The Last Rosebud

For now. All of the other roses are fading and dropping petals but this one rosebud is just fixing to bloom.

Under the rosebush these purple mums are still thinking it's autumn. I need to go out and trim off the buds so that it learns its lesson again this year. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

Hidden by a tall bushy weed are the Black-eyed Susans. If I was taller I could reach the weed to cut it down but I'm not and I'm too chicken to tippytoe down along the fence up on top of the retaining wall. The grandkids can walk up there and the landscapers too but not me. I just can't do it. So the flowers are blooming in secret this year.

Oh man, today's Daily Practice was something. First it was drawing Cactus and that went pretty well. Then it was on to Paint Brushes and I gotta say that I will not be drawing paint brushes ever again. Those are without a doubt the worst looking brushes in captivity.

Drawing from 20 Ways to Draw a Butterfly went a bit better. I like the toucan and the pterosaurus, and the winged horse isn't bad, but the owl looks like some kid in an owl costume, and the bat should be colored black.

Today was the first day of the new Amazon Ad Challenge. I watched the first video this morning and it's the very same one that ran in May. I could tell because of the dates on his Marketing pages that he used as examples. But I paid attention and ended up changing the subtitle of the Horizon eBook and making an auto ad for it. Maybe that will draw a few clicks. Baby steps.

I went to two groceries today to get ingredients for the Farro Salad that I'll make tomorrow to take to the knit-away weekend on Friday. I got in a lot of steps in Meijer because I accidentally touched a couple items that moved them to the delete pile before I got them into the cart so checking that I had everything before I left took me back retracing my steps in Produce. I had to go to Metro Market too because they have boneless chicken breasts in the butcher case so I could just buy one half-pound piece instead of having to buy a whole five-pound package when I only need six ounces.

--Barbara

Look a Little Closer

No new flowers are blooming in my yard so I decided to dial up the close-up setting on my camera and see what I could see. First was this Stella d'Oro lily. It's such a pretty shade of yellow and is the perfect lily shape for one day. Tomorrow it'll be all shriveled and dying.

Look at the pollen on this dusty pink day lily. I wonder if a bee had just visited and made a bit of a mess.

The orange day lilies are going strong up on the retaining wall and down along the west lot line. Those are the ones that I can get close to. I really like the deep yellow throat of the flower.

These yellow flowers are weeds in the lawn. I don't know what they are but they sure are pretty.

While my small visitor played with Lego I did a little drawing out of the 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish book. I like the way the Orca turned out.

Once again the Daily Practice was one understandable thing to draw (Fish) and one weird thing to draw (Forks). I enjoyed drawing the fish. I could have filled the whole page with fish drawings. The forks were odd to draw. I had trouble making them symmetrical. I think I have one more big blank sketchbook page that I'll use for two day's worth of drawings then I'll scale back to a single day's worth for the last ten days or so of the lessons.

And I took the opportunity this afternoon to add on some ribbing rounds to the cuff of of the Kestrel sock.

I got a haircut this morning. She was running late so I waited half an hour once I got there but she did a pretty good job getting me cut, styled, and out of there so I could pick up OJ for the afternoon. We went to Titletown Park and he met a nice girl who played and played with him. They ran around and climbed and slid and had a blast. He really wanted to stay in touch with her but her mother wouldn't let her give him her address. He was pretty disappointed about that, poor little guy. I guess it was his first heartbreak. He'll recover.

--Barbara

One

I went up to Other Worlds Books & More bookstore in Sturgeon Bay today because a tour bus was stopping. They park behind the mall that the bookstore is in so the tourists have to walk through the mall to get to the main shopping street. So the owners of the bookstore invite "their" local authors to come and set up a table and hopefully sell some books. The tourists today were NOT readers. I don't know what they were but it wasn't readers. I sold one book--to another author--and bought two books on Kindle when I got home. So not only did I drive 100 miles to make $9 but I spent $13 online. Oh well. I'm deciding whether I'm going to go back up for the next tour bus on Tuesday but I'm for sure going up next Thursday for sidewalk sale day which will have much more traffic. I think that Thursday is from 10-4 which is a long time but if I have the chance to sell more books I guess it's worth it.

