I Gave Up

I gave up trying to figure out how to pick up and knit the gusset stitches on the Owl Sock with Magic Loop so I dug out the Double Point Needles and am going old-school on this part of the sock. Once I decrease back to the original 48 stitches I'll put them back on the Magic Loop circular needle to work my way down the foot and toe. I probably could have found a YouTube video on how to do it, there seems to be at least one for every problem or question, but I just didn't feel like learning anything new. 

See the lily sprouts? It was gray and dreary today but it didn't start raining until after I went out and took this picture of the greenery I can see from the patio door. There's green sprouting all across the retaining wall.

The bright spot of the day was this Goldfinch. It landed on top of the crook and stayed long
enough for me to take its picture. I don't have any finch seed so there's really nothing for it to eat but I'm glad it stops by every once in a while. I'll have to remember to get one of those mesh "socks" with finch seed in it the next time I'm at the birdseed store.

Today's picture in the 15-Minute Artist is a dandelion puff. I was afraid that it would be too hard to draw the puff part but it's just a series of Vs and Xs filling in the space. I like the little seeds floating away.

I pulled out the Drawing Cute book next and drew these two doggies--a Poodle and a fluffy dog of unspecified breeding.

I had to go to two home improvement stores to get the right size window well covers because the closest one only had one in stock so I ended up a few miles down Highway 41 at another version of the same store getting another one. Naturally it started raining when I was on the highway and when I stepped up to the window well to put the cover on my nice white sneaker sank into the mud. Ugh. I forgot that about new dirt when it gets wet and these covers don't really fit right either but there isn't another size smaller so I guess we're stuck with these. They're heavy enough that they won't blow away so I guess they'll serve their purpose of keeping leaves out of the wells. Sheesh. What a pain.

--Barbara

Window Well Fix

The window well fixit guys showed up right on time this morning and got the job done in a few hours. They had to dig out the dirt by hand and use a loooong post hole digger to scoop out the dirt that had fallen into the drain pipe that the previous fixers had installed. They filled it with lots of gravel and even put gravel under the soil around the well so that it drains well. I hope that this takes care of the problem, at least for a while, at least until after I sell the place.

When I filled the birdfeeders this morning I saw that the sedum is sprouting up on the retaining wall. I like the little fists of green popping out from the brown wood chips.

The daily art today took some courage. It said to quickly sketch things around the house and suggested using a liner pen to prevent smudging. Draw in ink without starting with pencil? Scary, but I did it. My rendition of the camera is a little off kilter but I'm pretty pleased with what I managed to produce. (The plant was printed on the page when I started.)

The next figure in the 3-D book was this Jumbo Jogger. I think it's kind of funny, a jogging dinosaur. It's getting easier to draw the things in this book, probably because the book is aimed at children.

I have a bigger challenge when I draw out of the 10-Step: People book. This is my third, and best, attempt at drawing an eye. I'm sure that drawing one looking in the other direction would take at least that many tries. The right-hand nose looks a bit more realistic, I think, and neither ear looks right to me. Guess I'll have to give that one another try.

 

The UPS man brought the drawing board which is the last item I need for my watercolor class. It's huge. Watch, I won't paint one painting using a half sheet of paper so won't need this large, clunky board but if I didn't have it I'd have needed it. I had a 25% off coupon so it wasn't too expensive.

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I made the heel flap and turn of the Owl Sock. I was very impressed with my ability to turn the heel while sitting and talking with friends. I confess that I did more focusing and less talking while knitting that part. Next I pick up gusset stitches, decrease back down to my original number of stitches, and then knit my way down the foot.

I didn't toss anything today. I spent a lot of time drawing and Zoomed quite a bit of the afternoon so I just didn't get around to it.

It turned out to be a nice day, sunny and warmish, a good day for fixit men to be working outside. They told my renter what cover to get to keep leaves and trash out of the wells so I went to Menard's for them. Naturally I bought the wrong size so I'll return them for the correct size tomorrow. Which is Saturday and not the optimum day to be in the home improvement store but I'll brave it.

--Barbara

It Was There

Really. This afternoon a Sharp-shinned Hawk landed on the adirondack chair and then flew up to the fence. I got the camera, took off the lens cap, pressed the shutter button and the danged bird flew away. It was right there just a second before.

