Even Quieter

It was a real day of rest today. I took a walk which was just about the extent of me doing things. I thought about doing laundry then thought about going up and down the stairs a bunch of times and decided to give my knee a couple more days to get better. I'm down to only taking Aleve in the morning and before bed, which is progress.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday this morning. As it was the days before, taking a walk was what I was most grateful for.

 

Instead of drawing I painted another watercolor today. This time I used another one of KA's note cards as a jumping off place. I didn't jump too far but like the way it turned out. We all know that red's my favorite color so that was the motivation for choosing this one.

 

 The blank cards and envelopes were delivered this afternoon so I was able to emboss and glue the last five cards. I'll let them dry under a big, heavy cookbook overnight and then slip them into clear sleeves with their envelopes tomorrow. I put my initials in the corner of this batch of cards before I put them in the sleeves because I don't want to get another scolding phone call from my sister-in-law that I hadn't signed my artwork. She said hers would be less valuable when I become famous because her birthday card wasn't signed on the painting. I could send her another one, I suppose, signed this time.

 

Now that it's tomato season and actual fresh ones are available at the farmers' market I've had BLTs for supper the last two nights. I bought some turkey bacon that isn't half bad. It tastes more bacon-y than the chicken bacon I had last year but it's raw and needs to be fried. Maybe I'll think of a way to cook it all at once and get it over with. Maybe under the broiler?

 

I managed to drip tomato juice on my white shirt tonight at supper. The last bite, naturally, but I quickly scrubbed it and got it out. No matter how careful I am I usually manage to get food on me. Mom used to say I look good in everything I eat.

Yesterday Mom would have been 97. She's been gone since 2011. Has it really been that long? I miss talking to her and showing off my kids and grandkids.

-- Barbara

A Quiet Day

Today was a quiet day. I didn't have much to do. Didn't go anywhere. I watched this squirrel hang there on the suet nuggets feeder for a long time then climb back down and scamper off.

 

As soon as the squirrel left a Chickadee landed on the suet nuggets. It didn't stay long enough for a photo but I managed to snap one when it landed on the crook for a half minute.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Machines and the only machine I had handy was the toaster. It's a single slot toaster with a wide slot for things like bagels. For some reason I like the single opening toaster. They're not easy to find but I think they're worth it.

 

I drew gratitude journal pages for Thursday and Friday this afternoon but I'm only posting Friday's page. I took a walk those two days and another one today. My knee is tolerating walking just fine but I'm still huffing and puffing by the time I get back home. I know that'll get better but wish it would happen faster.

 

I decided to paint today and shuffled through the notecards that KA gives us in watercolor class and picked the one with pansies. It's okay. I don't think the shapes are right. I'll try drawing pansies again to see if I can't do better. I like the colors though.

 

And that's all. I did a little, very little, writing this afternoon but couldn't find any inspiration so I quit. Sometimes the words just don't come.

--Barbara 

Two at Once

 I've been watching the squirrels lately running along the top of the fence across the retaining wall. Most of them are carrying two black walnuts in their mouth. I've tried to get a picture but they're so fast I haven't managed. Until today. I snapped this one almost out of range and you can't see both walnuts but, trust me, there are two in there. I keep finding pieces of shell on the patio table. Evidently they sit there at night and tear them apart. They have to taste vile because they stain everything and they're just yucky looking.

 

Dad's rose is still blooming. Here's a flower I saw when I returned from my walk this morning. I was more winded afterwards today but I'll get better at this. I'm sure of it.

 

I was surprised to see a Downy Woodpecker on the round feeder today. Usually they go right for one of the suet feeders but this one pecked around, found a peanut, and flew off.

 

At the same time this Chickadee landed on the top of the crook and then flew over to the suet nuggets. Every bird likes the suet nuggets--Sparrows, Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Starlings. Not Mourning Doves or Cardinals, but it seems all the rest are eager suet eaters. 

Today's drawing prompt was Cables & Wires. And it's nothing to write home about. I threw down a cable and drew it, badly. I was going to do more but ran out of time.

 

The Sunset Doublethick Cloth is getting longer. I worked on it exclusively at Friday Night Knitting. I need to finish it in a couple weeks because I want to give it to someone.

