Back To Humming

I was lucky enough to see the male Hummingbird a few times today and get halfway decent pictures. I saw the female once or twice and got nothing. She's smaller and a lighter green and doesn't have that ruby throat but I was still thrilled to see her.

 

The squirrel was all over the suet nuggets this afternoon. It wrapped itself around the feeder and got to nibbling. The Gray Catbirds have learned that there are crumbs that fall from the nuggets so they spent a good amount of time down there. Naturally, they were behind the crooks so not very visible. I didn't keep any of their pictures.

 

I refilled the grape jelly this morning, much to the satisfaction of the House Finch pairs. They come together and leave together. Usually she flies off first and he follows.

 

The bleeding hearts are all abloom. It was kind of windy when I took their picture so they were bobbing around some but they aren't blurry. For which I am grateful.

 

The ferns are unfurling. Some of them are in the middle of the lilies of the valley and others are in the middle of nothing. There's an expanse of plain, empty dirt with a volunteer fern popping up in the middle of it. Maybe more ferns will fill in. That would be nice.

 

The lilies of the valley are starting to bloom. Those little, arching stems of white bells are so sweet and smell so good. Every spring I send a sprig of them to DD in Kentucky because she's always loved them so much and I love her. I wish she lived closer.

 

Today's drawing is Bugs & Such. That's the name on the page in the book. I like drawing bugs, I really do. And I like all of these, especially the bee and the grasshopper.

 

Last night I finished knitting Scrap Hat #4. I think I'm going to take a break from knitting them and find a pattern for a chemo hat. I've got some cotton and acrylic yarn that would be good for them downstairs that's calling my name.

 

I spent a lot of the afternoon typing in the rest of the story starts from the 2016 prompt notebook I unearthed from the carton downstairs. Fifteen yesterday and twenty-one today should give me a lot of things to work with for making into short stories. A couple of them are almost short stories already but most of them are just a couple paragraphs. They won't all turn into stories but I've got lots of raw material. 

 

I got my car back! Hooray! And all of the door locks work! Hooray! Thanks, JR and S! Two days without wheels is torture. Not that I had anywhere I needed to go but because I couldn't go anyplace I wanted to. Now I can go places and lock the car when I get there. Yay!

--Barbara 

Orange You Glad

I was so excited to see a male Oriole land on the feeder and stop for a few bites (sips?) of grape jelly. Finally. I managed to snap three pictures so you can expect to see them all in the coming days.

 

And the male Hummingbird visited twice, too. I thought the female came around suppertime, but when I looked at the pictures I could see the ruby throat and knew it was the male. Maybe he won't share the location of the feeder with the Mrs. 

 

I went out with my leather gloves and some lopping shears to cut back all of the dead rose canes so you can see how Dad's rose is growing. The sprouts have really shot up in the few days between photos.

 

This morning I had an email from GetCovers that included the final files of the Horizon
cover redo. I really like the change. It's so much brighter and attractive than the old, moody one. In the old one, the clouds were dark purple and the people were nearly invisible because it was so dark. Hopefully the new cover will attract more readers too. 

 

And I sat down to load The Seaview on to Ingram Spark for wider distribution. It took some doing to figure out how to work the website to get all the info they want entered but I used the Help pages and got it done. When I tried to load Horizon, it told me that the ISBN number is already in use which means the Extended Distribution through Amazon is still in effect. Dang it. It's a good thing I bought the 100 pack of ISBNs because I'll assign a new number to the paperbacks to get them uploaded and out there. Honestly, sometimes I'm my own worst enemy, but I can be good at fixing things too.

 

When I gave up on Ingram Spark, I took the laptop to the kitchen table to start typing in the short story starts from the prompt notebook I went through yesterday. I think I got about 15 of them on the computer with at least that many yet to go. They aren't long, the longest are 2 composition book pages, so it goes fast.

 

While I was working on the story starts, I heard a lawnmower rev up and knew that the mowing service was here. I was wondering when they'd come this week because the dandelions were getting pretty tall. The mower guy picked up the trash that blew into the backyard and even took away the branches and rose canes from the front yard where they were piled for the stick truck to collect. 

 

If I didn't have two vases of flowers from Mother's Day, I'd have cut lilacs to bring in this afternoon. When I went to take their picture the aroma enveloped me. So sweet.