When I was trying to decide what to wear today I realized that I don't have much "nice" clothing. I have jeans capris and t-shirts but very little "book sale/author" clothes. I also need something nice to wear to a party on the 29th so once I got home and did my business business I went up to T.J. Maxx and shopped. I found 2 pairs of black pants, 5 tops, and a pair of red canvas flats. I realized that it had been three years since I'd been clothes shopping like that, since lockdown. It was fun.

A Cardinal showed up on the platform feeder this morning and once again it chased away all comers. The Mourning Doves and one of the squirrels have pretty much cleared out the safflower seeds from the feeder, the greedy guts. I didn't think squirrels liked safflower seed.

Today's Daily Practice was Root Vegetables and Bikinis. Bikinis? Really? What weird thing could be next? I guess I'll wait and see.

Then I dived back into 20 Ways to Draw a Tree and had fun drawing a tree, a mushroom, a bird, a flower, a fern, and a pinecone. This is the first time that I've been semi-pleased with the way the pinecone turned out so that's a win right there.

It was almost time to come back here and blog when I realized that I should have spent part of the evening casting on the Kestrel Sock so I cast on and managed a single round of ribbing before I carefully put it down and came here to blog.

Oh, and here's today's roses. NH, I looked up how to make rosewater and I need more petals than I have available right now but I'll keep it in mind when they bloom again later in the summer. Thanks for the info.

It was fun meeting other authors today even though the tourists were a disappointment. Maybe I'll go back on Tuesday AND Thursday just in case the next tour bus is filled with readers. I'm still thinking about it. I have time. I am tempted.

--Barbara

Didn't Do Nothing

I had one of those days when I just didn't. I spent most of the morning in my pjs, then took a shower, then goofed off the rest of the day.

I did draw. First I drew the Daily Practice of Watches and Apples. Watches is a weird thing to draw, don't you think? Not quite as weird as pitchers but getting there.

Then I pulled out the book of Chibis and drew a Kangaroo and Koala. I think the Kangaroo turned out better than the Koala, especially the coloring part. I need more shades of gray colored pencils, I guess.

Dad's roses are still out there trying. There are a few random buds that might still open but most of the flowers are on the way out.

Tomorrow I get to drive to Sturgeon Bay (it's about an hour's drive) to a bookstore where a tour bus is stopping. The bookstore owner likes to have local authors on hand when the buses come to give them a chance to sell their books. I hope that I sell some. Fingers crossed. At least it's a nice scenic drive to Sturgeon Bay.

--Barbara

Now You See It, Now You Don't

I got lucky this morning. I was looking out the patio door when a Hummingbird came to the feeder so I grabbed the camera, framed the shot, and the bird moved to a different spot on the feeder. I took the picture anyway. On the left side you can just barely see its belly and tail. It's been so long since I saw one that I'm putting the picture on here even though you can't really see the bird. But I know it's there.

Yesterday I days-numbered the Daily Practices and realized this morning that I was one off so I went back through the drawings and realized that I skipped Day 4--Leaf. *sigh* So I drew Leaves first and then drew Ferns which is Day 14. Now I'm caught up. I was sure that I'd hate drawing Ferns but I like the way they turned out.

I started another pass through 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish so the first thing I drew was a jellyfish, then a pufferfish, an anemone, a Manta ray, a seahorse, and a squid. I just love drawing these little ink creatures. I know they're not as colorful as the chibis or the cute things or the Seuss-ian drawings but, dang it, they make me feel like I can draw.

I spent most of the afternoon working on writing. I managed a few pages of scene-lets. What I wrote were three or four short pieces that might fit in there somewhere someday. One came out of left field but maybe it'll make it into the final draft. As always, I'm just happy to have written.

After supper I went downstairs and picked out my next sock yarn and grabbed a little skein of dishcloth cotton to cast on a warshrag so I'll have two projects to take along next weekend. I also knitted a couple rounds of the Rainbow Brioche Beanie. I meant to knit more on it but it's excruciatingly hard for me to knit so I quit after two rounds. I'm never going to get the additional 2" I need to get to the crown decreases. Which might be a good thing since I can't envision how the crown decreases work. Gah!

I also folded a basket of clean laundry. There are no photos.