 

Last night I watched The Thursday Murder Club movie on Netflix. I've been eagerly awaiting it and it didn't disappoint. It wasn't exactly like the book but movies never are. It's pretty good though. I'll watch it again, right after I finish listening to the book again for the third or fourth time. 

--Barbara

At Last

I took a walk today up to the stop sign at the corner and back. My knee cooperated and didn't spend the rest of the day aching. So I'm going to do it again tomorrow. It felt great. I'm not taking the knee brace off just yet, though. It's been a long four weeks since I hurt it mowing. I'm so relieved it's feeling better.

 

I noticed movement out the patio door when I was having breakfast and look at what I saw. A whole flock of turkeys. There were three or four hens and about a dozen young birds. They came out from under the lilac bush in the corner and wandered across the backyard and out the other side. One hen and young bird came down to investigate the ground under the feeders but the rest of them just pecked along and didn't come close to the house. Last time they were around I commented to the 3-year-old next door that they were really big birds. She told me they weren't birds because they were too big. Don't know what they'd be but I didn't argue with her. Arguing with a 3-year-old is an exercise in futility.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Float or Sink so I drew a treasure chest on the bottom of the sea. I suppose I should have drawn some fish and coral and sponges around it to make a scene. Didn't think of that until just now.

 

This afternoon I went to the neighborhood farmers market run by the same people who did the market I did last winter. It had just opened so it wasn't very busy but there were lots of nice booths and good things to eat.

 

It's BLT season so I bought some tomatoes and a gorgeous bunch of lettuce. I almost didn't realize that was lettuce because the way it was displayed it looked kind of like a bouquet.

 

And my tenant popped over when I was out filling the birdfeeders to ask if I like avocados. I do. They'll be away this weekend and she had too many for them to eat before they go so she gave me two of them. They're perfectly ripe. I cut one and made avocado toast for supper with fresh tomato slices on top. Mm, delicious. Happily there's another one so I can have it again tomorrow. Yay!

 

When I was out filling feeders I noticed the faintest color change on the sedum. So I came in for the camera and when I got up to it there was a bee on it. Very nice to see on the barely bloomed flower. 

This morning I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday. I was most grateful for being able to drive around to the patio to unload a 40# bag of birdseed. My days of being able to carry it more than a few feet are long gone. For some reason it's easier to draw the page in the morning for the day before instead of in the evening for that day. Go figure.

 

Did a little work on a short story today and looked for another story start to tackle. I don't think I made much headway but any writing time is good writing time.

--Barbara

Goldfinch, Unblurry

A male Goldfinch visited the finch feeder and then posed on top of a crook today and I got pictures. Pictures that aren't blurry. I love the little black beret cap of feathers on his head. It looks so jaunty.

 

And a Downy Woodpecker visited the suet cakes this morning. At first it landed on the back side where there isn't much suet but then it moved around to the front so I could see it all. And you can see it too.

 

This morning I drew gratitude journal pages for Monday and yesterday. I'm only posting the one for yesterday because it's the better of the two.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Furniture. I was stuck for what to draw until I noticed the patio chair so I drew one. It's not the best thing I've ever done but it isn't bad and it almost looks like it's supposed to.

 

Tonight I knitted with friends at KE's house. She made tacos for us. They were so good. CS's husband made homemade quacamole which was outstanding. I brought cherry chipotle salsa and chips. The salsa had a little kick to it. DM brought caramel chocolate brownies which were so gooey and delicious. We even knitted. I worked on the Sunset Doublethick cloth. I'm almost halfway. Hooray!

 

This afternoon I worked on another story start but it's blah and uninteresting. I have to add some excitement. Maybe tomorrow I'll think of something to add.

But now it's late and I'm tired and my knee is aching. It feels like I did a little too much today, only because it felt almost normal. Thank goodness.

--Barbara 

Cut Up

I was inspired by OJ's embossing adventures yesterday. He used up all of the blanks I'd cut and stored with the embosser so I had to cut more for the next time someone needs them. I decided while I had the paper cutter out I'd cut up some watercolors. So I did. I was disappointed that I couldn't maneuver the cutting to keep more of this watercolor but it just didn't work out. After supper I embossed them and glued them on to cards. All but three of them because I ran out of card blanks. Do you know what that means? It means I've used up 100 card blanks. That's a lot!

