Happy Birthday, Aunt B!

Today is Aunt Barbara's 92nd birthday. I called to sing the Happy Birthday song to her this afternoon and she sounded just like she always has. We had a little chat and a few laughs and rang off. I was disappointed in my cousins because she said neither of them sang to her when they called. Get with the program, guys! Birthday calls require a song! I looked for a picture of her and found this one of her with my mom the weekend of DD's wedding. Aunt B is on the right. 

 

I was quick enough to snap a picture of a Chickadee today. Two of them were tag teaming the suet nuggets. The other one was on the side so it was easier to see but this is the one that held still the longest. You take what you can get.

 

For today's drawing I chose a Dolphin. I like the way it turned out and even like the color blue I used to color it in. Even though blue is not one of my favorite colors. 

 

As I was leaving for OJ's soccer game I spied this baby bunny munching away on the clover. It's so tiny, I'm sure it's one of the ones that ducked into the hobbit hole last night.

 

Speaking of OJ's soccer game it rained a lot yesterday and overnight so the field was squishy. Turns out a ball doesn't roll well when it's wet and on wet grass. In places there was a considerable splash when the ball landed and other places the ball would land and just stop, not roll. However, OJ had his best game of the season. He attacked the ball and made some good kicks. One almost made a goal but it squeaked by the goal post on the wrong side. Rats.

 

I read through more chapters of the next Seaview Series manuscript. I didn't find much to add but at least I didn't find any glaring mistakes like I did the other day. Did I tell you about that? I realized Rose had a couple stay over an extra week and then introduced more guests than she had rooms for in the next chapter. Oops. I added a little more action in an arrest the bad guys scene today. More action is always good.

--Barbara 

Who's In There?

Just now I was in the kitchen getting ready to close the drapes over the patio door when I spied movement in the grass. Two little brown lumps were clumped together, one disappeared underground and then the other one did the same. I realized that the scraped out dirt on the slope was the doormat of a bunny nest. The mama was grooming herself not far away while the babies were nestling into the hole for the night. I'd never seen that before. I thought they had a nest of leaves and fur, but it seems they've got a kind of hobbit hole in my yard.

 

This afternoon the lawn mower showed up and raced around getting the grass cut before the next rain came. While I watched him I saw movement in the tall, unmown lawn of the neighbor's backyard. Now I wonder if the baby bunnies were sheltering in there from the big, scary machine. Seeing the guy, I wondered when I'd get a bill since I hadn't seen one yet this year. I was just writing a text when I thought, I'd better check my Junk folder, and there was a bill. Due today. Well, it's not going to get to Bonduel by midnight but it'll get there in a day or two. I emailed him and apologized for being late and assured him that the check was in the mail. 

 

Today's drawing was Bakery Items. Not very inspiring or colorful, but a bit challenging to get the lines and angles right. The loaf of white bread took the most erasing. I think it's about time to stroll through my drawing books and find another one to play with for a while.

 

This morning a Downy Woodpecker landed on the suet cakes so that I could see it and take its picture. It didn't have red on its head so it's a female.

 

A squirrel discovered that I filled the suet nuggets feeder so it spent suppertime nibbling away at the mesh. I still can't understand how they can get anything worthwhile out of those little openings but since they come back it must be worth the effort.

 

It was almost suppertime when I decided to paint something. I paged through my watercolor journals and found four different pages of directions on painting hollyhocks, which means four different years of how-tos. It's okay. Not my best work, not by a long shot, but it's good enough to cut up and turn into cards. Next time I'll make the outside of the flowers ruffly and make the centers smaller. More leaves across the bottom too.

 

I finished knitting the first set of arms on Teddy Bear #2 and started the head but my iPad's battery was too low to keep it open and running. I use an app for the pattern and for keeping track of rows so I had to stop and plug it in. I'll do more tomorrow or maybe wait until Friday and work on it at Friday Night Knitting when I devote three straight hours to knitting. 

 

It was too hot and humid to walk today but I did do yoga this morning so that's something active. I spent most of the day rereading the manuscript and making small edits. I want to get it done and published by the fall so I can move on to trying my hand at a cozy mystery manuscript that's been hanging around for about 25 years. That will be a challenge.