 

JR, my car guy, called late this morning. The mechanic, S, had three of the four doors working but the back driver's side door needs a new actuator. I don't know what that is, but it's necessary if I want the automatic door lock to work and it ain't cheap. I told him to go ahead and install it because I'm hoping the HHR is my last vehicle and I want everything to work if possible. Naturally the part won't be in until tomorrow so I'll be without a car again tomorrow. Fortunately I don't need to be anywhere. However. If for some reason the part doesn't show up and S can't fix it tomorrow, JR'll bring my car back so I'll have wheels over the weekend and then I'll take it back after the Memorial Day holiday on Tuesday to be finished. I love cars.

I have more flower/plant pictures from today but I don't want to make this blog post too long. I'll save them for tomorrow.

--Barbara 

Sprouting

I got dropped off at home this afternoon from taking my car to the shop to hopefully get its auto door lock system fixed tomorrow and saw that Dad's rose has really sprouted over the last week. I can no longer procrastinate going outside with leather gloves and shears to trim away the old, dead canes so that the new growth has room.

 

This morning I went to school for OJ's spring concert. The fourth graders build their own ukuleles and decorate them in art class and then learn a couple songs on them for the concert. It was easy to tell how much they enjoyed it because their faces lit up and they really sang out on those songs. LC was asked to sit in with the fifth grade band because one of their two trombones moved away during spring break. She was way in the back so I only saw her forehead and the top of her trombone. But she and DS practiced the song and I'm sure she did fine. She's going to take trombone lessons at a local music store this summer. OJ still hasn't decided what instrument he'd like to learn next year.

 

I saw a Hummingbird again this morning. I couldn't tell if it was a male or female but I'm always happy to see one. A Bluejay tried to land on the suet nuggets but there was a squirrel there first so it veered off and flew away.

 

Today's creature is a Lizard. It's an anole lizard, according to the book. I like it and the way it turned out. I was supposed to leave some white streaks for shine but I don't think lizards are shiny so I left them off. 

 

I knitted a couple rounds on Scrap Hat #4 after supper. Well, I knitted almost one round and then didn't have the right number of stitches when I got to the end of the round so I tinked back, one stitch at a time, recounted the stitches, did a little mental math, and tried again. That second time it worked out. "Tink" is knit backwards. It means to unknit each stitch instead of pulling out the needles and just ripping. 

 

The biggest Christmas cactus flower started to open today. Like I said, it's redder than the others have been. Looking good.

 

I spent quite a bit of the afternoon reading through a prompt notebook and flagging the ones I found interesting. Tomorrow I'll take the laptop out to the kitchen table and put them into the "Story Starts" file, then get to work turning some of them into short stories.

 

I just tossed out some trash and it looked very weird in the garage without my little red car in there. I took it up to Rabideau's Auto Mart to have the mechanic see if he can fix the auto door locks mechanism. I told him if he couldn't fix it, to at least get the back passenger door open. But JR said if anybody can fix an electrical problem it's S. I trust him. I think I do, anyway.

--Barbara 

Hummmmm

Twice today I was lucky enough to see a Hummingbird at the feeder. The first time both pictures were too blurry.  There was just a blackish blur on the side of the feeder. But the second time I snapped about eight pictures and five of them are good enough to keep. Not perfect but you can tell it's a Hummingbird. I love that their wings beat so fast that they're just a blur of color. I put fresh nectar in today so maybe that's why he visited twice. I figure the female's sitting on a nest somewhere but will be along once the eggs hatch.

 

The Sparrows had a fine time at the square green feeder. No squirrels were in there so they could flit back and forth and enjoy their snacks.

 

And this pair of House Finches enjoyed the refilled grape jelly dish. They came back multiple times, always together, to dip their beaks in the grape-y goodness. 

 

After lunch and my morning Zoom with cda, I went to the birdseed store and bought more suet nuggets. It didn't take long for the Sparrows and Squirrels to discover the refilled feeder and take full advantage of it. This squirrel kept looking toward the house as if it could see me watching it. While I was out there I cleaned out the birdbath. Oh, it was really gross. Green, stinky water full of slime and bird poop. Yuk.

 

I spent some time scheduling more Substack posts. I'm running out of finished short stories so I have to get busy, quit focusing exclusively on my novel manuscript, and write more short stories. Maybe I'll page through another prompt notebook or two tomorrow when the cleaner is here. I noticed that I've posted 69 times on Substack since I joined. Most of them stories. See? I told you I had a lot of them piled up with no place to go.

