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