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 

Today Felt Like Summer

It was sunny and 80 degrees today, but not too humid, so it felt the way summer is supposed to feel in Wisconsin. Leaves are turning colors and falling so I got to crunch through the fallen leaves on my afternoon walk. You can tell how warm it was because I'm still wearing sandals. But probably won't be wearing them tomorrow when it's supposed to be 63 for the high tomorrow. Maybe I'll still wear sandals. We'll see what my toes have to say about it.

 

The chrysanthemums are blooming at the appropriate time now. Many of the buds of the golden yellow mums opened while I was gone but they stay a long time so I didn't miss them.

 

The bronze ones next to them are blooming too.

 

And the purple ones which started blooming in July (!!!) are still blooming. The early bloomers are browning now but there are still plenty of fresh flowers to be admired.

 

A Red-bellied Woodpecker made repeated visits to the round birdseed feeder, landing one time with its back to me so I could see all of it but moved before I even got the camera into my hands. So I had to snap photos when I saw its head. Four of the six shots showed a headless bird but I managed to get most of the bird on two of them. I'll save one for tomorrow.

 

Today I drew Pussy Willow. It was a little challenging but I think it turned out okay. I thought about painting but couldn't decide what to paint so I just drew and colored.

 

I finished going through the roundtable critiques from last week. Lots of good comments, lots of helpful insights. Man, I wish I had that group to present to and get help from all the time.

--Barbara 

The October Wisconsin Squirrel Report

Today's first squirrel sighting was this young one sitting on top of the patio umbrella. It wasn't looking down on the feeders so I wasn't sure what it was doing up there. Maybe just being up high.

 

Then I saw this one hanging onto the round feeder nibbling seeds and peanut halves from the ports. It moved around until it was hanging on sideways so it must have checked out each port for goodies.

 

The best squirrel action was this evening. I watched a squirrel running along the top of the retaining wall and when it got up to the hanging horse head feeder, the feeder was turning and it turned to look at the squirrel. The squirrel startled so hard it fell off the top of the wall. It clung to the edge and pulled itself up, then looked around as if to see if someone saw it. I'm sure if it could talk, it would have said, "EEK!" Too funny. Unfortunately it happened so fast and is too far away for a clear picture so you get to see the feeder without a squirrel.

 

Yesterday at the craft show, GBB looked up "magic wand" on her phone (I don't know why) and an "adult" site popped up. She said that was definitely not what she was looking for. But the booth behind us had these jeweled plant sticks that look like magic wands so I asked how much they were and was told $6 or 2/$10. I thought about getting a couple but the booth owner offered 2 for free since we'd been giving her info about how to publish a book her daughter wrote and illustrated as a child. That was nice of her. Not surprisingly, I chose a red one. I gave her my card and said she could email me if she wanted help with self-publishing. 

 

Since one of the other classes at The Clearing last week was oil painting, I was motivated to paint today. I pulled one of my framed first watercolors off the wall and tried to paint it again. It isn't great but it isn't terrible either. I like the way the sky and the birch trees turned out. I'm getting better at birch trees.

 

I spent a lot of the day slogging through the emails I got over the last week. There's no internet service in the rooms at The Clearing, so I used my cellphone's hotspot every day to save my writing to the cloud and sort emails. It's a good thing I have unlimited data. During the week, I'd delete the emails that I knew I didn't need or want to read, but that left a lot of them to read today. Plus I had to pay the bills that came during the week. 

Finally this evening I pulled out the copies of Chapter 1 of Not Fair to go through the comments made during my roundtable critique session last week. Lots of helpful comments and suggestions. I deleted a bunch of unneeded verbiage and added character details that were missing. I was assuming that people would read the first book first so I wouldn't have to give all the character details in the second book. Wrong. My other booboo is giving too much exposition in the form of dialogue. It isn't natural sounding. Another thing to watch for in Book 1.

I was going to take a walk today but I never got around to it. Bad girl. I did get my writing things put away and the crate and suitcase hauled downstairs and put away, so that's something. 

DD called this evening after getting IT tucked into bed, so I'm late blogging. It was so good to talk to her. I really like her. Isn't that lucky?

--Barbara