All Clean

It was a gorgeous sunny day today and the landscapers came just before lunchtime to do the fall cleanup of my yard. They started at the end of the retaining wall and moved to the other end, snipping and cutting, until it was all cleaned up. Then they cut down the ferns, trimmed the bushes, cut back the roses, and cut down the pampas grass on the corner. It's so restful to look up there and not see weeds and straggly leaves.

They liked the horse head squirrel feeder but now it looks a little lonely up there all by itself. After my walk this afternoon I filled it up and as it was getting dark I saw a couple squirrels investigating it.

 

This squirrel didn't hesitate to glom onto the suet nuggets feeder and have a feast. It was a little tentative at first but it quickly got into the swing of things and chomped away.

 

I was lucky enough to catch this picture of the Red-bellied Woodpecker just as it found a peanut half in the seed feeder and before it flew away. I snapped another shot but it was just a blur of stripes and wings.

 

I impressed myself by getting five things onto the gratitude journal page for yesterday and I could have added at least one more if I'd have had room or drawn things smaller. I was most excited about finding my audiobooks on Libby.

 

Instead of painting tulips again, I tried the next video in the series, Astilbe, aka Goldenrod (not to be confused with Ragweed). I think it turned out okay. I was just glad we only painted one stem instead of the overlapping three in the reference photo.

 

When I was leaving for my walk, there was a tiny box on my porch. Inside it were my new The Seaview Series bookmarks. With five covers to the series, it was difficult to cram all the standalone books on there too, so I've ordered two separate designs--series and standalones--so the cover pictures are bigger. I plan to shuffle them together. I'm not usually a fan of the color blue but I like the way this looks. The other bookmark with the four standalones still has red accents.

 

Most of the day when I wasn't watching the landscapers or walking or painting, I worked my way through the rest of the Manuscript Analysis comments. The last one was the hardest. It suggested that I needed better forensic information about the weapon and method of the three murders. That meant I spent quite a bit of time searching the web, looking for how durable a flint knife is and how hard it is to shove it into the space between a skull and spine. I worry that one of these days someone will ring my doorbell to ask exactly what I'm doing with that information. I circled one comment that I haven't tackled yet. It needs thinking about. It wants me to vary the interrogation of the suspects and it gives suggestions but I'm not sure how or if I want to do it. I consider these comments suggestions rather than commandments. I'm still the author and have the final say.

The other day I got an email in my author email box supposedly from an editor at Penguin/Random House. I'm very suspicious of emails like that that come unbidden. Agents and editors don't troll for clients, do they? People complain how difficult it is to find/get an agent. I can't imagine a real editor would email me telling me how terrific my books are and wondering what I'm planning in the future. It's just too unlikely. I didn't answer. 

--Barbara

Exciting Find

MB, my cleaning lady, came today and the first thing she told me was that she'd signed up on Hoopla through the library and was looking for an audiobook to listen to. Featured on the page was Better Than Mom's, so she borrowed it and is listening to it. I went to Hoopla on the library's website and there it was so I took its picture. I also learned that the library is cancelling its Hoopla membership at the end of the month due to budgetary constraints. Boo.

 

Then I thought, maybe my audiobooks are on Libby too, so I went there. They are! All six of them lined up so pretty I had to take another picture. Hoopla and Libby are some of the places that are opportunities on Voices INaudio, the distributor I put my audiobooks on earlier this year, but I didn't know that people in my hometown could borrow my books through the library. That's so cool!

 

It took some thinking to draw the gratitude journal page for yesterday but I finally managed. I was most grateful that I finally had the guts to put those uncomfortable shoes in the donate box. 

 

The Red-bellied Woodpecker visited the round birdseed feeder. Unfortunately it was in the shade so it's a little hard to see but, trust me, it was there in all its black-and-white striped back, red-headed glory.

 

I took another stab at painting tulips today. I like that I managed to spread the flowers around better on the page but I'm still not satisfied. Some of the stems are too thick and I feel like I can do even better arranging them. I'll try again. Hey, it's only paint and paper. What else do I have to do?

