Bluejays!

The trio of Bluejays was back this morning doing their best to denude the remaining cob corn. I got a couple of pictures of them and one turned out pretty sharply focused.

 

Then a squirrel leaped from the patio chair to the round feeder and this time it stayed there long enough for me to take its picture. Naturally it was late enough in the day that the feeder was mostly in shadow so you can't see the squirrel's face as it does its best to access the seeds through the little feeding ports. It was focused.

 

The drawing prompt of the day was Sunshine, something I could draw with confidence and not have to worry about making the right side match the left side.

 

Another Stella d'Oro lily bloomed today and I saw that there's another bud getting ready to pop and a tiny one behind that one. It's amazing that it's blooming so late in the season. Lilies are usually long finished by late September.

 

Down the retaining wall from the lily there was a tiny little bee on the bronze sedum. I really had to crank in the focus to be able to even see the little thing. It was barely half an inch long with wings that looked too big for its body. 

 

I knitted some more on the Regia Summer Sock heel flap tonight and thought you might like seeing the pretty bracelet I'm using to count my rows. The 9 beads on the right side are the single digits and the beads on the left side are the tens so I've knitted 20 rows of heel flap with 4 more to go before I have to do something more interesting which I won't be able to do without some YouTube assistance. I've done it many times before but only once with a single circular needle. I'll need some help.

 

I've been trying to get a haircut from my usual stylist since a week ago last Thursday. I had to change that appointment so I texted her. She called me five days later and said I could come in at 6:30 on Wednesday evening. She never showed and when I called her then she sounded drunk or high and said she could squeeze me in at 1:30 today. When I got there today she wasn't there and hadn't called or anything. I don't know if she's having a health crisis or is on a bender but I'm done. I got home, called around, and found a new stylist who can take me at noon tomorrow. I hope I like the new woman because I'm tired of JS and her unreliability. 

Still no copies of Sailing the Seas and no shipping notice. Arrgh. I just know it'll come the day after I leave for The Clearing. I'll have to give my tenant a key so she can have her husband put it into my house if Amazon delivers. If the USPS delivers, it'll come the day I get home when he delivers my held mail. Which reminds me, I didn't check the mail today. Maybe I have something interesting or maybe just another handful of political garbage. I'll go check. Be right back. All there was was yet another Land's End catalog. You know, if they stopped sending catalogs every week, they could lower their prices and still make a profit.

The only writing I did today was the October monthly writing progress email newsletter. I did have a critique session with cda this morning which is a writerly thing, but didn't write on my manuscript.

--Barbara

Still Long

My day at the Book Fair was the same length as yesterday but passed much faster because I sold 8 books, swapped 1 with the author at the next booth, and included a copy of the novella with the purchase of the entire Seaview Series, so I came home with 10 fewer books than I started the day with. Woohoo!

 

It surprised me when I turned on the fairy lights around my poster this morning that they lit up just as brightly as they had yesterday and faded through the day to be almost out by quitting time. I doubt whether they'll light up brightly again but I'll give it a try.

 

There was a squirrel on the suet nuggets this evening minding its own business when another squirrel jumped up onto the suet cakes feeder headed for the nuggets. The first squirrel jumped off, setting the suet nuggets feeder swinging, and I was just fast enough on the shutter to capture one coming and one going.

 

The only other thing I have to show you is my drawing for today which was Salt & Pepper. Another oddball thing to draw but I played along. I am happy to report that I think it did better in making the two sides of the vessels more similar. It seemed to work better if I drew the left side from top to bottom, then repeated the same on the right side from top to bottom, joining them across the bottom, rather than drawing one continuous line.

 

Before I went to Untitled Town this morning I sat down here and reread the beginning of Not Fair (the next cozy mystery) and dreamed up a new character and shop for downtown Ashville. At Friday Night Knitting, CP suggested doing something with a pretzel shop and having the word Knots in the name. So I thought of Fred's Love Knots moving into the empty store on the other side of Cecilia's The Alchemist lotion shop. That meant I had to dream up a new character named Fred and figure out what he looks like and a bit of his story. So satisfying and so much fun. Next Saturday I'm off to The Clearing for a week and I think I'll take the cozy how-to book along and work on book #2 during all those precious quiet writing time hours. Hopefully I'll get a lot of the manuscript written.

Just around lunchtime I looked up to see LC come to my booth! Seems they had to drop OJ off at a nearby hotel/lodge for a birthday party so DS, DIL1, and LC came to visit Meemaw at the book fair. It was great to see them because they've been so busy I hadn't seen the adults since Labor Day. Their lives sure are full. DS said he'd maybe have a brewing day one day next week so we can have a visit. I hope so. I miss seeing them.

--Barbara

A Long Day

I am woefully out of practice being "on" all day. Having to be smiling and alert for seven straight hours was tiring. It didn't take long to get my display table set up. It was very roomy--8' long--so I had plenty of room for my palm tree and poster. I even figured out how to twine a string of fairy lights around the poster to illuminate it. Unfortunately the batteries don't last for seven hours so they faded at about the same time I did. And I get to do it all over again tomorrow. Oh, I sold 3 books which also made the day longer. More sales would have sped things up.

