They're a Match

It wasn't nearly as warm today as it was yesterday and there was a sharp chilly wind blowing off the bay to make things feel like November. A few weeks ago I was shopping the Land's End clearance sale and found a golden tan colored vest that was very reasonably priced, cheap even, so I ordered one and I love it. I wore it this afternoon on my walk while I waited in the pickup line but I needed some fingerless mitts to keep my hands a little warm. I had some silver gray ones in the car that I wore but they weren't the exactly right ones. When I got home, I found the pair of mitts that my knitting friend, CS, made for me a few years ago and they're a match. Don't they look just right together?

 

This squirrel curled itself around the round birdseed feeder this morning and had a lovely long eat. It excelled at tossing seed down to the ground.

 

At the same time right below it, this squirrel reaped the benefits of the falling seed. If you look closely you can even see some birdseed caught in the fur on its back.

 

When I got home there was a big flock of Juncos pecking away at the seed fallout in the grass and on the patio. I don't know when I've seen that many Juncos together. Usually there's one or two, not six or eight. They kind of blend in but, trust me, there are a lot of them.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal page was pretty simple to draw. I was mostly grateful for the number of words I wrote. 1,769! That's a lot. Then there was hosting knitting with friends. We ate and talked and exulted over the blue wave, and knitted. And I sold two Sailing the Seas. Thank you, CS!

 

Today's drawing is Cornflowers. They turned out pretty well. I wish I'd had more blue colored pencils but since blue isn't one of my favorite colors, I'll make do with the ones I have already.

 

And speaking of flowers, the Christmas Cactus buds are opening. This one is the most open, another one isn't far behind, and there are at least five more getting ready. It really pays to water plants. 

 

I sat down to write this morning, picked up where I left off yesterday, and it went well. I finished the scene I started yesterday and then moved on to a surprise scene I hadn't anticipated. It's so much fun when the characters take over and take me places I hadn't planned on or thought of. I love it! My day's word count is 1,701. Not bad. Anything over 1,667 is gravy. I've still got one chapter's word count I haven't entered in the total, but I'm saving that for Sunday because I've got a show from 10-3 and won't have a lot of day left to write. And maybe no energy for it either.

--Barbara 

Unbelievable

Today is November 4th. I live in Green Bay, Wisconsin which is about 50 miles south of the 45th parallel. It's supposed to be cool this time of year. Yesterday and today it was in the 60s. I had the window over the sink open all day. In November. In Wisconsin. It's supposed to cool off into the 50s and 40s the rest of the week, but I remember times when I had to bundle the kids up in snowsuits for trick-or-treating. Crazy weather.

 

My Pacific Sunset maple tree's leaves are finally starting to turn. I looked out this morning and thought for a minute I was looking at the neighbor's pumpkins but it was my leaves turning dark orange. It's about time. Just about every other tree in the neighborhood is nothing but bare branches, but my tree is clinging to its chlorophyll for dear life. 

 

This has got to be the worst bird picture I've taken in a really long time. It's a Downy Woodpecker and just as I depressed the shutter it leaned over to peck at the feeding port on the side and then it flew away. Now it just looks like a black and white blob clinging to the feeder.

 

As soon as the Woodpecker left, a Sparrow flew up to the feeder. I snapped the picture and evidently moved because it's blurry. I think a Red-bellied Woodpecker was on the suet nuggets at about the same time but all I saw was a flash of white and the feeder swinging as it flew away. Just missed it.

 

A squirrel had the suet nuggets feeder in a stranglehold for a long time. There were about 3 inches of nuggets in the feeder so it had to work hard to stay in position. After the birds and squirrels left for a break I went out and filled all the feeders so they'd have lots to keep themselves busy with.

 

The only drawing I did today was the gratitude journal for yesterday. I'm always grateful for the right to vote. I vote every chance I get and I'm excited by the changes that yesterday's voters made. It'll be interesting come January 4.