 

There's something growing out of the top of my bouquet of carnations from DS. I don't know what it is. It kind of looks like another flower but these are cut flowers so why is something growing? Weird.

 

And the Christmas cactus buds are getting bigger. This one looks like it's
ready to pop any day now and it's a lot brighter and more vivid than the usual pink flowers.

 

These other two buds are smaller and pinker, and I noticed on the left of the picture I can see a couple more little nubbins of buds making an appearance.

 

I didn't draw again today. I spent too much time writing and thinking about writing and posting about writing. I'll try to get to it tomorrow. I feel guilty when I don't draw every day, like I'm letting OJ down.

--Barbara 

Boy, Did It Rain

The pavement was wet when I opened the shades this morning and it for sure didn't dry out all day. Because there was a steady line of storms, a little thunder and a good amount of rain, that marched through today. I'd planned to do some outside things, like clean the disgusting birdbath (see how green the water is?) and get the patio chairs out of the shed. I even thought about attempting to start the new snowblower to move it into the shed. But I didn't do any of that stuff. Because it rained. And rained.

I saw one bird this morning before the rain started. It was a Brown-headed Cowbird that landed on the square green feeder and held on for a moment before falling off/flying away. I did not get a picture and the ones in the archives are terrible. So imagine a Starling-size black bird with a brown head.

 

What I did today was read and edit the last fifteen chapters of my current manuscript, fixing passive voice and adding little foreshadowing threads that lead to bigger things coming later. Some of it involved going back to earlier chapters and inserting a brooding bad guy into a scene so I could make him the big bad guy in a later scene. 

 

And I went on GotPrint and ordered Seaview Muffin Recipe postcards to hand out at events. I ordered more business cards too because I'm running low. I chose Economy Shipping on a $42 order and it added $30 to the total. Holy smokes!

 

Yesterday it got up to 78 degrees and was humid. I had the air conditioner on. Today it got up to 51 degrees. I had to turn the furnace back on. Tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 80. With all of today's rain, I'm sure it'll be humid along with hot. Sheesh. 

The other thing I did today was watch and re-watch some 10-second videos that my assistant KM sent me. We're working on making videos to share on Instagram and Facebook. I've given up on posting videos to TikTok because every time I go on there I just get frustrated and can't figure out how to find what I want to look at. It's not worth it. I'll use the platforms I kind of understand.

I didn't draw or paint today because I was immersed in my manuscript and didn't want to stop

--Barbara 

 

Early Birds

I was going to call this post "Yesterday's Birds" but when I looked on the camera I had two bird pictures from early this morning. Today I got up at 6 o'clock (ugh) because I had to be at the workshop at 8 o'clock and it takes me a while to get moving in the morning. First the Bluejay came back to the suet nuggets. I'm so glad it remembered that I had goodies for it. The feeder is empty and I only have a few nuggets left. I thought I might go get some on my way home from the workshop but I forgot so I can't buy any more until Monday. It'll be okay.

 

Then I caught sight of a House Finch dipping its beak in the grape jelly. I still haven't seen a male Oriole land and eat but I did have to chase a squirrel away from the Oriole feeder. They like the jelly too.

 

Speaking of the writing workshop I helped present today, the only picture I have is my favorite red Yellowstone coffee mug at home filled with leftover decaf from the workshop. We were all too busy to pose for pictures. It was an unqualified success. GBB kept things moving and on time, and the participants seemed to enjoy it. They were engaged with the information, asked questions, and networked the daylights out of the room. 

 

When I went out to refill the birdbath (which will definitely get a good cleaning tomorrow, it's gross), I noticed that the ferns and lilies of the valley are doing their best to grow. I love the curly heads of the ferns and the first little bells of the lilies. Soon there'll be white, sweet smelling flowers all over there.

 

And the bleeding hearts are flowering more. It was windy when I was out there so I'm kind of surprised that the picture isn't all blurry but the shutter speed must have been fast enough to keep it in focus.

 

The drawing today is a Hippopotamus. I was surprised that it didn't just say Hippo but the animal must have demanded its full name billing. I could have made the body a little rounder in the belly but I like the way the coloring turned out.

