The Daily Squirrel

Every day I see the same thing. A squirrel hanging by its back feet, wrapped around the suet nuggets feeder snacking away. I don't know if it's the same squirrel every day or a different one. They all look the same to me. I have to remember to go to the birdseed store tomorrow for more suet nuggets.

 

A Downy Woodpecker visited the suet cakes for long enough to have a picture made. It didn't really pose but it did move from the back to the side so I could see the whole bird.

 

More Dad's rosebuds with more to come. I love watching them open and flood the air with perfume. Dad would be so proud. I just wish I knew what variety rose it is. I know it isn't Mr. Lincoln, that one was Grandma Angermeier's favorite rose. But I'm sure it's an old rose, not a modern hybrid because no one bred the fragrance out of it to get color or habit.

We had a wonderful afternoon. LC had summer band camp this week for the first time and today was the concert. It was at St. Norbert College in DePere and it was just great. First came two jazz bands--younger kids, then older kids. They were pretty darned good. LC was in the World Music Band which played marimba, drums, bells, and those gourds with beaded nets around them. She had a marimba solo and then played the bells which were metal cones joined at the narrow end, played with a wooden stick. Then all of the campers took the stage in the Concert Band which played patriotic music in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was a rousing end to a wonderful afternoon of music. We went for ice cream afterward, as you do.

 

Most of the morning I spent uploading audiobook mp3 files to Book Funnel which is another site where I can sell my eBooks and audiobooks. I joined two Sales promos; one is Beach Reads and the other is Audiobooks--Official Soundtrack of Summer. Both of them start on June 21 and run into late July. I'll promote them both on Facebook and my newsletter email list and maybe on Substack, although I don't think Substack is a "selling" site so maybe not. I got all of the files uploaded and then tried to listen to a retail sample. It was playing but I couldn't hear it. I sorta panicked, poking buttons and jumping to other sites to see if there was something wrong with the files. Turned out I had the volume on my laptop turned down. Once I realized that, the problem was solved. Sheesh.

 

The Stella d'Oro lilies are still blooming strong. I love seeing those yellow flowers every day. 

 

I keep seeing a baby bunny hippity-hopping across the patio. Well, this evening I realized that it's two baby bunnies. One of them was sitting in the grass preening its fur and then not too long after that I saw these two reclined in the grass nibbling on clover. Sorry it's blurry, I took the picture through a screen.

 

I didn't do any art today. The only art was music at the concert. The rest of the day I did battle with audiobook files and setting up special pages that let me sell and join promos. I thought I had all of the pages done yesterday but it turned out I had to do a separate page for each format. Luckily I remembered how I did it yesterday so I just knuckled down and tackled the problem. Maybe tomorrow I'll draw or paint.

--Barbara 

Smells So Sweet

Dad's rose is blooming. The first bud opened. I saw it when I went out for the mail today and snapped a picture. It's beautiful and red and smells great. And there's more to come!

 

On top of the retaining wall in back, the Stella d'Oro lilies are blooming too. It's surprising to lookout and see so many flowers on one plant. Maybe it's all the rain we've been having that's encouraging them to pop out more than one flower at a time. They're small but pretty.

 

There were too juvenile squirrels wrestling on the patio this morning. They were too fast for me to take their picture but one of them sat in the shade of one of the birdseed cans thinking deep thoughts and waiting for its opponent to return.

 

I wish the perennial purple salvia was more visible. It gets lost in front of the tall, wildflowers that pop up behind it.

 

This morning I went down to Zambaldi to visit DS. He was cleaning one of those big big fermenter tanks in preparation to filling it with the hazy IPA he was brewing. He was making a small batch--only 300 gallons. We went out front to check out the hops vines he's growing up sisal rope to try making a leafy pergola over the end of the patio. This is the second year for about half of the vines and they're growing like weeds. It'll be fun when they get bigger and thicker and make shade. 

 

Today's art was another tulip painting. It's a fast and easy one that KA taught us last week. The paper I'm using isn't the high quality stuff I used in class. It buckles more when it's wet, but it's okay for the quick, fun paintings I'm doing.

 

And I got a new art toy! It's a heat gun that takes the place of using a hair dryer. One of the students last week brought a similar one for us to use. It dries paint a lot faster and it's way quieter than a hair dryer. I'm gonna really like it. 

