A New Visitor

The square green feeder had a new visitor today. I think this bird is called a White-crowned Sparrow. It was all alone at the feeder this morning, having a snack before flying away. It's smaller than a House Sparrow and less common.

 

In the morning I went down to visit DS at Zambaldi Beer. He was making Meatball Man Amber. In this picture he was reattaching part of the mash tun. I think it was the part the ground grain went through. When I got there the floor was wet all around the brewing deck, there were even tiny droplets hanging from the mesh that caught the light and looked like little lights under there. Brewing beer is water intensive. He took me out front to see that his hops were sprouting. He planted them last summer to shade the patio in the afternoons when the sun is up later and there's nothing to keep it from blinding and baking people. His hope is that eventually they'll grow up and make like an arbor over the end of the patio.

 

For the first time in a month I drew a gratitude journal page. I don't know why I keep forgetting or neglecting to do it but I guess it isn't a priority. It felt like the thing to do today.

 

The drawing today is of a Macaw. It turned out okay.

 

These are the last daffodils to open and there's one pink hyacinth tucked back behind them. They are the old fashioned flowers with yellow petals and a yellow trumpet in the center. None of those fancy ruffly centers for these flowers.

 

After supper I knitted a bunch of rounds of ribbing on the Scrap Hat #2. The green yarn is so bulky that I have to find skinny sock yarn to carry along with it so I don't have a plain green hat when I'm done. There's not a lot of give to the green yarn so knitting it makes my hands ache. But it'll be a good hat when I'm done.

 

I ordered 10 copies of Better Than Mom's on Sunday. They came today. That's the fastest I've ever gotten author copies. I'm not complaining, I'm kind of in awe. Maybe people are boycotting Amazon, so they had time to print them right away. I haven't sold a book on there all month or had any Kindle Unlimited pages read, which is unusual.  

 

I got to do the after school run today and it was locker clean-out day so OJ came to the car burdened with two shopping totes and an overstuffed backpack. He had so much stuff that he asked to dump it all in the wayback of my car because there wasn't room for it in the backseat with him and LC and her backpack and lunch bag. He's an energetic guy, but by the time he hauled it all to my car, he was dragging.

It got up to 71 degrees today and was sunny with a light breeze. A perfect day. I had the windows open in the house and the car to let springtime air in. It felt great.

--Barbara

Into The Feeder

The squirrel that's figured out there are peanut halves in with the birdseed was back today. It had a lovely time for quite a while this afternoon. Most of the time only the tip of its tail hung out but I managed to catch it leaning out holding a peanut and gobbling it up.

 

Another squirrel leaped up onto the crook holding the suet nuggets, thought a while, and then lowered itself down to partake of the luscious nuggets. It started out head down and then switched to head up, probably because it's easier to swallow when your mouth is higher than your stomach.

 

This Robin was pecking around under the suet cakes feeder. I think a bunch of Starlings have been visiting there, too quickly for a picture, but causing crumbs to fall to the ground for birds like the Robin to enjoy.

 

Here's another daffodil picture. Like I said, I can't get enough of their springtime yellowness.

 

After supper I finished Scrap Hat #1. It's small. I tried it on and it's a little like a skullcap because it doesn't come down much below the tops of my ears. I like the colors and the squishiness of it. Someone will love it.

 

Then I cast on Scrap Hat #2. I switched to bigger size US15 needles and dug out the green super bulky yarn leftover from knitting a shrug/sweater years and years ago. Then I found some very skinny sock yarn to carry along just so I'd have more than only green. I suspect the sock yarn will run out before the green stuff does so I'll have to find another little ball of something to carry along. I don't think I have enough green to make the whole hat so I'll have to figure out what comes next. It's an adventure!

 

 I spent all of the afternoon working on critiques for Wednesday's Novel Intensive group meeting. I've been in a bit of a tizzy over needing to do all that work in just today and tomorrow, but I took a deep breath and buckled down and got through all three of them. I'll read through them one more time tomorrow morning before the cleaning lady comes so I'm ready for Wednesday's Zoom.

So I didn't draw or paint today. I feel like I'm falling down on the painting front especially but tackling this Novel Intensive group has consumed my month. Maybe in May I'll unlimber my paintbrushes.

--Barbara 

Not My Day

Today was not my day. I spent nearly 5 hours at the Authors Among Us book fair and didn't sell a single book. I talked to a lot of people, mostly women, and not one of them was motivated to buy one despite my clever patter and winning smile. Oh well, there's always next time.

 

The squirrel that climbs into the square green feeder came back today. Either that or another squirrel figured out that it can push up the feeder lid and climb in to dig out peanut halves. And look how green the grass has gotten in the last week! Well, what passes for grass in my pitiful lawn. I think the lawn mowers cut it too short every week last summer so it didn't hold up. When you look at it closely, there are a lot of gaps.

