lot different than mine but mine has more hard edges than hers. Anyway, I'm glad it's over and I can turn the page to find what's next.

 

It was such a beautiful day. Got up into the 70s and was mostly sunny and breezy. I took a walk up to the stop sign and back and felt like I walked to China and back. I need to walk more. A lot. I'm too easy on myself.

There was a baby bunny on the patio just before I came back here and I tried to take its picture but had to turn off the flash and so I jiggled the camera too much and it was blurry. So imagine a tiny, teacup size bunny on here.

--Barbara

This Is The Way We Wash Our Clothes...

I was going to wait until tomorrow, the official laundry day of my family, but in a rebel move I went downstairs, sorted the clothes, and did the wash today. I know! I didn't take any pictures of it because there's nothing photogenic about doing laundry. I just thought you'd like to know that.

 

Here's a female Cardinal on the platform feeder. She's kind of hard to see but I guess the females have to be more camouflaged so they're protected on the nest. She didn't stay long and didn't really pose well.

 

Then this Goldfinch showed up. Look how yellow it is! There don't seem to be any olive green blotches on it like the ones I saw last week. It's all pretty in yellow and black.

 

I noticed another stick I missed taking to the curb yesterday so I went out to get it while the wash sloshed around and found a huge branch that landed in the lilac bush and took some maneuvering to get out of there but I managed. While walking back to the house I saw a bunch of tiny bees swarming around the daffodils and hyacinths so I went inside for the camera. When I came out all of the tiny bees had moved on but this big bumblebee was there. Score!

 

Today I drew buttons. I went downstairs and grabbed a handful of them and tossed them on the table to draw. This is another time that I liked what I drew when I drew it better than I like it in the picture.

 

But I'm very happy with today's watercolor replay. I still didn't get the background colors as dark as the example but I like the shapes of the flowers and the centers better than yesterday's effort.

 

And I drew a gratitude journal page after supper but before I turned on the TV to watch episodes of White Collar on Netflix. I just started Season 4 and I know there are only 6 seasons so I'm over halfway through and already dreading the end. Today I was grateful for finishing the laundry (not folding but laundering) and having chocolate ice cream for dessert.

 

I booted up the manuscript but didn't write anything new. I feel stuck. Maybe it's time to email it to my Kindle and make some notes. It reads like a book on there so I get results when I'm stuck.

--Barbara

A Much Nicer Day

Today was a beautiful day, weather wise. I thought about those poor schmucks at the NFL Draft in the all-day drizzle yesterday and hoped that they stayed over to enjoy today. I went out with my little green garden bucket and picked up sticks that had blown into the yard over the last few gales. On the side of the house a couple poppies and an iris or two are sprouting. Yay!

 

While picking up sticks I found a dead mouse. Uck. Luckily I was wearing gloves so I disposed of it tout suite. But when I paged through Sketchbook Challenge looking for a prompt to draw I stopped on the page that said "Something That Smells Bad" and knew what to draw. A dead mouse! It wasn't hard and it wasn't gross, it was just... limp. I also poured some rat poison pellets down that big hole I found yesterday. That should take care of things. *dusts off hands*

 

I love watching the squirrel hanging on the suet nuggets feeder. It looks so relaxed just hanging there looking around and eating balls of fat and cracked corn. Yum.

 

This morning I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday. I enjoyed the two Zooms-with-friends I had, one with writer friends and one with knitting friends. I was also grateful that I didn't have to go out in the drizzle.

 

I wasn't going to paint today but then after supper I decided to after all. It's sunflowers. At least that's what it's supposed to be. I'm going to try this one again because the example has much darker background colors than I managed to make. I think I used too much water so I'll take another stab at it, maybe tomorrow, and see if I can't make the paint darker.

 

In writing work I mostly reread what I did yesterday and where I stuck the new scene into the manuscript. Then I read through the pages cda sent me for our critique session next Tuesday morning. It's a historical fiction story which isn't my usual cup of tea but I'm liking the story and the way it's playing out. There's even kissing!

I think there's a concert over at the stadium tonight. I keep hearing snatches of music and muffled voices outside. It could be Brad Paisley, some country singer that I assume is a big deal. Anyway, other people are excited about him being here.

I read on Facebook tonight they estimate that 600,000 people attended the draft this week. There are only 107,000 residents in Green Bay so either everyone in the city went there and brought their "plus 5," or a whole lot of people came from all over to the thing. I'm assuming it's the latter because just about everyone on my block stayed home. And I hope DIL1 is finally home from the craziness her week must have been.