 

This afternoon I had a Zoom with KM, my assistant. She helped me make Universal Book Links for my books so that I can enter them in sales and newsletter promos on a website called Book Funnel. I found a "Beach Reads" eBook sales one that I entered Anneke's Legacy, Island Dreams, and The Seaview in after our meeting. Yesterday I found one for audiobooks. Now I have to find it again so I can list some of my books in that one. Doing Book Funnel promos is a pretty painless way to market my books.

OJ had a soccer game this evening and I got to take him because his parents were both working. He's a great kid and ran his legs off. They don't have too many kids on the team so most of them end up playing the whole game. Their team didn't win but I think the ref was a little biased. Turns out the ref's dad was the coach of the other team. Not saying he wasn't fair, he was very strict, blowing his whistle at every little infraction. I wish I knew the rules better. All that whistle blowing is confusing.

--Barbara 

A Cool Rainy Day

I was lucky that the times I was out today it wasn't raining, not much anyway. I went for a haircut this morning and the stylist was running late so I sat around with a wet head for half an hour. She hasn't sold any of my books but I could tell that people have looked at them because they were rearranged. And while I was there I got a call that my credit card had been hacked. Thank you very much. Now I get to go to the hassle of changing my credit card in all the places I use it automatically, like PayPal and Amazon.

 

A Downy Woodpecker surprised me by landing on the square green feeder this afternoon before it started raining. It was either a female or this year's hatchling because it didn't have the red swoop on its head. Then it flew to the suet cakes and finally to the suet nuggets. I have a picture of it in every place but I'll save the other two for other days.

 

I wasn't in the mood to do much art today so all I did was draw one little bee. I say that the bee is my spirit animal because my name begins with a B. 

 

The squirrel was back on the suet nuggets. It leaps up there a couple times a day for a nibble and sets the suet cakes feeder swinging from jumping off of it.

 

I scheduled another Substack post today and worked on the short story I started working on yesterday. I don't know where it's going but I'm just happy to add words.

 

Tonight I went to KE's to knit with friends. It's her birthday today so we had that Penne a la Vodka, salad, and garlic bread, with carrot cake for dessert. We even knitted. I added rounds to the Antipasto Chemo Hat. I don't remember how long it has to be before I start the crown decreases but I know I'm not there yet.

 

Now I'm going to close this and hit the hay. I can't stop yawning and my toes are freezing. Time to tuck into my warm bed and go to sleep.

--Barbara 

A Deluge

This morning it was sunny and mild but that didn't last. Around 2 o'clock it clouded over and thunder began to rumble. Then came the rain. It wasn't fooling around, it really rained, and it looked like it wouldn't stop for a while. But it did and the sun came out again. I was afraid that OJ's soccer game would be played in rain but it was sunny and cool. The game wasn't too one-sided, but I don't think OJ's team won. It was hard to keep the players separate because Kelly Green (OJ's team) played Lime Green.

 

I hauled out the watercolors again and took another stab at the apple blossoms that I was unhappy with last Friday. I think it turned out better, at least I was more deliberate with the sky so that the blossoms retained their rounded petals, but I probably should have put in more leaves. Oh well, I can always try again.

 

The squirrel was back wrapping itself around the suet nuggets feeder and nibbling away. I wonder how much it gets because the mesh openings aren't very big but it must be enough to keep it coming back.

 

A male House Finch visited the grape jelly this afternoon. It had a lovely time dipping its beak in the jelly and then flew over to the birdbath for a drink to wash down all of the gooey sweetness.

 

The baby bunny got brave today and hopped up onto the patio step to investigate the doormat. The mat collected a lot of cottonwood fluff last week while I was away and then got rained on so it stuck to the fibers. Maybe the bunny will eat the fluff? Probably not.

 

The pest nerd visited today and refilled the bait boxes. He said the ones in back were empty and the ones in front hadn't been touched. I'm just glad they're doing the job. Also MB, my cleaning lady, came today so there are nice vacuum marks in the living room carpet and the kitchen and bathroom sparkle. I scheduled a couple short stories, one really short flash fiction, on Substack and tried to work on a story start. Didn't get very far, but any words are progress some days.

