Floating White Stuff

It's cottonwood season. That means that little puffs of white fluff are floating around getting into everything. The best way to show you is to see the birdbath. This morning the water was serene and clear. This afternoon there's fluff floating around in it. I'm sure the air conditioner sucked a bunch into the vanes and I saw that the grass looked like it had netting over it. It doesn't last long but it sure is annoying.

 

I filled the cob corn the other day and the squirrels have decimated it in record time. This squirrel spent a bit of time hanging by its hind feet gleaning kernels, dropping some, and eating others.

 

That made for happy hunting by this Bluejay. It wasn't visible when it was on the ground pecking up kernels, but I managed to catch a photo of it on top of the fence.

 

The Sparrows are determined to get every morsel of suet nuggets out of the feeder. They also deigned to peck at the suet cakes but didn't stay there long enough to have photographic proof. The coolest is the Robin that flies up to nab a beak full of suet cake before landing under the feeder and gobbling up what it could get.

 

The first Stella d'Oro lily has bloomed. This is the bud I showed you the other day that has burst into bloom. Pretty soon there'll be eleven plants just like this one blooming away.

 

I made another stab at a watercolor beach today. I like the sky and the beach with grass. I tried to fix the water and ended up screwing it up. It was a lot darker and bluer before I "fixed" it. I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe then I'll get all the parts right. Or at least better.

 

I added just one more round of ribbed brim to the Antipasto Chemo hat at Friday Night Knitting and then started on the hat body. Knit 6, purl 2 for the next seven inches before the crown decreases. I'll be here awhile.

 

Checking next week's weather, I made the executive decision not to take the red shoes with mesh tops because it's supposed to be rainy and I don't want wet feet. I'll wear one pair of white sneakers and take another pair of white sneakers so if one gets wet I can wear the other pair while the wet one dries. I've got a windbreaker packed that's good in a light rain and I've got umbrellas in the car. I'll take one into the room when I move in so I'll be ready, just in case.

The Amazon ads I was so excited to make yesterday are getting Impressions and each have a Click or two. No Sales yet, but at least people are seeing and reacting to the cover of my book.

--Barbara 

Goal!

Well, not many, but they played hard. I can't imagine being able to run up and down the soccer field for 15 minutes without stopping four times in an hour. OJ's team played this evening and were beaten by the fuchsia team. One of OJ's classmates was on the fuchsia team so they had fun defending each other. At this level of play, they don't really keep score, but it's pretty obvious who wins. Tonight was not a squeaker, not by a long shot. But they were good sports and had snacks.

 

The morning Turkey was here when I opened the drapes. She spent a lot of time preening herself and ruffling her feathers, which gave me a lot of time to enjoy the different patterns on them. For a bird whose head isn't all that attractive, her feathers are beautiful. 

 

I caught sight of a Goldfinch at lunchtime. He landed on the crook and stayed just long enough to have his picture taken before flying off on some important mission.

 

I searched YouTube for a watercolor video I could watch and paint along with. I found one that looked easy enough for me to follow. It's sky and water and a little bit of beach and grass. I'll take another stab at this but spending yesterday talking painting and packing to go to a week-long watercolor class has me itching to paint. Since my first string paints, paper, and brushes are packed, I had to bring out the second string but I think it went alright.

 

While waiting for my paint to dry I worked on the first thirteen chapters of Sailing the Seas, which is the working title of the next Seaview Series book. I'm working to weave in bits of Rose's thoughts and feelings that will foreshadow the big things coming later. I don't know how successful I'm being but at least I'm aware that the story needs things like that. That's a change. Part of me thinks I should email the manuscript to my Kindle and then spend my off times next week going over it and making notes. Another part thinks I should leave it where it is and have a week off from it to gain a little perspective. The second part is winning.