 

When I got home I sat down to draw after unloading my books, etc. from the car. I flipped the back pages of the book and found these "by the sea" creatures. I made them bigger than the last time I drew one of these groups of things so there isn't as much white space around them. The whale might be my favorite, but I like them all.

 

Tomorrow is OJ's tenth birthday and the grandparents were invited over for supper and a little celebration tonight since it worked better for everyone's schedule. OJ requested Chinese take-out for his birthday supper and this is my plate. I held off on heaping it so I'd have room for cake. It was all delicious.

 

Here's the cake. It was a chocolate tuxedo cake from Costco, also at OJ's request. I can attest that it was a wise choice. Mm, melt in your mouth good. OJ and I made a date for next Saturday for his birthday shop. He's already got one item picked out. It's a little stuffed cat curled up like it's sleeping and it looks like it's breathing. They're kind of creepy but that's what he wants. And it's within his budget. He's wanted one for years and this year he's getting one.

 

My next show is on May 1 at a local senior residential apartment. A knitting friend lives there and I got invited to participate in their vendor show. Then I have to restock my gear and drive it over to GBB's house to load into her vehicle because we need to drive away at around 7am to get to Oshkosh to set up for a 9am show opening on May 2. It's attached to a writing conference so it should be a good venue. She says hopefully.

--Barbara 

Spring Bulbs

I can't get enough of looking at the bulbs flowering across the front of the house. It hasn't been that long ago that there was two feet of snow covering this part of the yard but the daffodils and hyacinths are resilient and refuse to be cowed by a heap of frozen water. I'm convinced part of the sap in their leaves is antifreeze.

 

I have a book fair tomorrow from 11am to 3:30pm so I packed my books and stuff, and then loaded it all into the car. Tomorrow's fair is called Authors Among Us and features local authors. There'll be a room of about 40 of us with all sorts of genres and subjects spread out for people to see and buy. Fingers crossed I sell a few books.

 

I knitted some more rounds on Scrap Hat #1 after supper. I love this kind of project--big needles and big yarn (or four strands of medium yarn held together). Looking at this hat I'm not sure it'll be adult sized so for the next one I'll go up a needle size and add more yarn strands. I've got some super bulky yarn I can start with. Maybe I'll carry one strand of sock yarn along with it just for fun.

 

With the book fair tomorrow and then OJ's birthday supper in the evening, I had to spend some time today working on my critique of cda's manuscript for Monday. Somehow this week I'm not as caught up with critiques as I've been in the last weeks. Tuesday will be the day to get them all done before Wednesday's meeting. That's the second-to-last meeting. These five weeks are flying by.

 

Speaking of OJ, he'll be 10 on Monday. I can't believe he's so old. Double digits already. He and LC had their piano recital this afternoon. They each did very well. They just marched up to the front and played their pieces like champs. One of OJ's friends came with her grandpa and he looked really familiar. Turns out he's the brother of an old diving buddy of ours. Small world. After the recital he took the kids to a trampoline gym for an afternoon of bouncing. Good for getting wriggles out.

I didn't draw today. I got up late, did yoga, and took a shower and that took up most of the morning. I haven't had much oomph this last week. Maybe I'll perk up next week. That'd be good.

--Barbara 

 

Let's Try This Again

Yesterday I got notice of a couple new Book Funnel promos and one of them sounded just made for Horizon, my book about a woman in her mid-50s who's trying to escape other peoples' expectations by re-imagining her life. She takes up watercolor, changes her hair and wardrobe which annoys her kids and best friend, and is pursued by an ardent suitor. It's my title that's hardest to sell so I thought a giveaway in exchange for a newsletter signup sounded like a good idea. The promo starts May 1 so we'll see how it goes.

 

The old-fashioned daffodils have finally opened. They're the all yellow ones with the yellow trumpet shaped centers like used to grow in Grandma's yard. When I took this picture, the flowers were surrounded by a whole bunch of tiny bees. I guess either they've got nectar or they're a stopping spot for bees visiting the neighboring hyacinths.

 

Speaking of bees, I drew two of them this afternoon while talking on the phone to a knitting pal. He was going on about airplanes and hangars so I could draw and listen at the same time.

 

At Friday Night Knitting, I cast on a Scrap Hat. I read a blog post the other day about a webinar about knitting things with leftover yarn scraps. There's a big tote downstairs with lots of scraps of yarn in it so I went down and dug around, found some yarn, and got busy. Using big size US13 needles, I cast on 40 stitches and in three hours got this much hat done. I'm carrying four worsted strands together to make super bulky. I've got to knit four more plain rounds and then start the crown decreases. I like it. And I've got a whole bag of yarn scraps to play with. I foresee lots of these hats in my future.