 

While working on a short story start this afternoon I saw a white pickup truck with a trailer pull up and park across the street. It was the lawn mowers so I had to hurry out back to move the looong drain hose onto the renters' lawn so he could mow. I was surprised when I went to grab the hose that a chipmunk darted out of the end. It must have been in there getting a drink of water. The hose sags in between the house and the end so water pools in there. Nothing can be done. It's a whole lot better than having the water fill up the window well. It only took the kid about 20 minutes to whiz around the lawn on his mower, trim, and blow the grass clippings. He was here and gone in a jiffy.

 

These Sparrows amused me. They flew onto the perches on the round feeder and landed so hard that the feeder was spinning like a merry-go-round. They didn't seem to mind.

 

Today's drawing prompt was What's In Your Pocket? Nothing but lint was in my pockets so I dug some stuff out of my purse and drew that. It was fun.

 

The knee feels a little better today. I'm remembering to take Aleve every 6 hours or so which really helps. Thank god. Tomorrow it'll be 4 weeks since I hurt it. And it can't be better soon enough for me.

Oh, I added OJ's story suggestion today and it works very nicely. 

--Barbara 

Too Far Away

This afternoon I was entertained by a pair of male Goldfinches cavorting around in some weeds up on the retaining wall. The only thing I could figure out was that the weeds had set seeds and the birds were eating them. I tried taking pictures of them but they were too far away so they're blurry. I'm picking the least blurry of the two and posting it. Sorry but they were so much fun to watch, I had to share.

 

Another one of Dad's roses bloomed so I took its picture. It was kind of breezy today so the flower was bobbing around making it hard to get a decent shot. But I managed to hold it still and snap one.

 

This morning I decided to try to draw a gratitude journal page for yesterday since it was such a blah day. I thought it would help me feel better about spending most of the day not doing anything. It kind of did.

I had a small assistant today and he was highly entertained by the squirrels' acrobatics on the suet nuggets feeder. This squirrel was displaced by another slightly bigger squirrel and they spent a couple minutes chasing each other around the feeders before the second one went back up to nibble at the suet.

 

In the afternoon a package came from Amazon with the 30 copies of Christmas at Seaview so I spent time signing, stickering, and bookmarking them. I was able to stash five of them in the box in my car and the rest are in another carton in the living room. I have enough titles that my little storage area next to the end table is overflowing. I won't take them downstairs but I might have to find another place for them.

 

I forgot to tell you the other day that a Bald Eagle flew across the highway right in front of my car on Friday. I wasn't sure what kind of big bird it was until I saw its white tail feathers. Pretty cool.

Writing on the short story that stymied me yesterday worked a little better today but I'm still not thrilled with the ending. I must have been frowning when I went into the kitchen for a drink because OJ asked what was wrong. I told him about my story and he made a very interesting suggestion that I'll try out tomorrow. Pretty smart for a nine year old.

I wasn't the only creative one today. My assistant spent part of the day embossing cards and then using a marker to color in the indentations. They looked pretty good and will make interesting note cards.

My knee felt quite a bit better this morning but then I stepped down into the garage a little hard and jolted that sore muscle up the back of my leg and now it hurts more again. Dammit.

--Barbara 

Surprise Rain

It was just supposed to be cloudy today, cloudy and cooler, but a rain shower sneaked in and doused the place. For a few minutes it really rained, then it stopped, then it dribbled around for a while, then stopped for good and the sun came out.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Hands so I tried doing what it said. Maybe if I'd taken more time and concentrated more the hands would have turned out better but I just wasn't in the mood. I had to draw so I'd have something to take a picture of.

 

I wasn't in the mood to do much today. I worked on a story start and got frustrated because I couldn't figure out how to put the pictures in my head down in words. So I gave up and went to paint.

 

I think these are supposed to be cacti. In the book, she painted some using Crayola pan paints and some using fancy paints. All I have are my fancy paints but one clump looks more successful to me. The one on the right looks better than the clump on the left.

 

Then I went downstairs, carefully, to get some more cotton yarn to cast on another doublethick cloth. This time in a colorway called Sunset Multi. My cleaner is a big fan so I guess I'm making it for her.