 

Being gone all day didn't leave much time for watching wildlife. After supper this squirrel climbed up to the suet nuggets feeder. Another squirrel leapt from the patio chair over to the round seed feeder but dropped off before I could take a picture.

 

I drew today's prompt just before coming back here. It was Lamp. Once again I'm featuring my inability to make the sides of a drawing match. I tried but it's out of whack. Oh well.

 

I almost ran out of tropical key fobs to put in the books I sold, so I spent some time stringing hang tags and key fobs together after supper. Five of my eight books get the tropical fobs so I need to have a good supply. Then I came back here and ordered more tropical fobs and the bowls of soup fobs that go on Better Than Mom's. I'd rather have too many than run out. Plus I've got another Seaview book coming--eventually.

 

The hardest part of being away all day was not having time to write. I came back here after supper but couldn't focus. Maybe I'll take a notebook and pencil tomorrow. Nah, that'd be wrong. I need to pay attention to the people walking by. You know, if I'd sold a book to every second person I gave my spiel to, I'd have sold a lot more books. They take a card or a bookmark and say they'll be back and don't come back. One lady who'd had an extra helping of beer said she preferred audiobooks which is fine. She said she'd buy one when she got home. But will she remember?

--Barbara 

Socking

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I finished knitting the leg of the Regia Summer Sock so it was time to start the heel flap. I'm impressed with myself that I figured out how to knit it without shifting to Double Pointed Needles. Hopefully I can continue on the Magic Loop circular needles if I can wrap my mind around how to do it. Maybe I can YouTube it.

 

I had a good show at New Perspective senior complex today. I sold 7 books, well, actually 6 books because I gave one copy of Christmas at Seaview to the ladies who bought The Seaview Series. I'm so glad I printed up these business card sized tallies to keep track of sales. I can just stash them in an envelope and have the info at hand when tax time rolls around.

 

Here's my display. I got a lot of compliments on my little lighted palm tree with the flamingo sunglasses holder beneath it. I repacked it all and replenished the books I sold so it's all back in the car ready for tomorrow and Sunday. 

 

There was a trio of Sparrows sharing the suet nuggets this morning. I was impressed that they tolerated each other.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal page was a simple one.  I finally got smart and walked while I waited in the after school pick up line. I go early so I have a lot of time to wait so I walked down to that stop sign and back. I'm not the only one. The mom in the black pickup truck who parks behind me takes her wiener dog for a walk then too. Plus I got to spend a little time with LC and OJ. I do love those few minutes a couple times a week.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Shell so we drew four different seashells. I like the first three but I don't think the fourth one turned out right. Maybe next time.

 

Speaking of time, it's time for me to sign off and go to bed. I've got my alarm set for 7 o'clock which will come mighty early for one used to sleeping until 8.

--Barbara 

Uh-oh

I looked out the window of the bedroom when I opened the shade this morning to see this. The leaves of the dogwood shrub on the corner of the house are changing colors. Yes, the leaves on the big trees on the curve of the court are changing. Yes, I walked through crunchy brown leaves last week in front of the neighbor's house. But this is right here, right in my yard. Autumn.

 

When I looked out the back window this morning I saw a pop of yellow again. Another late blooming Stella d'Oro lily flower. All of the other lily plants are done blooming and the leaves are yellowing and drooping, yet here is this one plant pushing out blossoms in September. Yay!

 

The bronze mums have started blooming. I didn't crop the picture so all you see are the flowers because I wanted you to see all of the buds on the rest of the plant. If they all bloom at the same time it'll be amazing.

 

Right next to the Stella d'Oro lily is the pink sedum. There was a nice bee on one of the flower clusters and between the time I raised the camera and pressed the shutter, the bee flew away. So you get to see the flowers without the bee. Oh well.

 

The gratitude journal for yesterday was an easy one to find things to put on it. I tried drawing the Chair Pose for my yoga gratitude and I put starting planning cozy book #2 on there too. Also three, count 'em, three Bluejays!

 

Speaking of cozy book #2, it now has a name--Not Fair. I read that cozy readers like word play
and puns in titles, so I'm trying to be clever. I couldn't resist starting to write it. I managed to write four pages, maybe five, before giving up and stopping because I need to save something for Novel November (used to be NaNoWriMo, but they disbanded) since I said I'd write 50,000 words in November. Three Cheers for Murder isn't 50,000 words now and I think it's mostly done. I wrote 1,077 words today so I only need 600 more words to make the first day's goal. Let's see, 600 words divided by 38 days until November 1st equals 16 words per day. I can do that.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Boot so I drew a cowboy boot, an ankle boot, a moon boot, and a rain boot as directed. They're okay. If I'd taken more time drawing them they might have been better but I'm satisfied.