 

I tackled another page of Manuscript Analysis comments this afternoon. One was easy to fix. All I had to do was add a sentence or two near the end to carry one character into the sequel. Then came the hard part. The comment was that the climax scene gave too much away, that all of the dialogue detracted from the action. So I went through and extracted superfluous verbiage (meaning I took out the extra words), pasted them all onto the Darlings page, then I found a later place and way to reinsert the information so that the murderer's motive is clear without boring the reader. Whew. That was challenging.

It was really foggy this morning but it burned off and turned into a great afternoon. They're predicting fog for tomorrow morning too. I can't figure out what makes it foggy. Cool nights and warm days? Haven't got a clue.

--Barbara 

Hawk

I walked in from an errand, glanced out the patio door, and saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk sitting on the fence. It had its back to me so I couldn't see its yellow legs or its tan and white breast, but I could see its squared-off tail that told me what kind of hawk it was. (I looked it up) BTW, there were no birds or squirrels at the birdbath or feeders while it was there. Go figure.

 

I finally got tired of my desk chair wheels catching in the cracks of the chair mat, so this morning I unloaded the things from the shelf alongside the desk (because it was sitting on the corner of the mat). I had tried to extend the life of the old mat with duct tape but that only worked for so long. When I picked up the old mat, there was tape stuck to the carpet underneath. Oops. The new mat is thicker and bigger so it covers more area. Maybe it'll last 10 years like the old one did. As I reloaded the shelves, I sorted through things and recycled and tossed a lot of stuff. So the job did double duty.

 

This squirrel spent a lot of time on the round feeder today. I'm convinced that it spent most of the day on and off of it. It ate a while, twisting around to investigate every port, then it'd drop off, scamper around, climb up the patio chair, leap to the feeder, and start all over.

 

I slept until 9:00 again today, so it was afternoon before I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday. My favorite thing was getting a call from DD after sending her a text saying hi.

 

When I went out to fill the birdbath before supper, I saw this red leaf had blown into the yard so I took its picture. The maple tree next door and my little maple tree's leaves are still green but there are trees downwind that have turned amazing colors. I figure that's where the red leaf came from.

 

I decided to paint again today instead of draw. I like these tulips but I made the stems the wrong lengths so that all of the flowers are clumped together in the middle, almost in a line. They should be spread out. I'll try again.

 

I didn't do much writing today. I had a critique zoom with cda this afternoon, and spent a lot of time rereading old writing that I then recycled. I even tossed a couple old Bullet Journals that didn't have much interesting in them.

I also tossed those uncomfortable shoes into the donate box. Someone will like them.

--Barbara 

Woodpecker Day

Today was a Red-bellied Woodpecker day at the feeders. First this morning it was at the not-full suet nuggets feeder, on the back side as usual, but horizontal so both ends of it stuck out. It stays as long as it takes to peck out a big lump of suet and then it flies off.

 

I filled the feeders so it came back to the round feeder and spent a lot of time pecking and pecking in the feeding ports shoving birdseed onto the ground until it found a peanut half. It tried three of the four ports before it found the peanut and flew away.

 

The landscapers were supposed to come today to do the yard fall cleanup but I got a call that one of them (there are only two) sprained an ankle on Friday. She's got it wrapped and in an inflatable boot and they think they'll be able to come on Wednesday. In preparation for their arrival I refilled the horse head feeder with a smear of peanut butter in the opening and corn kernels in the snout. It'll probably be empty by Wednesday. Oh well.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal was a pretty easy one. A bright sunny day, a little yoga, and a shower. What more can a person want?

 

I decided I wanted to paint today instead of draw so I booted up a flower painting video and painted this hyacinth. She didn't paint the background but I like it painted so I did.

 

A squirrel figured out that I filled the suet nuggets feeder so it wasted no time clinging to the feeder and nibbling away. It stayed a long time.

 

After I sent the Zoom link for tomorrow's critique meeting with cda, and went through the editing questions she sent instead of manuscript pages, I spent the rest of the day starting through the comments in the Manuscript Analysis of Three Cheers for Murder. I moved quite a bit of writing I like to my Darlings file and out of the manuscript. The major comment was about telegraphing the murderer too much and too soon. Most of the comments I kind of agree with, some of them are hard to face and follow. One of the scenes I had to rip apart was one with a Ouija board and the sleuth and her friend that basically pointed at the murderer. A lot of that one went into the Darlings file. Instead of just deleting sentences and segments, I put them in the Darlings file so if I decide I want them back, there they are waiting in the wings.