 

I spent most of the day writing. I sat down here determined to just pound out today's words. And I did. I made up my mind that I was going to send my sleuth detecting, interviewing suspects, and I got her there and talking to the suspects. Now I have to figure out how to maneuver the conversation around to the murder. That'll be on tomorrow's agenda. Today's words totaled out at 1,769. Almost makes up for yesterday's paltry 826. Almost. It's a good thing I have chapters 1-5 to beef up my overall word count.

I was even smart and took a break in the afternoon to take a walk.

Tonight I hosted knitting here. I made a batch of curried chicken salad with grapes and bought a box of mini croissants to make little sandwiches. KE brought chips and hummus, CS brought fruit, and DM brought apple pie and ice cream. We did not starve. I also forgot to take a picture of the table before we started in on the goodies. Oh well.

--Barbara 

Lots of Water

Making beer takes a lot of water. I went down to Zambaldi Beer this morning to visit DS and the floor was awash. In water, not beer. He was emptying out the sanitizer and flushing with clear water (I think), anyway there was a lot of water everywhere. He was making Cherry Air which is a very popular winter drink in the taproom. They heat it and add mulling spices. People clamor for it. Hot beer? I don't really like cold beer. I'll stick with root beer.

 

I skipped yoga this morning and went right to getting dressed and getting to the polling place. I anticipated a line and there was one, but not too long. The longest wait was for a voting booth after getting the ballot. There were three referenda and one question. Those took a lot of reading and figuring out what they said because they're always worded so obscurely you'd need a political scholar to interpret them. I wore my pearls to honor Ruth Bader Ginsberg and my dissent collar earrings too. I was ready. I was voter number 178 in my district.

 

It was a crap day, weatherwise. I wanted to take a walk but it spit rain most of the day, just enough to make it uncomfortable to be outside, just enough to make the streets wet so I needed my wipers on intermittent to keep the windshield clear. I didn't sit at the kitchen table much so I didn't see much wildlife. Just a few squirrels scampering around. One posed next to the birdbath just as a few raindrops made rings in the water. I'm always glad to take pictures of those rings.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal took some thinking but I managed to figure out four things to put on there. I'm pretty happy with my drawing of a hamburger and tater tots. That's the only drawing I did today.

 

Last week I read an essay on someone's Substack and then read the comments. One of the commenters linked to a website called cronehub.org, which is a curated resource for women over fifty. Most of my books have a main character who's over fifty so I contacted them asking them to consider listing my books on there. Tonight I got an email from them that they're listed! They sent me this badge to put on my Facebook pages and website. I haven't done a lot of exploring on the site but it looks interesting. It lists articles, movies, books (of course), podcasts, and a whole lot more.

 

Today was not a very productive writing day. I had too much other stuff going on to really sit down and concentrate for a couple hours. Plus I'm not at all sure what I'm doing vis a vis cozy mystery tropes. I need to read the how-to book more. I dashed off a few words after lunch, then a few more after the Writers Guild meeting for a grand total of 826 words for the day. Not even half of the 1667 that are required to hit 50k in 30 days, but I'll get there. I have confidence.

--Barbara

Swinging Squirrel

I was quick enough to grab the camera and snap a picture just after the squirrel leaped from the patio chair to the round birdseed feeder. I wasn't fast enough to snap the picture as it leaped but you can kind of see that the feeder is swinging wildly. There's plenty of seed fallen onto the ground under the feeder. Squirrels are not neat eaters, plus when they leap a lot of seed falls out.

 

Look! I got six things on the gratitude journal page for yesterday. Washing sheets and fresh towels aren't all that gratitude-making but getting the words in and taking a walk are. And the November dandelion is just miraculous.

 

The Red-bellied Woodpecker was back this morning. On the back of the feeder, as usual, but it leaned over enough that I got a picture with its red head.

 

Today's drawing is a Bumblebee. I like drawing bees. I say they're my spirit animal because my name starts with a B. I think I did a pretty good job on this one. 