--Barbara 

The Tiniest Geranium

I don't remember the name of many of the wildflowers that grace The Clearing campus. I've heard them all, or most of them anyway, but this one sticks in my head for some reason. It's Herb Robert, and it's a tiny true geranium no bigger than a fingernail. And not a fancy, talon-like fingernail either.

 

In honor of seeing that deer on Saturday, that's what I picked to draw today, a Doe. It looks more like a fawn without the spots, and I think it needs orthopedic help, but it's the right shade of brown and has four legs so I'm calling it a deer. And now that song from The Sound of Music is stuck in my head again. 

 

The first year I took KA's watercolor class I packed a watercolor journal in my kit and made notes on each painting on the left page and painted a small version of the painting on the right. I've done it every time since and started a new journal last week. Doing that is the only way I have even a ghost of a chance to repaint anything. I'm getting better at taking notes so each journal's entries are easier to paint from.

 

This morning I got busy framing a few of last week's more successful paintings and hung them on my gallery wall. I don't buy fancy frames or spend money on mats, I just buy the inexpensive basic black plastic frames and go with them. They look okay and don't detract from the art. (You notice I didn't capitalize "art." My paintings aren't worth that.)

 

A contortionist squirrel spent some time on the suet nuggets feeder today. I was impressed that it had wrapped itself halfway around the feeder and still had the muscle to hold on and eat.

 

I zoomed with cda this afternoon getting a critique on a couple chapters of Sailing the Seas and giving her a few notes on an essay. Then I took a walk. I'm amazed that today's walk didn't give me the same hip and leg aches that yesterday's walk did. Was it because I wore different shoes? Because it was a different time of day? Who knows. I was just relieved that it didn't hurt as much. OJ has a soccer game tomorrow evening so I'll do my walking from the parking area to the field and back. None of the places he plays has parking very near the playing field. It must be some kind of rule. And there's a chance of rain. I'll take an umbrella. They only call the game for lightning.

--Barbara 

Better Water

It felt wrong not to paint today, so I did. I taped the edges of a piece of paper and tried my hand at the last painting KA asked us to paint on Friday. The one with reflections of buildings in water that I was terrible at. It turned out better than I thought. This water is way better than the water I tried to paint the week before my watercolor class at The Clearing.

 

I went over to Michaels to spend my expiring voucher on inexpensive frames for some of last week's paintings. I forgot to measure my best painting so I need to go back another day but for now I've got three to hang tomorrow. For some reason these skinny, leftover strips that I painted please the daylights outta me so they get framed and hung, along with one of the 5x7 ones of a cabin with poppies in front of it.

 

When I went out for a walk this afternoon I noticed that one of Dad's rosebuds is opening. It was pretty windy so I'm surprised that it's in focus. I convinced myself that I'd turned a corner and was better at walking after all of the walking I did last week. Nope. Still huffing and puffing with achy legs, but I'm determined to keep going so that I will be better when I go back to TC in October for the Women's Writing Retreat.

 

Coming back from Michaels, I saw that the poppies have bloomed. When I went over with the camera, two of the flowers were past their prime with shriveled petals but two were just opening.

 

And the Stella d'Oro lilies are starting to bloom. There are about eight open on one plant and a couple of other plants have one or two. Still no long row of yellow flowers but hopefully that'll happen soon.

 

The squirrel spent some time in the square green feeder at lunchtime today. It leaps from the suet cakes crook to the Oriole feeder, skips the jelly, and launches itself at the feeder. It catches a perch and scrambles up under the lid and in. 

 

Then at nearly sunset the baby bunny eased out from behind the birdbath pedestal for a nibble at the grass on the edge of the lawn. It kind of stretched out like it was trying to stay behind the pedestal and still reach something to eat. There's a lot of clover blooming right now so it should have plenty to eat. 

 

Oh, I didn't show you last night but when I looked across the painting classroom the other day I saw the copy of Horizon that LW bought from me. It's so much fun to see one of my books in the wild. She's going to read it and then, if she likes it, suggest to her book club that they invite me for an author visit. Wouldn't that be cool? She lives a couple hours from here so I'd have to find a place to stay overnight but I could do that easy.