--Barbara

Am I Tempting Fate?

Yesterday I put the snowblower away in the shed for the summer. Today I carried my heavy winter boots downstairs. Part of me thinks it's time. Part of me thinks I'm tempting fate. I have a vivid memory of getting shovel-able snow on May 2 one year. (BTW, Durwood was out of town so guess who got to shovel.) I swapped winter and summer socks today too.

 

I saw a flash of yellow outside and looked over to see a Goldfinch flutter from the top of a crook to the finch feeder. It's still blotchy but is a lot yellower than it was the last time it visited.

 

The prompt I picked to draw today was Something Made of Wood. I grabbed the wooden vase that Grandpa Stephan turned on his lathe. This is not an accurate representation of that excellent piece of woodworking but it looked better when I drew it than it does now. Hey, at least I drew.

 

This bunny hopped over to feast on the fallen cracked corn from the round feeder. When I looked at it the chipmunk was there too but by the time I got the camera up and focused the chippie was nowhere to be seen.

 

It was drizzling rain most of the day so you get yesterday's picture of the rhubarb. It's growing fast but not fast enough for me. I'm chomping at the bit for it to get tall enough that I can pull some stalks and make rhubarb sauce to have on my yogurt in the morning like I did last summer. Can't wait!

 

Today's watercolor is okay. It's supposed to be wildflowers in front of a summer sky. This is my second attempt at it today. The first one was too wet so the paint dabs for the flowers spread all over. Didn't look right so I started over. This is better, not great, but better.

 

At Friday Night Knitting I worked on the foot of the Zauberball Sock. I have to knit to 7" before starting on the toes. I have a ways to go.

 

I felt sorry for the people in town for the NFL Draft today. It was drizzling pretty much all day. All of the spectator areas are in the open air so ponchos and umbrellas had to be the order of the day. I think it's supposed to be nicer tomorrow.

I managed to write a couple new pages where my villain is being slightly villainous. I have a hard time with villainy but I'm trying.

-- Barbara

Swapped

It was an okay spring day today, cloudy but not raining, so I did some outside house work this afternoon. First I fired up the snowblower, drove it around to the backyard, and put it in the shed. Then I took out the lawnmower and pushed it around to the garage and put it in its summer spot.

 

Then I put the patio chairs around the table and, in a feat of strength, got the patio umbrella in place. I don't know why it's so heavy or how I keep managing to get it up but I did. I can't take it down because the pole won't come apart and I'm not strong enough to lift the whole thing anymore. But for now, it's good.

 

Then I filled the birdfeeders. Of course, I spilled a little when filling the round feeder, as usual, so this chipmunk arrived to clean up the spill before I even went inside. The last feeders I fill are the cob corn ones up on top of the retaining wall and when I came back down the hill there was a little squeak and a rustle as the chippie took off.

 

These Sparrows were the first birds to notice that the feeders were full.

 

They evidently told the Cardinal because he was next.

 

Two of the pots on the patio have finally given up and started to fall apart. The bottom fell out of the white pot and the rim of the terra cotta pot chipped off. I dumped out the soil and nested them together so I can put them in the trash and since Garden was the drawing prompt today that's what I drew. Didn't turn out too badly.

 

When I walked the snowblower around I noticed that there's one forsythia flower on the bush. It was tricky to get the camera to focus on it. I never remember that I can turn the camera to manual focus and avoid this kind of problem. Maybe one day I will.

 

I also saw this hole in the yard. It's just about perfectly round and it isn't snake small. I wonder what lives there. It's too big for a chipmunk hole, I think, but I hope that's what lives there. I don't want it to be a rat.

 

I made time after supper to draw a gratitude journal page for today. I was mostly grateful for the work I did outside.

 

I saw pictures of the crazy big crowds at Lambeau for the Draft today. There is no way I'd go there even if I liked football. I got a text from DD this evening that when she told ITMM about the Draft being in Green Bay and it was how they pick players, he wanted to know if I got picked. I thought that was very sweet but said to tell him that I can't pass, can't run, and can't kick so I wouldn't get picked.  One of the local stations did a segment this morning or maybe yesterday morning about DIL1's preparations for Draft hospitality. She did a great job on-air and I'm sure she's being run ragged making sure that the fans are happy. I'm so proud of her! She's awesome.