 

Tonight I was too tired to knit so I sat and watched the movie Remarkably Bright Creatures on Netflix. You should watch it if you haven't already. It's sweet and Sally Field does a great job. I confess I cried. Now I have to find the audiobook to listen to. 

--Barbara 

Light Red!

The pink (light red) tulips have finally decided to open. It's been warm the last couple days, 70s and 80s, so they probably thought it was time. I'm impressed that the rabbits haven't eaten them or at least chewed the tops off but I guess they're protected by the daffodils and a planter.

 

An Oriole finally landed on the feeder and stayed long enough for a picture. It's a female so it doesn't have the wild dark black and flaming orange colors of the male but she'll bring him back, I bet. Twice this morning a male showed up, landed, and then flew away because there were other birds around. Sheesh. Way to be skittish, Oriole.

 

And the male Hummingbird was back this afternoon and I was lucky enough to see him. Two of my three shots are blurry but this one of him sipping at the port is pretty much in focus. I noticed that the level of nectar was going down but I hadn't seen any Hummingbirds so I thought maybe the squirrels figured out how to drink the sugar water but evidently not. Hooray!

 

The Bluejay came back to snack on the suet nuggets again today. It didn't cooperate and land where I could see it easily but you can still tell what kind of bird it is. I wish I could tell if it's a male or female but they look the same.

 

I drew Leaves today--an oak leaf and a sweet gum leaf. I was surprised that they weren't green in the book so I colored them the way I saw them. Must have been autumn when she drew them for the book.

 

I had three Zooms today. In the morning I met with my virtual assistant (who is a real person, not a bot) to talk about having her make some very short videos to post on Facebook and Instagram. I've decided not to get on TikTok because every time I go on there I get frustrated and confused. I don't like it so I'm not doing it. After lunch I Zoomed with my women writer friends like I do every Friday. We chatted, wrote for 10 minutes, shared what we wrote, and then chatted some more. After that I didn't have anything to do so I listened to an audiobook and drew a gratitude journal page for the first time in two weeks.

 

My third Zoom was Friday Night Knitting. I worked on Scrap Hat #4, got through the even rounds and into the crown decreases. Our numbers dwindled when the California contingent went off to bingo so when KW got tired at 8 o'clock we called it a night. I'm just as glad because I set my alarm for 6 in the morning so I'll be semi-awake when I arrive at the writing workshop to set up at 8 AM. Man, that's early.

 

Now I need to add pictures to these paragraphs, reread it to catch any typos, and then post it so I can hit the sack. Tomorrow should be quite a day. I'll report.

--Barbara 

Surprise!

After supper I looked out and was surprised to see a Bluejay on the suet nuggets. And it even stayed long enough for me to take three pictures. This one is the best because it shows most of the bird.

 

This morning a Goldfinch showed up and flitted around, posing here and there, until it stayed on top of the crook long enough for this shot.

 

I didn't even think of that when I flipped open the book and chose this to draw today. Another Goldfinch. It turned out pretty okay. The wing isn't right (it kinda looks broken) but I'll do better next time. Or not. (I'm thinking of the Heron that was worse the second time I drew it.) These might be my best bird feet though.

 

The Christmas cactus buds are getting bigger and pinker. There is no logic to this plant. For years it didn't bloom. Then it made a couple blooms. And now that I've given it a bigger pot, more water, and more direct sunlight it's going crazy flinging blooms out helter skelter.

 

Either this Robin feels extra dirty or is particular about being clean because it took a very thorough bath today. Robins are the most enthusiastic bathers of the birds that frequent my yard. They fling and flail, splashing out quite a bit of the water every time.

 

And would the day be complete without a picture of a squirrel on the suet nuggets feeder? I think not. Here's today's entry. I didn't see an Oriole today and haven't seen a Hummingbird in a week. Dang it.

 

The audiobook narrator sent me the revisions this morning, I listened to them, approved the production, paid the invoice, and published it. Now it goes through the quality assurance process which takes about 10 days before it's released into the world.

The back passenger side door of my car won't unlock. Not even if you pull the lock knob. So I've got an appointment next Wednesday to have it looked at. Fingers crossed a wire is pinched or rubbed and it's easily fixed. I don't want to not be able to lock my car and I really really don't want to have to get a new/used one. I'm so nervous about it.

--Barbara