 

It was cooler and windy today which made walking fun. The wind seemed to come from all directions, in my face going and coming. The 18-month-old little guy next door has finally decided that I'm not a threat. He even took my finger when we walked to take pictures of the poppies. His big sister, 4 years old, wanted to know why I had my camera and I told her about the flowers on the side of the house. She wanted to come along so the little guy had to come too. Mama came along to make sure they didn't get in my way and to guide them back to their side of the yard when the time came to go in. They call me Miss Barbara. Kinda makes me feel old, but then I am old. *sigh*

--Barbara

Intense

My watercolor week was intense. It started out calm. I moved into Room #3 on Sunday afternoon, carried my paints, etc. down to the Schoolhouse where our classroom was, and then unpacked. While carrying my stuff down, I met MW who'd been in class with me last year. She wanted Spies Don't Retire because she'd bought and read The Seaview and Open for Business last year. I mentioned that Christmas at Seaview is set in the same place with the same characters, so she took that too. (Yay!) We all met for supper at 5:30, had an orientation slide show and introductions, and then met with our instructor to set up our painting stations. Supper was pork tenderloin with lingonberries, roasted carrots, artichoke salad, and cherry pie. Let the overeating begin!

 

We painted like crazy people. Three paintings on Monday alone! She eased us in with a simple sky and foreground of grass, but soon we were painting water and trees and headlands. JS, the painter who sat behind me, ordered The Seaview on digital but wanted one to hold in her hands so she bought Better Than Mom's to read before bed.

On Tuesday, we painted the view from the Schoolhouse window over the bay and a farmstead behind a field. At Tuesday lunch, the manager of The Clearing bookstore hosted the meal and brought over things to entice us to come shop. She knew I was there so she brought a copy of Horizon and asked me to describe it for everyone. Very nice.

 

On Tuesday afternoon we started painting one of the cabins with poppies blooming in front of it, then finished it Wednesday morning. (sorry the picture's crooked) That was followed by trillium and tulips. But the best was that both MW and LW asked to buy copies of Horizon.

 

We only have class in the morning on Thursday but we painted the most challenging subject so far--a sunset sky. Eek! I was certain I'd mess it up but I managed to do okay. (the white spots in front are supposed to represent flowers in the field) In the afternoon I went to the bookstore to do a little shopping, stopped at the thrift store where I found a couple tops, and went to Piggly Wiggly for a sandwich, chips, and a drink because they don't serve supper on Thursday. I decided not to go to a restaurant with other students because we'd been eating so much I needed a break.

 

On Friday, our last day, we painted an iris, apple blossoms, and revisited the farm but added a pond in the foreground to learn how to paint reflections in the water. I did not do so well on the last two. She suggested that we paint a big one and a little one of each subject so this is what the wall next to my painting station looked like on Friday afternoon. Filled with paintings, because I went back to the classroom most evenings to paint more, finish paintings, or make up stuff. I had a quartet of skinny pieces of paper so I painted a single, long-stemmed flower on each of them. For some reason they really please me the most. They're on the right edge of the picture.

 

Friday after supper we all gathered in the Schoolhouse to show off what we'd done all week. The other classes were memoir writing, glass fusing, and woven rag purses. The glass pieces and the purses were awesome and fun, and the writers each read a short selection of what they'd written that week. We painters put our stools up on the tall tables we painted at and taped paintings to the stools for display. I laid my books on either side of the table and the fused glass teacher bought Better Than Mom's!

 

This morning we had to vacate our rooms by 9:00am so that Housekeeping could clean and set them up for the students arriving this afternoon or tomorrow. When I was loading my car I looked up to see a deer walking through the woods not too far away from the parking lot. Cool! (she's hard to see but she's there)

 

I will confess that as much fun as I had, as much as I enjoyed painting like a madwoman for five days, meeting old and new friends, I'm glad to be home to sleep in my own bed tonight. I kept waking up in the early early morning and not being able to go back to sleep. Not fun. Yesterday afternoon I hit the wall and completely ran out of energy. I barely finished the last painting and had a real trudge to carry my painting supplies to the car before supper and then my books and finished paintings there after Show & Tell. I was sure I'd sleep well. Nope. Woke up at 4:41 (I checked my phone) and lay there until my alarm went off at 6:45. Hopefully I'll sleep all night tonight or at least be able to fall back to sleep if I get up. Fingers crossed.

--Barbara