This afternoon I worked on the end of the novel manuscript and realized that I missed an opportunity to pile on meanness for my villain. Guess what I'll be writing tomorrow. I'm hoping to have the first (second? third?) draft completed next week so I can email it to my Kindle to work on when I'm not painting at The Clearing in two weeks, er, 10 days. Ooh, better start thinking of what I'll pack. This is such an oddball time of year. It could be chilly, it could be warm, it could be rainy, it could be dry. And that's just the first day! I'll just pack everything. Hah! Layers, I'll pack things I can layer.

--Barbara

I Ventured Out

Even though today was the first day the NFL Draft is on in Green Bay and way more people than usual showed up I ventured out. DS texted this morning that he was brewing and did I want to come visit. Of course I did. I figured that I wouldn't have to go anywhere near the stadium neighborhood so I wouldn't run into the extra traffic and it worked out. The traffic on the crosstown street that's the detour around the stadium is a little heavier but not unbearable. DS was making Yard Games IPA. He keeps meticulous records of his brews on a clipboard, noting every stage and measurement so that things go right. And he gave me a taste of the Peeps Blond Ale that one of the Brewers For a Day made. It wasn't half bad. For beer.

 

Just as I was getting home a big rainstorm showed up over the city. It poured rain for about half an hour and then tapered off. Within a couple hours the sun was shining and it got up to 71 degrees this afternoon. Naturally the temps are supposed to drop tomorrow and they're predicting a 40% chance of rain all day tomorrow. That's going to put a crimp in the Draft festivities since the main stage is outside. There's a roof over it but still, it's outside.  

I turned to a page in Sketchbook Challenge that said Something Hot. I have a ceramic fish candleholder so I drew it. I had to use different colors because it's brown and blue, which aren't warm colors but I think it turned out pretty okay.

 

And I'm very pleased with the way today's watercolor turned out. I was dreading this one because it looked complicated but I took my time and did the steps and it turned out fine. I needed a win because the last two paintings haven't been very pleasing to me.

 

Just because I can here's another picture from the front of the house. It's a hyacinth and I like the blueish purple color of it with the green of the leaves.

 

I snapped a picture of a squirrel on the suet cakes this morning. For once it had its head turned in my direction instead of its tail so you can see the crumbs of suet cake on its face. It dropped a lot of crumbs on the ground too so it spent some times cleaning that up after it jumped down.

 

 After supper (and Jeopardy! I didn't get the Final) I came back here and rewrote one of the last scenes in the book. It needed some more action and dialogue. I need more scenes at the end and have to expand the ones I have.

I got an email from my audiobook producer today saying how much she likes Spies Don't Retire. She didn't want it to end. That's a compliment! She had a couple questions that I had to clarify and then she'll record the 15 minute sample soon, I'll approve it, and she'll do the rest. Of course, there's the paying part that isn't so exciting but can't be avoided. I'd rather pay her and have a human voice than have an AI recording through Amazon.

--Barbara

Not Today Either

Didn't write anything new today either. Instead I spent hours reading through old short stories and fixing them up so I can one day post them on Substack. A few of them end in the middle so I'll have to see if I can't pick up the thread of the stories and finish them. It was fun reading all my old stuff, though, especially the one about the first night of dive class. 

I went out after lunch to take pictures of the spring bulbs that are showing off out front. Naturally that's when raindrops decided to start falling. I didn't get very wet. The daffodils are going crazy. The whole front of the house has a yellow fringe of them. And the hyacinths mixed in are showing up too.

 

The little grape hyacinths are blooming, the ones that the rabbits haven't nibbled off, that is. They're so tiny it's easy to overlook them when there's just one here and there but this clump of them was easy to spot.

 

Once the little rain passed I went out to take the heater out of the birdbath and give it a good scrub. I confess the water was pretty green and disgusting but now it's clear and sparkling. There hasn't been any ice on the birdbath for over a week so I figured it's time for the heater to be put away for the summer.

 

And the rhubarb is getting taller. I don't think it gets any direct sunlight and probably very little rain but it keeps on keeping on.

 

I tried drawing the tree that's in the lot behind the house today. I'm not good at drawing trees so I thought I'd try. I think I drew the trunks too big and too tall so I couldn't draw the tiny twigs at the ends. The trunks look okay though, so I'm happy.

 

This morning I drew the gratitude journal page for yesterday. I don't know why I don't do them at night but I've gotten into the habit of doing them in the morning. It seems to work so I'm good with it.

 

I was impatient to have a bite of my supper tonight and ended up burning the roof of my mouth. Ouch. You'd think I'd know better by now, wouldn't you?

--Barbara