I took a walk this afternoon in shoes that I haven't worn in a while. They're supposed to be good to walk in but I think they're not good for that. They feel too stiff. They don't flex when I walk so I'll probably retire them. I have enough aches when I walk without my feet hurting too.

--Barbara 

Zzzzz

I couldn't believe it when I opened my eye this morning to look at the clock. It was 9:30! That meant I slept for 10 hours--with one bathroom trip at 5:30, but still that's a long time to sleep. My whole morning was shot. I had breakfast, did the Wordles, did yoga, and when I got out of the shower it was nearly noon. Incredible. So I had lunch at around 2:30, and supper around 6:30. Will I stay up too late tonight? No. Because the landscapers are coming tomorrow to do the yard's fall cleanup and I don't know when they'll arrive, so I'll be setting my alarm for 7:00 so I'm not still rolling in the sack when they get here.

 

The Red-bellied Woodpecker visited the suet pellets a few times today. When I saw it the first time, all I saw was the tip of its tail. It was perfectly aligned with the feeder and nearly invisible. It peeked around the side a few times and I tried to snap its picture and failed. The next time I saw it, this is what I saw. Part of the bird on the side of the feeder. I'll take it.

 

After lunch I drew yesterday's gratitude journal page. I really amuse myself with the daily weather report and made myself cry drawing the knitting zoom boxes with one empty one.

 

I spent most of the day working to add things to Three Cheers for Murder. I thought I did okay so I ran another Manuscript Analysis. Well. It doesn't agree with my personal analysis of the story. I'll go through the suggestions and then see what I think. It does say right on the analysis results that human opinions are better than it. I take it at its word.

 

Today's drawing is Geometrics. Triangles, to be precise. My triangle trees are a little wonky. For some reason my left side line isn't right, too slanted to the right. Or maybe my right side line isn't slanted enough. I'll try again another time.

 

I'm working to knit the gusset of the Regia Summer Sock, which is my least favorite aspect of sock knitting so I procrastinate, thereby making it last longer. Not particularly smart of me, but I'm often a trial to myself.

 

I spent most of today thinking that it was Sunday and wondering why there wasn't a flyover before the football game. It's Saturday, Barbara, and tomorrow's game is after dark so there shouldn't be a flyover, which is the only part of football I like.

--Barbara 

That Took Care of That

Yesterday's rain and today's wind took care of most of the leaves on the tree at the curve of the court. I took a walk this afternoon and the wind was cold. I was glad to have on a flannel shirt and padded vest. I wish I'd had on gloves, but I made it to the stop sign and back, probably faster than usual to get warm.

 

Something I don't see too often is one squirrel on the round feeder and another one on the suet nuggets. I was surprised that the nuggets squirrel didn't growl at the feeder squirrel and chase it away but they ate in peace for quite a while.

 

The drawing prompt/lesson today was Composition. She drew a taller vase or jar on the right side of her paper with poppies in it before the lesson, and then drew from there. I didn't draw that jar, I just started where she did, so my drawing is only of three jars or vases. She also wrote Fleurs (flowers in French) in the open space at the top of the page. I didn't.

 

I drew the gratitude page for yesterday in the afternoon.  Having my shoes and tee shirts swapped from summer to winter was the first thing I thought of, but picking up LC and OJ after school is always the best, even in the rain.

 

At Friday Night Knitting tonight, I finished the Pale Orange & Tangelo Chemo Hat. I only had three very short and getting shorter rounds to finish the crown decreases and then all the tails to weave in. I am not a fan of weaving in tails, especially in non-wool yarn because the yarn doesn't stick to itself so it's a challenge to get it to stay.

 We got sad news at knitting tonight. Our dear friend, KW, didn't show up. We knew she'd been put on hospice last week so things didn't look good. Her daughter joined us to let us know that her mom passed away on Wednesday. So fast. She gave it all she had for 10 years, but in the end the breast cancer won. This is a picture of her when she and I went out to a nature preserve snowshoeing about 11 years ago. There wasn't a lot of snow, as you can see, but we made the best of it and had hot chocolate at the end. She was a good friend. 

 

They're predicting a low of 29 degrees tonight. Freeze warning. Too early. No wonder I was cold on my walk. But back into the mid-60s next week. Whew.