I also got really excited this morning when I was looking at the Chirp featured audiobooks for the day. One of them sounded almost exactly like The Seaview so I hurried up, got on Chrome, scraped keywords from it, and made two ads, one for Kindle and one for paperback for The Seaview using those similar titles and author names. Hopefully it'll pay off with more Impressions, Clicks, and even a Sale or two. I've been getting tens of thousands of Impressions and a few Clicks since I redid my ads but haven't gotten any Sales yet. It'll happen. I have faith. But then I also believe in Bigfoot.

--Barbara 

And She Came Back

I had a visitor when I opened the drapes this morning. The hen Turkey was back pecking around under the feeders. She was in a shaft of sunlight and I could admire her feathers. They aren't just brown like I supposed. There's gold and iridescent black and stripes. Very understated but very pretty.

 

I was picked up by my former neighbor, MK, around 10, then we drove to get another neighbor, DT, and were off to Kimberly where there's a gallery and art supplies store last summer's watercolor instructor told us about. It wasn't the gold mine we were led to believe. Everything was very expensive, brushes were limited, watercolor was even more limited. In short, we didn't find anything to buy. There was a lot of art to admire but prices were high and we weren't in the market for finished works anyway. From there we googled someplace to eat and ended up at Cinders in Appleton which was a very nice place for lunch. I had a Caribbean Jerk Chicken wrap with sweet potato fries that was very delicious and a little drippy. But I only got one drop on my shirt which I count as a victory. I shared this selfie with my kids and DS said we look the same as we did in the 80s. He's a nice man. Deluded, but nice.

 

Today's drawing is a Tulip. A poorly colored tulip. According to the cap on the pink marker it was supposed to be a light pink but that's not what came out of the tip. By then I was committed, so we have a very dark pink tulip. 

 

My tenant texted this morning that their toilet water line was leaking so I called Jerry's Household Plumbing and asked him to stop over. It evidently took two trips and more work than he expected but by late afternoon all was fixed. Whew.

 

The Stella d'Oro lily buds are getting bigger and one of these days will burst into bloom.

 

The more I thought about it, the less I liked the new Luhxe bag I packed yesterday. It was hard to zip together and the zippers themselves seemed flimsy. If I'd bought anything up at The Clearing there was no room to pack it, so I hauled up an old suitcase and repacked. Everything from the Luhxe bag is in there with room for toiletries, an extra pair of shoes, and a little extemporaneous shopping. It's not as much of an origami trick but I feel better about the durability of the bag and the wheels. The Luhxe bag seems more like a weekend bag than a week bag, especially since I'm not packing light dresses like the YouTube videos show.

It was great fun to spend the day with old friends. We talked about kids and husbands and houses and watercolor. We ate good food and laughed. A very nice day.

--Barbara 

So Happy To See Them

This morning I glanced out and there was a tiny little Downy Woodpecker on the square green feeder. I took a couple pictures that really didn't turn out. But then it flew over to get a drink from the birdbath and that's when I snapped this. It's been a while since a Woodpecker showed up. I was glad to see it.

 

On the other end of the bird size spectrum, look at what greeted me when I came home from Writers Guild this evening. It's the neighborhood hen Turkey enjoying the crumbs of suet nuggets that fall from the feeder. She's not foolish enough to try flying up to the feeder but is happy to reap the benefits of the other birds' and squirrels' messiness.

 

I was happy to see that the ISBN I assigned to Anneke's Legacy's audio files was approved overnight so I could go back in to update the metadata and get that quality assurance ball rolling. 

In the afternoon, I carried up the basket of clean laundry and the new Luhxe bag I bought for myself. I still have to fold clothes because I need to find another couple pairs of ankle socks to stuff in there but, aside from my toiletries bag and a second pair of shoes, I have everything I need in this bag. And there's still room. The bag has no structure, it's basically a leather-bound hanging bag. You put your clothes flat in the bag, then zip up the sides, and pack in the space made by folding and zipping it. I've got a pair of jeans, a windbreaker, five shirts, slippers, undies & socks, pajamas in there now. I'll add my toiletries and chargers on Sunday before I leave. It's kind of amazing.