I saw the first fly of the season today too. It landed on the patio screen and just sat there. It's not much to look at but it's the first one I've seen this year. It deserves a photo.

I stopped at Zambaldi this morning to visit with DS for a little while. He was cleaning the mash tun after brewing the latest batch of hazy IPA. He piled all of the spent grains into barrels that a Lena pig farmer comes to pick up so they don't go to waste and then used a hose to clean all of the remaining grain stuck to the tun.

 

The grape hyacinths are starting to bloom! I saw this tiny hint of purple this afternoon.

 

Even though it's chilly I'm determined to take a walk, just around the block, gotta start small so I keep it up, but at least I'm warm enough in my fleece vest, hat, and fingerless mitts. Don't have to wear my winter coat. Finally.

 

Today's daily art was this page of frames. It said to fill in each one with a scene or plant. It was kind of intimidating but I started with one and just drew little things in them one by one and pretty soon I had them all filled it. Then I got to play with colored pencils.

 

I got together with three friends tonight to knit. We met at CS's house, had Mexican snacks, knitted, and talked for hours. I made good progress on the Owl Sock.

 

I got a call from the window well fixit guy this afternoon. They'll be here tomorrow late morning and I hope that they can fix both of the sinkholes so that the water drains and not into the basement.

I'm tired of being cold.

--Barbara

La Nina

I finally have someone to blame for the crappy and cold weather we are having and will continue to have at least for the next month. Someone posted a map on FB with the May temperature predictions and it's Below Normal through May. Drat. I guess I'm packing long jeans, long sleeved tees, warm socks, and a jacket for my watercolor week at The Clearing at the end of May. In three weeks from Saturday! But who's counting?

I went out this afternoon, fired up the snowblower, and drove it around to the shed in the backyard and exchanged it for the lawnmower. Despite the chilly temps I'm wagering that it won't snow enough anymore to need snowblowing. She says with her fingers crossed. While I was out there I saw that the lilac bush has started budding.

And under the lilac bush the little blue squills are blooming. I keep hoping that they'll spread out and make a carpet of Spring blue but so far only one clump has moved about six inches from the original planting. Ah well.

I turned to the next figure in the 15-Minute Artist book and found a sand dollar to draw. First I tried my hand at redrawing the wolf. It's better but it still doesn't look like a wolf's head. I even tried just drawing the head but that one looks like a grumpy monkey. The sand dollar is much better so that's what I'm showing you.

The daily art today said to fill the page up with potted plants. I realized that I can see leaf shapes in my head and can't transfer that inner vision to the paper so I just drew leaves as best as I could and used a lot of good colored pencils to jazz them up.

I gave in to temptation and cracked open the 10-Step Drawing-Everyday Objects book. The first figure was a wallet. I don't think I picked the right colors for the money in the wallet but it was a pretty simple thing to draw--and color.

 

After supper I whipped up a batch of WW Hot Chocolate Mix. I had all of the ingredients on hand except the non-dairy creamer which I got at the grocery yesterday. Now I can have hot chocolate whenever I have a craving. No more rationing it. And I am less than thrilled about the realization that I'm drinking hot chocolate at the end of April because I get cold. Grr.

I spent a lot of the morning amassing things to take to The Clearing. I printed out the supplies list for my class and have everything except a board big enough for the half-sheets of paper but that's on its way. No art store had one in stock so I had to order it from Michaels. I should have looked on Cheap Joe's Art Stuff website which is where I got the paper and palette but didn't think of it until just now. I'll check on there but since I had a 25% off coupon at Michaels I trust that I got it cheaper.

Today's toss was a bag of bags. I was digging around downstairs and found a package of small paper bags that I bought when I was going to corner the craft show lip balm market. That never happened and will never happen so I don't need the bag of bags. Someone will.

It barely got up to 40 degrees today but at least it was sunny so I took a walk around the block. I need to start walking every day to soak up Vitamin D and to get the stink blowed off, as my Grandma Angermeier used to say. Now that the streets and walks are ice free it's time to get out and walk.