--Barbara 

Hot & Steamy

It wasn't hot enough or humid enough, so I went down to Zambaldi to visit DS where he was brewing a batch of Octoberfest beer. That meant he had two big tanks of boiling water on the brewing platform and was draining hot sanitizing solution out of one of the fermenter tanks. So adding heat and humidity to an already steamy situation. We spent part of my visit in the taproom where the air conditioning was on so he could cool down in between chores in the brewhouse. He built a pergola over the end of the patio that the hops vines are climbing up. Some of them are tall enough that they're turning the corner to go up toward the roof. One of these days they'll be bushy and provide shade.

 

Just as I pulled into the garage coming home from the brewery, I got a text from the pharmacy that my prescriptions were ready for pickup. So I reopened the garage door and drove over there. On the way I passed the birdseed store so I stopped for suet nuggets (they go fast!) and a small bag of cob corn. When I got home from errands, I filled the feeders. It didn't take long for the Sparrows to figure out that the suet nuggets feeder was full and the House Finches took advantage of the refilled orange half and grape jelly. I didn't get a House Finch picture but I did catch one of two Sparrows sharing nicely.

 

Today's tiny drawings are Tools. I don't remember drawing them before. I wish I had a better gray colored pencil but made do with the silver one and black one. I should look in a different colored pencil holder. There are probably a plethora of gray ones. Or maybe two.

 

Our presentation on newsletters went pretty well at Writers Guild tonight. I collected four email addresses to add to my mailing lists. I'm glad about that. 

When I got home from the meeting I didn't knit so I don't have more teddy bear to show you. Maybe tomorrow.

--Barbara 

All-Squirrel Wrestling

I was finally lucky enough to see the juvenile squirrels wrestling and be able to take pictures of them. One shot is pretty blurry but this one is more in focus. I wonder if they make noise while they're wrestling.

 

Today's drawing is a Luna Moth. I tried my darnedest to make the two sides of wings match each other and don't think I did too badly. Then I sharpened the colored pencils which made a huge difference in coloring the drawing.

 

Checked Dad's roses to see if any were blooming and found this rosebud just unfurling. So beautiful, so red, so sweet. Once again I resisted picking it, leaving it out there to be enjoyed and not plucked to die in the kitchen in a vase. Even though the vase is cut crystal. And there's a bud tucked up under the lower right side, so more to come.

 

And around the base of Dad's rose bush the purple mums buds are starting to open. Every year the purple mums start to bloom in July and most years I go out and trim them back so they don't bloom until September like they're supposed to. I haven't decided whether I'll trim them this year or not. I'm thinking about it.

 

 After supper I sat down to knit on Teddy Bear #2. I finished the 12 rows of belly, although I was at row 8 when I noticed that three rows back I'd purled half a row when I was supposed to knit. Damn. So I pulled out the needle, ripped back the stitches, picked the stitches up again, and kept going. I was impressed that I could count the rows because this fuzzy yarn makes seeing the stitches hard. It's easier to count the purl rows because they don't blend together like the knit side of the piece does.  Besides, it a stuffed animal. Who's going to count rows to make sure that the belly and the backside match?

 

I was very relieved this morning when cda wasn't upset at my compilation of her three epilogue versions into one. There were good parts in each and I thought it was a shame that they didn't all make it into the final version. Fortunately she liked it. Whew.

GBB and I are doing the education at the Writers Guild meeting tomorrow night so we met this afternoon on a short Zoom to plan what we're going to say. I have a feeling that there won't be a crowd at the meeting, don't know why, but whoever comes we'll talk to them about newsletters and different ways to use them. I have notes.

--Barbara 

Not Too Hot

And with a nice breeze so I could take a walk this afternoon. I waited until the sun was lower so there was more shade and walked up to the stop sign and back. I can tell that I'm walking more; I still get out of breath but not as badly as before and I recover more quickly. Both good signs to keep going.

 

A Downy Woodpecker, or maybe THE Downy Woodpecker, landed on the suet cakes today. This one has red on its head so I'm thinking it's a male. It flew by another time but swooped back and forth and never landed. I couldn't decide what its problem was. There wasn't a Hawk nearby or a big, mean squirrel on the empty suet nuggets feeder.

 

One Crow was back on the fence today. I hear them cawing in the morning when I'm waking up, but not when they're on the fence. 

 

I drew a Radish today. It was fun and I like the way it turned out, especially the leaves.