--Barbara 

Bah

When I got dressed this morning, I counted on the rain staying away until after I took a walk so I jazzed up my feet because I could. I swapped my summer shoes and winter shoes, and short-sleeved t-shirts and long-sleeved t-shirts this morning. The red Chuck Taylor's are going away for the winter months so I thought I'd take them out for one more spin around the block.

 

Not so fast. This was what greeted me when I was ready to walk. Rain. And not just drizzle either. I could have walked in drizzle because I have a new raincoat and an old umbrella. But I didn't want to walk in the steady rain. So I didn't.

 In the morning, a Downy Woodpecker made a few trips to the round feeder and one glancing trip to the suet nuggets. I took four shots of it. In three of them you can't see the bird's head. *sigh* This was also the time of day when it wasn't raining. I should have taken a walk then but instead I went to the grocery because I was out of bananas and chocolate ice cream. Two very important foodstuffs. I suppose I can count walking around the superstore from one corner to the other as taking a walk but it isn't the same as just taking a walk.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for yesterday this morning. I like the way I incorporated clouds and sun in the weather report and I got brave and drew a whole me walking. And I even put a squirrel in the horse head feeder. Go, me!

 

Today's drawing was Drawing from Life. Not Life Drawing, not nekkid people, but she had three pots of succulents to draw and I copied her. They're not bad. I have a little issue with the center pot leaning to the left and the plants in the right pot leaning to the right. Oh well.

 

I have it in mind to beef up the sidekick's role in Three Cheers for Murder so I started back at the beginning and didn't get anywhere. Slightly frustrating. Maybe if I keep reading, I'll have an idea. At least I hope I will.

I got a text from MW, who picked up a copy of Sailing the Seas the day before yesterday, saying that he's on page 70 and when does the next one come out. Meaning he likes it. I told him that it'll be a long time before the next bookS come out because I won't publish until I have three ready. He didn't respond to that. It occurred to me yesterday that November is coming up and I've signed up for Novel November so I'll be buckling down to write a whole novel manuscript in 30 days. I've got the first five chapters of Not Fair already written so I can just go from there, right? Right.

Jeopardy! was difficult tonight. For me and the contestants. I missed the first round, but the scores weren't high, and in Double Jeopardy! there were a lot of unanswered questions. Ken Jennings was having to work hard to make the game exciting. I think he got tired of having to give the answers.

--Barbara 

Autumn View

I took a walk this afternoon and I'm sorry to say that it wasn't sunny so the autumn colors on the trees on my street weren't as bright as they might have been. But it was still pretty when I turned the corner toward home. (It's downhill too. Bonus!) As in years past, my little Pacific Sunset Maple tree is holding onto its green leaves for dear life. It will most likely wait until most of the other trees have changed colors and dropped their leaves before it does. My little tree marches to its own drummer.

 

I got a not-bad picture of a squirrel just after it ducked out of the horse head feeder. It was having a whale of a time poking its head in there to nab a kernel, coming out to eat what it grabbed, then going back for another. The landscapers are coming on Sunday to do the fall cleanup of the plants on top of the retaining wall and the rest of the yard. I can't wait to see their reaction to the horse head feeder.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal page was a pretty simple one to draw because my biggest gratitude was getting a letter from J.A. Jance, followed closely by getting to pick up LC and OJ after their piano lesson. I'm always grateful for that.

 

Speaking of squirrels, these two were wrestling on the patio. I was lucky to get this picture because they were moving so fast and soon ran off chasing one after the other.

 

The only birds I saw today were Sparrows and I only caught a photo of one on the round feeder. It kept looking around like it was expecting something to creep up on it.

 

Today's drawing was From Your Imagination. What came from the teacher's imagination was this multi petal flower. It was easy to draw since it didn't have to look like any real flower.

 

After supper, I finished the last four rows of heel flap and then turned the heel on the Regia Summer Sock. This is the part of sock architecture that I feel is the most magical. In a few short rows, you can make the yarn turn a corner ninety degrees so it cups the heel and moves onto the foot. Magic!

 

This morning I printed off the little Sale banner to attach to the new Seaview Series poster to take to shows. I'm offering the entire 4 novel & 1 novella set for the low low price of $50. Who can resist? Hopefully few people can.