 

Right on time, the five copies of Horizon I ordered arrived today. I ordered them because I updated the cover and wanted to have some with the new cover on hand. So I was less than thrilled when I opened the box to find the first book I took out had the old cover, but the other four have the new one. I took a picture of the old and new covers side by side. I think the lighter one looks much more appealing, don't you? The old one was was too moody and didn't fit the story. I think it repelled readers, making them think it was a sad story.

 

The only writing I did today was going over my (late) monthly writing progress email and sending it off to KM so she could get it sent out on MailerLite. I could probably do it myself but it changed since I set up the account and I get confused and frustrated. Better let KM do it and stay happy.

--Barbara 

Just a Glance

I was in the right place at the right time this afternoon to see the male Oriole at the grape jelly dish. He must have seen me see him because he took off as soon as my eyes touched him. Foolish bird.

 

The purple iris are still blooming and still standing. It hasn't been too windy so they're not falling over like they usually are.

 

And the bleeding hearts are nearing the end of their blooming cycle. The flowers aren't as bright pink and they're starting to wilt. 

 

I spent a lot of the afternoon uploading the chapters of Anneke's Legacy audiobook onto INaudio so the distributors aside from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes (like Chirp) can have it too. I almost got the forms all filled out and then realized that I'd forgotten to assign an ISBN number to the audio file so I have to wait for that to be processed. Then I can add it to the file and press "submit." I woke up today wondering why I hadn't heard from ACX that the audiobook was approved, checked their website, and it went live on May 28th. Perfect timing.

 

Today's drawing is a Seahorse. I think he looks a little startled. That isn't what I intended but I like the way the rest of him turned out.

 

I had my favorite breakfast and had to take its picture to show you. It's plain fat-free Fage Greek yogurt (I like it because it isn't soupy) topped with rhubarb sauce and cinnamon granola. Mm, so good.

 

Today was laundry day. I felt so smart because I put my hand-knitted socks and compression socks in mesh bags so they wouldn't be abraded in the washer. Well, one zipper opened up and spilled out the socks into the wash anyway. It took me a while to sort through the wet wash to make sure I hadn't missed one and put it into the dryer by mistake. I was hanging them on the line and realized I had only 11 and should have had an even number of socks. Pairs, you know. I went through the wet clothes in the dryer and didn't find it, then found it on the floor under the clotheslines. I must have dropped it. At least I found it before it got dried and shrunken.

I also completely spaced on the date and forgot to write my June writing progress email letter. KM sent me an email thinking she'd missed it. Instead I missed it. *head, slap* Guess what I'm doing tomorrow.

This afternoon I packed my watercolor supplies for next week and searched all over my computer for the packing list that I know I wrote up last spring. Do you think I could find it? No. I found a fall one but not a spring one so I had to make a new one. I saved it in two places so it doesn't go missing again.

--Barbara 

Sunday on the Road

I spent quite a bit of today driving to and from Sturgeon Bay (40 miles one way, door to door) because one of the bookstore owners that is such terrific support of local authors wrote a book and today was her launch party. I went to support her and also made sure I had books in the car just in case they needed any. Well. The other owner sold one of my books while I was there so I got to sign it to the buyer and then he asked me to bring in eight other volumes for inventory and paid me cash right then. I love this about them. This is her book. I look forward to reading it. I'll take it to The Clearing with me next week to read in the evening before bed.

 

On my way back home I stopped at Zambaldi because LC was supposed to be there doing glitter tattoos for the kids and I wanted a tattoo. Well, she did tattoos for 4 hours yesterday when they collected pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House charity, so she stayed home to study and fold laundry. DIL1 came to Zambaldi to do the tattoos. One cool thing was that DS had a Brewer For a Day today so I sneaked a photo through the taproom window into the brewery. He's the bald guy just to the left of the kegs. Instead of a beer, I had a root beer and an order of soft pretzels with cheese spread and homemade mustard to spread on them. Yum. When I left the brewery I zipped by their house and got to spend a few minutes with LC and OJ.