 

I spied the Red-bellied Woodpecker on the suet nuggets feeder. On the BACK of the suet nuggets feeder so only its head and tail were visible. *sigh* Why can't it land on the front of the feeder so I can take a picture of all of it?

 

The lawn mower came late this afternoon. It was almost 6 o'clock when he got started and he didn't have a kid with him to do the trimming and blowing so he was here for longer than 15 minutes. This was the first guy who came. He seems to do a better job, takes his time a little more. I think his name is Isiah. Or maybe Isaac. One of those "I" names. Whatever, he's a nice thorough guy.

This morning I repacked my display bag to make sure I have everything I need and loaded it and my book rack, poster, and rolling backpack of books into the car because I've got a craft show tomorrow. Then I have to get home, replenish any sold books, and reload the car because I've got a 2-day book fair this weekend. And my new book hasn't come and won't come because I haven't gotten a shipping notice.

 

I got to do the after school run today and we were almost to their house but had to go back to school to get something forgotten and saw flames and black smoke boiling up on the bridge. I had to pass the spot on my way home after dropping the kids off and saw it was a pickup truck that had a huge fire in the engine compartment. It looked like the whole front of the truck melted and they were still pouring water on it from a fire hose. I'd hate to have been in there when the thing started to burn. Scary.

--Barbara 

Three Bluejays

Three Bluejays showed up around the cob corn today. Three! I managed to take a couple of pictures. They aren't as sharply focused as I hoped they'd be but this one isn't too blurry. At least you can see what it is.

 

Another bird or birds caught my attention this morning while I was doing yoga. This Sparrow was taking its usual, splashy Sparrow bath and this Mourning Dove moved closer to take advantage of the splashing. I figure the Dove felt too dignified to get in the water and flutter around but it wasn't above sharing the splashes.

 

Yesterday's gratitude journal was fairly easy to draw this morning. I always like doing the child pose in yoga and I enjoyed spending a couple hours helping friends get started on Substack.

 

Before lunch I worked on the last two suggestions from the Manuscript Analysis so I think that the first cozy mystery is pretty well on its way to being done. So in the afternoon I started making a list of things for cozy mystery number two. Right away I had a change of plans. The person I thought was going to be the victim is actually a suspect, and the person I didn't realize I was setting up in book number one is the victim. I had a lot of fun brainstorming the possible features of book number two. I added two characters--a husband and a lover--that I think will be interesting to write. I looked up popular dog biscuit flavors, a really scrumptious looking kebab recipe, and a 10-cup cookie recipe to add to the mix. You can find anything on the internet. I have interesting ideas for them all. Oh, I forgot about Mr. Chan's egg rolls. I'll find a recipe for those too. Although I might have one in a cookbook on hand. I'll check the bookshelf in the basement.

 

A Downy Woodpecker landed on the Slinky for a little ride. There were Sparrows hogging the round feeder so it rested on the Slinky for a while before going over to the suet nuggets for a snack.

 

Today's drawing prompt was House Plant. Another oddball thing to draw. I might have to see if I can't find another class of drawing prompts because I'm not getting as much satisfaction out of this series as I thought I would. Still like drawing the letters, though.

 

And finally here's today's Dad's rose, red as ever and smelling just as sweet.

 

--Barbara 

It Was Getting Dark

But I went out and took pictures of Dad's roses anyway. I'll share one with you tonight and save the others for another night. Or two. Can't have too much beauty on one night, now can we? The guy across the street was taking out his recycling bin while I was out there taking pictures and sniffing the roses. He probably thought I was a little nuts, but I don't care.

 

I caught sight of a Red-bellied Woodpecker on the suet nuggets but it hid behind the feeder so all I saw was its head. I decided instead of posting a shot of the suet nuggets feeder with a bird's head peeking around the side, I'd go back in the archives to find a picture of the whole bird. And I did. You're welcome.

 

Only one Sparrow landed on the round feeder while I was looking today. There was a good sized flock of them but only this one flew up to the feeder to toss seed down to the masses.

 

I was gutsy enough again this morning to draw a whole me on the gratitude journal page for yesterday. I'm definitely not as thin as this representation and I wasn't running, which this kind of looks like, but I'll get better as time goes on. I promise.

 

Spice jars. What a goofy thing to draw today. I did a little better in making the sides of the jars closer to each other. I still like the letters the best.

 

I didn't do much writing today. Shocking, I know. In the morning my cleaner came so I chatted with her while she worked and in the afternoon I met with a couple friends to help them get their Substacks up and running. I don't know that I was much help but they seemed satisfied. Then I came across town to the grocery because I was low on frozen meals and stopped at the bank for change for the upcoming book sales this weekend. Unless there's a miracle (doubtful), I won't have my new book to sell this weekend. I blame the cover designer. If they hadn't been out on sick leave, they'd have gotten the cover designed in a week to ten days rather than the three weeks it took, then I could have published the book sooner and the author copies would probably already be here. Oh well, I can't change that now, I'll just have to be patient. They'll come when they come.

--Barbara