 

In the afternoon, I worked on short stories because my stock of finished ones is dwindling. I've been working so hard on novels that I have to force myself to stop and shift focus to short stories so I have a continuous supply for my Substack posts.

As I sat here last night, I heard a sound that made me stop and listen. It was an owl hooting for a mate! It hooted and hooted and I never heard an answer. When I went to bed I didn't play my bedtime meditation so I could keep hearing the owl but the darned thing quit just as I climbed in. But it was great while it lasted. And I think I just heard a Canada Goose. What's it doing honking so late? Maybe it's lost.

It's definitely cooler today. Flannel shirt weather. Good thing I bought a new one at The Clearing bookstore last week.

--Barbara 

Holy Cow

Last month, I subscribed to the Sunday Letter Writing Project on Substack. The first prompt I received was to write about your favorite tree, so I wrote a letter to my DD about our family tree. (See what I did there?) The next one was to write one you didn't expect to arrive, so I wrote to the author J.A. Jance telling her how much I admire her writing and her flood of books over her career. I told her that I'm a writer too and a bit about the subjects of my stories. SHE ANSWERED! I got a thick envelope in the mail today with a printout of her email reply. She'd sent it last week when I was at The Clearing and when she didn't get a quick answer, she sent hers snail-mail like mine. I found her email in my long list of unread ones from last week and replied immediately, letting my supper sit and cool. She told me about how she didn't start until mid-life, like me and my characters, and offered to send me a pdf of her poetry book. Yes, please! She answered right back with an apology for her cranky reply and the poetry book pdf. I'm over the moon.

 

Yesterday there was a trio of young-looking squirrels (thin, not-very-fluffy tails) cavorting around on the patio. Today this one with a very bushy tail hung on the round feeder for a long time investigating each and every feeding port to sample the goodies. The young ones did battle with the horse head feeder and finished off the cob corn kernels.

 

Here's the other Red-bellied Woodpecker picture from yesterday. I didn't spend much time at the table today so I didn't see many birds. When I looked at the SD card from the camera tonight I was glad I'd taken two pictures yesterday because there's slim pickings today.

 

Today I gave myself the job of rereading Three Cheers for Murder to see if I'm using dialogue as an info dump, which means to give information as dialogue, or telling rather than showing. People don't really talk like that so it needs to be changed. And I was also looking for descriptions that were too long and unnecessary. Those were two of the comments I got in the roundtable critiques from last week. I got up to Chapter 21 out of 29 and made quite a few deletions and revisions. I stopped where I did because I have a feeling that Chapter 21 will be a real challenge to revise. It's where the antagonist gave too much away in earlier versions so I'm sure I'll have to scale it back even more to preserve a little of the mystery. Although the sleuth is hot on the trail.

 

I did make the time this morning to draw a gratitude journal page for yesterday. I'm trying to make the sun a more interesting shape instead of the same tired circle every time, and I chickened out on drawing a whole person for my walk. Oh well.

 

Speaking of chicken, the other day I shopped at Metro Market instead of Meijer. At Metro Market they have cooked white meat chicken chunks in the deli case which is great for quick meals. I bought some and made curried chicken salad for lunches this week. It's yummy. I'm toasting some low-WW-point bread to use as a chicken salad conveyance device. Lovely.

 

After supper I drew a couple poppies in a jar. I like the dashed arc that suggests the bottom of the jar. For some reason that really pleases me.

 

I contacted my two local, eagerly waiting, male readers today and sold a copy of Sailing the Seas to each of them. It's so satisfying to have them call or email asking when they can get the new book, please! 

I probably could have gotten away with wearing sandals again today but I wore tennis shoes and socks so I could put my orthotic in the shoes. Arch support is a good thing. It was my day to pick up LC and OJ from piano and take them home. I get there a little early so I can walk around the block while I wait. OJ finishes first and plays with the teacher's outside kitty or reads a book while he waits. He asked if there's another one of my books he can read but the rest of them are a little too adult for a 10-year-old to read. He was okay with that.

Lately many more people are reading this blog. I don't know what changed but instead of 20-40 readers, I'm getting closer to 100. Not that I'm complaining, you understand, I'm kind of amazed and confused by it. I hope I don't disappoint.

--Barbara