 

A squirrel discovered that I filled the suet nuggets yesterday so it hung by its back legs and ate so enthusiastically that crumbs fell from the feeder.

 

This male House Finch found the refilled grape jelly and had a little snack. You'd think their beaks would get sticky.

 

 

A Bluejay visited under the cob corn to see if it could find any fallen kernels. I've got lots of loose kernels in the bottom of the bag the cobs came in. Maybe I'll put some under the feeder.

 

The irises are still blooming. There are more purple ones than yellow ones and I don't know which I like better. Maybe the yellow ones.

 

The flowers of the perennial purple salvia are hard to see but they're very slim spears of purple on top of long straight stalks. Someone should probably weed around the flowers. I really should find a gardener to do that for me. I can reach some of the weeds but I'm too short to reach back to the fence. At least that's my excuse.

 

When I went out to fill the birdbath and take flower pictures I saw something odd in the backyard. I went over to see and found the back third of a rabbit, tufts of fur, and something slimy on the grass. I haven't figured out what to do with it all yet so I just left it. Maybe the Hawk or Owl will come back and finish the job? Yuk. There are no pictures.

I didn't do any art today and the only writing I did was going over the critiques for tomorrow's Zoom with cda. I think she sent me the real end of the story this week with a little epilogue tacked on. Maybe she's closer to being done than I thought. 

--Barbara  

Writing Outside

It was such a beautiful day that I took my laptop, mouse, notebook, and pencil out onto the patio to work on Amazon ads this afternoon. I sat there for about an hour but I was in the shade and the breeze was brisk and a little chilly so it wasn't all that comfortable. So I went back inside. But I tried. I'll do it again when it's over 72 instead of 67 and breezy.

 

I've always known that keyword ads worked better for me than auto ads or category ads and today I got proof. I made twelve ads for Horizon, Better Than Mom's, and Island Dreams. I was taught to make separate ads for kindle and paperback books so each list of keywords gets made into two ads. By the time I got to the eleventh and twelfth ads the previous ten were already delivering Impressions. No Clicks yet but at least my books are out in front of more people scrolling through looking for something to read. My ad count went from 115 before I realized what the problem was to 25 after I archived the inactive ones, and now I'm up to 81. I'll feel better when I get a few more keyword ads made.

 

And I figured out how to put the new Horizon cover on the audiobook file on INaudio. I've sent them two "help" emails and haven't gotten a reply but I went on the site this morning, poked around, and figured it out. All by myself. I'm still trying to figure out how to change the cover on Chirp. I sent them another email just now.

 

The House Finch pair visited the orange half and the male stopped for a few dips into the grape jelly later. Still haven't seen another Oriole or Hummingbird. I refilled the Hummingbird feeder with fresh sugar water yesterday so I'll watch to see if the level goes down. At least that way I'll know a Hummer is visiting even if I don't see it.

 

Today's drawing is a Badger. Wisconsin's state animal is a badger, also Bucky Badger is the mascot of the UW-Madison sports teams. (He's not gray and black, he's red and white.) So it's an appropriate thing to draw. I used markers to color it because I have a better brownish gray marker and don't have a colored pencil that color.

 

As a writing break, I made a batch of rhubarb sauce so I'll have it to put on my breakfast yogurt tomorrow. It looks a little foamy in the pan but that seems to go away as it cools. It tastes so good. 

 

I worked some more on the next next manuscript and on the critique I need to have done for Monday's session. I really need to read the how to write a cozy mystery book I've got on the shelf to see if there's something I'm not doing that I should be doing. There probably is.

The neighborhood dogs are extra barky tonight. I wonder what's going on. 

--Barbara