--Barbara

All Wound Up

This afternoon I realized that I was going to finish the toe of the Hayden Hawthorne Sock at Friday Night Knitting tonight so I need more sock yarn ready so I can cast on another sock for next weekend's knit-away with friends. First, here's the Hayden Hawthorne Sock in all its glory. I wove in the tails and even darned the holes where the heel joins the leg of the sock which I'm sure were holes because I screwed up knitting the heel. Oh well, all fixed now. P.S. I hope it fits.

And here's all the sock yarn I wound up. I figured that as long as I had the swift and ball winder out and set up I might as well just get it all wound into cakes so I can just pick yarn and go. I think that the three smallest cakes are one-socks-worth of yarn which is perfect for me because I never knit two socks the same.

I've still got roses although they're starting to fade. I'll miss them when they're gone but they'll be back at the end of summer.

Today's daily practice was Tulips and Owls. I feel like I did better on the owls than on the tulips. I especially like the tiny owl I drew in the lower right of the page just to fill in the space.

In keeping with the flowers theme I paged through Draw 500 Fabulous Flowers and found these on the next page. Meh. They're alright.

And finally, art-wise, I painted a flower on a postcard. It's okay.

When I opened the drapes this morning this rabbit was lounging on the back step. Just laying there chilling in the morning cool. It kept a close eye on me while I carefully picked up the camera and took its picture.

The chipmunk never rests. It's always on high alert, twitching, scratching, ears pricked, and muscles tense. Even sitting there in the shelter of the birdseed cans you can see that it was ready to make a dash for safety.

It was hot-ish and muggy today so I stayed indoors where it's cool. I probably should have gone out, unhooked the hose from the soaker hoses, and watered the geraniums and cleaned and refilled the birdbath but I just wasn't in the mood. Maybe I'll do all that tomorrow.

--Barbara

Wisconsin Chainsaw Afternoon

Here I sat at the laptop, minding my own business, when the chainsaws fired up and big pieces of tree started falling. The neighbors had their trees trimmed so now I won't have to duck branches when I mow and maybe the leaf carpet will be less solid in the fall. To give you an idea of how much they trimmed away, I used to not be able to see their window through the leaves. Now I can. I was so impressed because the tree trimmers didn't have a big ladder to get into the tree, the guy just climbed up using spikes and a rope, and he had a chainsaw dangling from his belt. The guy had to be 30' up in the tree. Amazing.

Today's Daily Practice was mushrooms and brooms. Brooms is another goofy thing to draw. I spread the mushrooms out a bit too much so I had to squeeze the brooms in at the bottom of the page but, like I said, I'm not wasting paper.

Then I started a second pass through Things With Wings (20 Ways to Draw a Butterfly) and had fun drawing a butterfly, an angel, a ladybug, a paper airplane (which didn't turn out so well), and a winged foot. I find the winged feet very odd.

After lunch I went out to fill the feeders and decided to put in fresh suet cakes. When I lifted the roof of the feeder a dozen hornets came boiling out. Yikes! I didn't get stung and I managed to use a stick to knock out the big and little nests that they'd built under the roof and in the middle of the feeder. I'm sure they went right back to work building another nest but I felt good that I'd managed to fill the feeder without getting stung. I left the nest on the ground and noticed about an hour later that something had carried it off. I wonder what did that. I also bought a different flavor of suet pellets yesterday that I filled the feeder with. I'm trying to figure out if it's the orange flavored ones that attracts all the birds or if it's any and all flavors.

I was lucky enough to catch a young House Finch pecking away at the orange half. It also had a dip in the grape jelly in the dish below the orange but I didn't get a shot of that.

 

Today's painting was not as successful as the sunflowers of a couple days ago. I'm not saying that I don't like how it turned out, I think it's a little too loose, but I like the colors.

I tried on the Hayden Hawthorne Sock and decided that I had enough foot to start the toe decreases. I want to finish this sock so I can cast on another one before I go away for a knitting weekend with friends. A sock is good "knit and talk" knitting, especially a plain old stockinette sock.

Writing went okay this afternoon. I got a couple pages hammered out, killed off one character, and brought another one back. All in all, a pretty good day.

Happy Birthday to DD! My best baby girl turned 42 today. How did she get that old?

--Barbara