 

My watercolor wasn't as successful. It's from the first year's watercolor class at The Clearing and my notes weren't the best that year so I fumbled around. Painting a rock wall is hard for me. It ends up looking like a brownish, greenish smudge across the page. I should practice that more. The trees didn't turn out too badly though.

 

After supper I sat down and started knitting another bear. I have another skein of that fuzzy super bulky yarn in a different color that I'm determined to use so I went down another needle size to squeeze the stitches together more. I've got the first legs knitted and joined. Next comes the belly and arms. We'll see how this one turns out.

 

When I was rereading chapters in my manuscript today, I realized that I had one couple stay over an extra week and then in the next chapter I had too many people arrive to check in so that there weren't enough rooms. That meant I had to scrape out all of the references to the eliminated couple and tidy up the language around the places where I took things out. But I saved the parts I took out and transferred them to my "Darlings" file so they're not deleted, just moved.

I checked on Libby to see how far down the line I am to get Iron Flame, the second book of the Empyrian series I had to return before I finished it. I'm number 2, so it shouldn't be long, but I was surprised that I could have borrowed the third book without waiting. How come I have to wait for number 2 and nobody's reading/listening to number 3? I don't get it. Watch, when I want number 3, there'll be a waitlist. Oh well. I have other books to listen to while I wait.

I have got to concentrate on sitting up straight and not slouching when I'm sitting here at the computer. It's a bad habit. I have to stand up straight when I walk too. Focus, Barbara! 

--Barbara 

 

Happy July 4th!

I had an unexpected visitor this morning. I was eating my breakfast, saw movement outside, and looked up to see the hen turkey strutting through. I thought she'd peck at the seed in the grass but she just moved on through. I left the birdbath in the picture so you can see how big she is.

 

Then a little later I saw a flash of black and white and there was a Downy Woodpecker on the Slinky. It stayed there for a bit and then flew over to the suet cakes, landing on the back side out of sight, of course.

 

I spent most of the day in Shawano with DIL1's family. There was a lot of food, lots of laughter, and plenty of splashing in the pool. After swimming and dessert (the brownies were a hit), there was a water balloon fight at the house across the street. I did not take part or witness it, but by all accounts it was loads of fun.

 

When I drove up to my house this afternoon, I saw that the peachy day lily on the side of the house was blooming. I forget about those flowers on that side and usually miss their blossoms, so I was glad to see this one today.

 

And I snapped a picture of the newest Dad's rose. The rest of them are all faded or fading, but I spied a couple buds that look promising.

 

I didn't draw or paint today. I did spend a few minutes reading a couple manuscript chapters so I can mark that off my to-do list for the day.

But I found out that Project Hail Mary was free to watch on Prime (thanks for the text, CP!) so I plopped down on the couch when I got home and watched. It was good, but I think the book was better. But then, I always think the book is better than the movie. I recommend them both.

I can hear fireworks from every direction. Some are close, others are far away. 

--Barbara 

Proof

Here's a section of the retaining wall without weeds, proof that the weeding crew was here and did a good job. It looks kind of odd without all the weeds but I like it.

 

The bird of the day is a Crow. There were three of them on top of the fence, too far apart to be in the same frame but this one had its beak open like it had something to say.

 

Today I drew a page she called Little Critters. It wasn't until I was finishing coloring them with markers that I realized I had all three green critters lined up on the right side of the page. They look kind of funny like that but it was too late to change.

 

I baked a double batch of brownies this afternoon. And I only ate one little corner one. Okay, I also ate the crumbs left in the pan after I put them all into a Tupperware box for the drive to Shawano. They stuck around the sides which made prying out the first one messy. That's why I had to eat it. Really.

 

Late in the day a House Finch came over to sip the rain-diluted grape jelly. He was alone, no female accompanying him as usual. Maybe it was her turn on the nest.

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I worked on the Antipasto Chemo Hat. It's almost long enough to start the crown decreases but I want to make sure it's long enough to cover the ears so I'll add another inch or so just to be sure.

 

That was my day. I slept until 8 o'clock, did the Wordle, did yoga, and took a shower, so it was late when I got dressed. It's so nice to be retired and not have to leap up, get dressed, and race off to work. Retirement is luxurious. I braved a trip to the grocery store this afternoon, not thinking that there'd be a lot of people in there buying 4th of July party or picnic food. It wasn't too bad, I even got a decent parking place.

--Barbara