 

I wrote 1777 words today. I don't think most of them are very good, at least they don't pertain to the murder mystery part of the story. Maybe some of them will make it into the final cut. I got an email advertising the winter session of the Novel Intensive with LL that I've taken before so I quickly signed up. There's only space for 4 participants so I'm glad I acted quickly. Funny, I was just thinking I'd contact LL to see if she knew anyone who could help me with my cozy mysteries and here she is leading a group.

For the first time in months, I was able to make the St. Agnes Class of 1964 lunch today. It was nice to see everyone. I had a burger and tots. It was okay.

--Barbara

Woodpeckers Flying

Usually when I take a picture of a flying bird, it's really blurry and you can't tell what kind of bird it is. Not today. I lucked out. The Red-bellied Woodpecker and the Downy Woodpecker were here at the same time. The Red-bellied was on the suet nuggets feeder and the Downy was on the round birdseed feeder. Then they decided to switch and I was lucky that I snapped the shutter at just the right time to get this picture. I think it is so cool.

Today is the first day of Novel November 2026. I was supposed to write 1667 words today. I only wrote 1397 words. Mostly because I forgot it was day one so I spent a bunch of time doing household chores and a little editing. It was six-thirty when I realized that I needed to get to the keyboard and pound away so I'm pleased with those 1397 words. I am also pleased that I just sat here, consulted my list of Street Fair ideas and typed, not caring if they followed any logical progression. That's difficult for me. I always feel like what I write today has to connect and flow from what I wrote yesterday. But it doesn't. It usually takes me a week of November to remember that, so I'm happy I got there more quicklier this year. (Yeah, I know that isn't a word. It makes me smile.)

 

I opened the bathroom window because it was so nice outside today (65 degrees!) and saw this. A dandelion. On November 1. In Green Bay, Wisconsin. This is not normal. Not even close to normal. I'm not complaining, mind you, I'm just reporting.

 

When I sat down to draw yesterday's gratitude journal page, I realized that I hadn't really done much yesterday beside listen to an audiobook. Then I remembered that I'd drawn that sad, bad duck so I put that on there too. Also it was sock-washing day. I've been wearing compression socks for a week because I pulled a muscle in my shin (I didn't even know I had muscles there) and the support helps it not hurt so much. I don't wash the compression socks in the washer, I do them by hand, so it was sock-washing day. No, the suds were not really pink but I thought it looked pretty.

 

Today's drawing of a Dog Rose (???) is so much better than yesterday's duck, I could cry. I've never heard of a dog rose. I think it's what Grandma Angermeier called a wild rose. It grows in thickets and heaps, it's very prickly, and it smells great. Whatever it is, this is better than the duck.

 

In other flower news, the Christmas cactus is just blooming along. None of the buds are open yet but there are a lot of them and a lot of pink, getting ready to bloom ones. Watering plants really makes a difference. Who knew?

 

Even though it was 65 today and I didn't wear a jacket when I went to the grocery or took a walk, I put flannel sheets on the bed and traded the woven cotton blanket for the electric blanket. I won't turn it on until I need it to warm up the sheets before I get in. I don't sleep with it on, I just use it so I don't climb into cold sheets. 

--Barbara 

One Awkward Duck

Today's drawing is a Mallard Duck. Not only does my duck look stunned, I'm also convinced that it would never fly. And its feet look like they'd hurt to walk on. This is not my finest drawing hour. And I worked so hard on it, too.

 

There were so many squirrel visitations today that I didn't take any pictures of them. At one point there were five squirrels out there around, on, and under the feeders. Naturally when I picked up the camera, they scattered. However, I did take a picture of one of the Red-bellied Woodpecker visits because it moved from perch to perch so that I could see all of it, its rosy red head and its striped black and white back, for once. 