 

It was a gorgeous day today. The temperature got up to 71 and it was sunny with a little breeze. It was so nice I took a little walk. I need to do that more because I'm in terrible shape. We had another thunderstorm tonight with gusty winds, lightning, and rain. And it's supposed to storm again in about a half hour. Also tomorrow the temperature's supposed to top out at 45 degrees. Mother Nature, please make up your mind!

--Barbara 

P.S. I had a 3-hour knitting Zoom and I didn't get kicked off or freeze! 

Little Beer Making

I went down to Zambaldi Beer to visit DS this morning because he said he was brewing and that means he has time for a visit. Usually he's making hundreds of gallons of beer in a giant vat with a lot of grain and water. Today he was making a small batch of specialty beer with smoked malt. He said that everybody doesn't like smoked beer, that it's an acquired taste, so he's just making a little bit. Like 50 gallons instead of 650. In this picture he's getting ready to set up the "small" system while the grain grinds and the water heats.

 

It was raining AGAIN when I got up this morning. We've had such a rainy April and it's only half over. There's flooding in the area and probably more to come. The East River overflowed its banks and a lot of streets are flooded. Luckily not around me.

 

A Robin stopped for a drink this afternoon. I was fooled for a minute thinking it was a Catbird but then I realized it had an orange-red breast which meant it was a Robin. I don't usually see them getting a drink so this one must have been extra thirsty.

 

Then a Goldfinch stopped to pose for a minute or two. Just long enough for me to snap two pictures before it flew away like it had an appointment elsewhere. It made me happy to see it all yellow instead of its winter avocado yellow green.

 

I was making my lunch when I glanced out the patio door and saw a blue haze under the lilac bush. Grabbing the camera I went out to see that the tiny blue squills under there are blooming. Years and years and years ago I got these from my brother's mother-in-law. She said they'd spread all over. Well, they haven't. There are maybe a few more than when I planted them but not many and for sure not spread all over.

 

And there are buds on the lilac. Leaf buds, not flower buds, but I'll take any buds right now.

 

The rhubarb is continuing to grow. Grandma Angermeier would be so happy that the plant from her farm in Evansville, IN is still growing strong 63 years after we moved up to Green Bay, WI and planted a clump from her garden. Pretty soon I'll be able to chop off some stalks and cook up rhubarb sauce to put on my breakfast yogurt. I can't wait.

 

Today's drawing is a Daffodil. I was flipping through the book and this page fell open so I took it as a sign and got busy drawing. It turned out pretty well, I think. 

 

 

I worked on editing this week's Novel Intensive submission using the comments from the other members and the leader. Then I cut and pasted Week 4's submission and got that sent out. Tonight I had a Marketing Zoom with some writing friends and I'm happy to say that I did not get kicked off and didn't even get a "your internet connection is unstable" warning. Yay! Tomorrow I have a 2-hour writing Zoom and a 3-hour knitting Zoom. That will be the real test.

--Barbara 

Chubby & Furry

Today's squirrel on the suet nuggets was a beefy one. It spread out, almost covering the feeder, and was very intent. It didn't look around or shift positions, it just ate. And ate.

 

I got all excited when I saw the black and white head of a bird on the suet nuggets. I took the picture, thinking it was a Downy Woodpecker. I was disappointed when I realized that it was a Chickadee. And it even moved enough that it's blurry. Thanks a lot, bird.

 

This clump of daffodils is screening one of the mouse bait boxes. There are four of them around the foundation of my house and every three months a pest nerd comes to refill the bait to keep the little rodents at bay. Pest nerds is what they call themselves. Really. It's all over their advertising and handouts.

 

The drawing of the day is a Platypus. My colored pencils weren't as dark as the picture in the book. She said she used alcohol markers to color her examples but those markers really bleed through paper. They even bleed through thick watercolor paper so I'm not going to use them in my plain paper sketchbook. I think it turned out very platypus-like.

 

I had a two-hour Zoom this morning of the Novel Intensive critique group and I didn't get kicked off the internet once. Toward the end, I got a message that my internet was unstable, but it evidently wasn't unstable enough to drop. Hopefully this is the start of better things. I got some good comments and some good critiques. Stuff I have to think about.

For the last few weeks I haven't gotten many clicks on my Amazon ads so this afternoon I did a little research and found new keywords for my three Seaview Series books. I don't want to change too many at once so that the algorithm isn't overwhelmed but I want more traction. Maybe I need to make new ads. Also I tried, for the umpteenth time, to take Christmas at Seaview off Extended Distribution and this time it worked. I don't know what was different but it saved the change. Hallelujah. That has been sooooo frustrating.

--Barbara