 

And that was my day. Nothing caught my fancy today so I spent quite a bit of time glaring off into space or listening to an audiobook while staring at the ceiling. Some days are like that. The slow pace of the healing of my strained knee muscle is getting me down.

--Barbara 

One Red Rose

Another one of Dad's roses bloomed so I'm honor bound to share its beauty with you. Every time I look at them I think I see Dad smiling down at me with the gleam in his eyes that showed how much he liked them. And me.

 

A Chickadee came to the feeder this morning but the photo I took of it turned out blurry. So when another Chickadee landed on top of the crook and perched there looking around for quite a long time I took a couple more shots. Naturally in both of them the bird is looking over its other shoulder so I have a nice, sharp photo of the back of a Chickadee's head. Oh well.

 

This morning I was thinking that I didn't have time last night to draw a gratitude journal page so I did it then. I'm pretty thrilled at the way I managed to draw my hands on the steering wheel looking out at the highway yesterday. Sometimes I can actually draw what's in my mind. Sometimes not so much. Today was a good day.

 

The drawing/sketching prompt today was Clothing. All I did was draw a dress and skirt from the page in the book and added a hat and mittens to the page from my imagination. Some days my imagination takes a vacation. That happened today.

I worked on more short stories today too. I reread a couple that I'd worked on this week and decided they're done so I moved them into the Flash folder because they're short. Only one of the stories I've written in the last few weeks has been long enough to not be Flash. I especially like the one entitled "Elf Available." I'm looking forward to posting that one on Substack.

 

I wasn't going to paint the next thing in Art for Joy's Sake because it was a strawberry and it looked hard. But there was nothing I wanted to watch on TV tonight so I plunged in and painted strawberries. In the one on the left, she said to paint the berry leaving the seeds white. That was a challenge to paint all around the little ovals I'd drawn but I didn't do too badly. Although it looks like something's taken a bite out of the left side. Then in the one on the right, she said to paint over the seeds drawn on the berry and then pick them out with full strength white watercolor paint straight out of the tube once it was dry. I don't know. Both of them look okay to me.

 

I had to go to the grocery this afternoon because I was out of bananas and low on chocolate ice cream (Horrors!) I took my time and didn't stride through the store like I usually do so my knee didn't ache quite as much when I got home as it had been. I looked up how to treat a muscle strain and the only things I haven't been doing of the recommended RICE was rest, ice, and elevation. I am wearing a compression brace. It doesn't feel good if I sit here with my leg elevated. That seems to make the front of my knee ache. I'm convinced that part of my knee pain is from favoring the hurt part which is behind my knee. It's difficult to ice the area behind my knee too. According to the internet (which we know is the source of all truth), it could take weeks or months to heal. Yippee. 

--Barbara 

Well, That Was Unexpected

DS called me this morning asking what my day looked like. I told him I had a 1 o'clock Zoom and a 6 o'clock Zoom. When he sounded disappointed, I asked why. He told me that the glycol chiller was out and he needed a part. A company in Marshfield had one but he was in the middle of brewing and couldn't go get it. They could mail it to him but it'd take until Monday and shipping would cost a LOT. I said I could miss my afternoon Zoom and go get it for him. He sent me the address, I gathered my things, and took off. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there and the same to get back. I saw a lot of central Wisconsin and listened to an audiobook. I treated myself to a Kwik Trip chicken salad sandwich for lunch with M&Ms for dessert. He was relieved to see me when I handed it over and he texted me around suppertime that they were back up and running so it was worth the drive.

 

When I got home I pulled out the sketching book and the prompt today was Cacti & Succulents. So I drew the aloe plant that lives on the table. I didn't draw all of the leaves but drew enough that you get the idea.

 

Then I decided to repaint yesterday's picture to see if I couldn't do a better job. I'm not sure I improved but it was fun to paint.

 

At Friday Night Knitting I finished the Doublethick Cloth. I made it square instead of 8" long which feels too long to me.

 

That was my day. Mostly all I did was drive. First west, then north, then north again, then east. Evidently it was too much to ask that the GPS send me home the way I came. No, it had to send me on county back roads from Marshfield to Wausau which is 43.5 miles. I'd have been home sooner if it had sent me back on the interstate, but no, I had to take the scenic route.

--Barbara