 

I drew yesterday's gratitude journal page this morning. Well, it was barely still morning. I got a late start today, not getting out of bed until almost 9:30. Makes sense since it was almost 1am when I finally fell asleep. I hate nights when I turn out the light and my brain and eyes turn on and say, "oh no you don't." Then I lay there in the dark trying to convince my biological clock to turn off for the night and leave me alone. I wouldn't mind so much if my brain did something productive, but it seldom does. Last night it played the soundtrack from South Pacific. *sigh* Obviously all night too, because I woke up with "Dites moi, pourquoi, la vie est bella" in my head. And now it started up again. Gah!

 

I had trick-or-treaters! Two princesses and one tiny Spiderman. They were my neighbors and their cousin. I also bagged up a couple handfuls of Dum Dum suckers for them to have for later. They're the first trick-or-treaters I've had in a couple of years. I sorted out a few of my favorite flavors of suckers for myself too. I still have a crapload of suckers left from the bag of 500 I bought years ago. One of these days I'll run out. Or they can hand them out at my funeral.

I read a cozy mystery on my Kindle this afternoon. It was very short and not even close to the how-to book's recommendations. Tomorrow Novel November starts which means I need to write 1,667 words every day for the next 30 days. I'm giving myself credit for the 5 chapters I've already written of Not Fair. I realized that I'm already mentally hampered by the idea that whatever I write has to be logical and connect to what I've already written. It doesn't have to. I can write things out of order and shift them around when it's time for them to make sense.

Speaking of clocks, make sure you've reset your clocks to fall back one hour. (Stupid Daylight Saving Time) I'm going to start doing that soon, even though the official switch time is something like 2am. I won't be awake then, she says hopefully.

--Barbara 

Frosty

Today was the second morning (not in a row) that the roofs across the street were frosty when I opened the shade. It only got down to 35 last night so it wasn't a real frost that kills plants, just a little light frost on the shingles.

 

And when I opened the living room drapes I saw something pink on the Christmas cactus plant. Look! Flower buds! There are quite a few of them. I try to drench the plant on the first of the month and when I do it rewards me by throwing out flowers. I'll take it.

 

I took this squirrel's picture because it was on the suet nuggets head-up. Usually they're head-down with their tails blowing in the breeze. Not today. This one hung on right-side-up and nibbled away. Also the lawn mowers came this afternoon and now there are very few leaves on the lawn. It looks so nice and clean when they get done and before long more leaves creep onto the grass.

 

Once the squirrel was done, the Red-bellied Woodpecker landed on the suet nuggets but was mostly on the backside, then it flew over to the round birdseed feeder and demonstrated its flexibility by contorting around to peck at one feeding port while standing on another one.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal page doesn't have anything particularly outstanding on it. Yoga in the morning, filling feeders before lunch, and a walk in the late afternoon. Still, they're fun to draw.

 

I ordered more keyrings to give away with sold books but the flat Christmas ones weren't available to reorder so I had to chose some different ones. These are cute but will be harder to haul around because they're not flat. I didn't think of that when I ordered them, but I'll make them work. 

 

Speaking of drawing, I tried drawing the strawberry again but this time it looks rounder, I think. I didn't have time to draw the leaves or I'd have been late for Friday Night Knitting.

 

I added a bunch of rows to the Alpaca Sophie scarf at knitting tonight. This is such nice yarn to knit with and the pattern is easy to memorize. All I have to do is count rows because I have to increase on the 8th row. That means I use Knit Companion, an app on my iPad, to count the rows to stay on track. Handy.

 

 I worked on adding some of Cecilia the sleuth's (main character) inner thoughts to Not Fair and then started rereading Three Cheers for Murder--again--to find places to do that. I had more luck on Not Fair than on Three Cheers but I'll keep working at it.

When I took a walk after supper but before knitting, I wore my new puffer vest because the sun had mostly set and it was breezy and cooling off fast. I was glad to have it but got a little warm on the way back home. I don't walk very far and will add distance when it stops hurting when I walk. I'm not in it to win a race, just want to keep my legs working, which they kind of do but I want them to be better. Sitting and writing as much as I do isn't the best way to keep things moving, so I'm trying to remember to walk most days.

--Barbara