I got a text from my renter this morning that her husband found a washout next to their other window well. I went over and checked it out and, sure enough, that one needs to be fixed too. I called the basement fixit guy and naturally that will add to the cost. Some days I think I should have carried through with my intention to put this place up for sale when Durwood died and let someone else deal with maintenance.

--Barbara

Those Were Snowflakes

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I looked out and saw a few snowflakes blowing by. There weren't a lot of them but they persisted for a few hours. Just a little reminder that winter could come screaming back if it wanted to. I went to the grocery this afternoon and it occurred to me that it's near the end of April and I'm still wearing my winter coat. Gah.

Despite the continuing cold and windy days the bulbs are showing off across the front of the house. The yellow of the daffodils makes me stop and smile every time I catch sight of it.

While I was glaring at the snowflakes a Red-bellied Woodpecker came to the platform feeder but only stayed long enough for me to see it. I got the camera up and on, took off the lens cap, and the danged bird flew away. Just an other couple seconds and I'd have had a picture. I was frustrated enough that I'm digging back in the files to find a picture from a previous visit. Just because I can.

Remember when the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" was big? No? It was in the 70s. Well, one of their tricks to drawing success was having you draw something upside down, to draw someone upside down. Today's daily art page said to find a picture of someone, turn it upside down, and draw it saying that way you'd draw shapes instead of a preconceived view of what a person is supposed to look like. I did it. It doesn't look all that much like the picture but it's a better face than I'd be able to draw right side up so I guess it's a success.

 

The next figure in the 3-D book was Jolly Tamales. These look suspiciously like the Twinkie people or hot dog people from the Draw Squad book. They were fun and easy to draw.

 

Then I pulled out the 10-Step Nature book and turned to the next page which was clover. I was sure that I'd suck at the putzy flower heads but I actually liked drawing them and I like the way the coloring turned out. Colored pencils for the win!

 

Last night OJ asked me to bring some yellow fabric to his house because he wanted to make a Knuffle Bunny which is a character in one of the books I gave him for his birthday. He and I drew the Bunny and I promised to see if I couldn't make one. I had some yellow fleece so I drew one, cut it out, and sewed it together. This is not a triumph of the sewing art but it's way better than a paper and staples version that he tried. It's kind of ugly and goofy looking, I hope he likes it. Part of me says it's good enough and part of me wants to go find a pattern, buy fabric, and make a better one. *sigh* I wonder which part will win.

 

Today's toss was a small stack of patterns that I sorted out of my files, things I will never sew again.

I went to the Dollar Tree today and discovered that it's now the $1.25 Tree. They've upped their prices by a quarter. I have to say that I'm not surprised. I needed some spray bottles for my watercolor class and found a few other items too, of course.  Then I went to the grocery for salsa and chips to take to knitting on Thursday night and the last ingredient that I need to make more WW Hot Chocolate Mix. It's been so darned cold this Spring that I've been drinking the stuff every couple days. It's great when I get chilled and only 2 points per serving. What a bargain.

--Barbara

More Flowers

My bulbs are blooming across the front of the house. The sweetest are the mini hyacinths that are just about three inches tall in pink, white, and purple. It's quite the trick to get down to their level but they smell just as good as the regular size ones.

The Cardinals came to the feeder a bunch of times today. As always, the male shooed away all comers but let the little lady land and peck at the seeds. I'm amazed at the difference in his color on sunny days and cloudy days. Today was one of the cloudy ones, chilly and breezy too, so he looked a little drab, not his flashy, sunny day self.

Today's daily art was a grid page where you were asked to put swatches of your colored pencils. There weren't enough spaces for the 72 pencil set so I used the 52 pencil set. When I put the pencils back into their box I even arranged them in rainbow color order. Very nerdy of me.

The next lesson in the 30 Days book was a room in 1-point perspective. I like this kind of drawing and I don't. I like it because I use a ruler so that it's very precise which pleases the Germanic, everything has to be right part of me but then I don't like it because it's so strict and rigid. Make up your mind, Barbara!

I pulled out a card to write a think you note and discovered that I'd bought a pack of cards that were painted by the artist who is teaching the watercolor class I'm taking next month. I got the paper and palette I ordered from Cheap Joe's Art Stuff today so now I'm pretty much ready to go and be all artistic and probably the rookie-est one in the class, but that's why I'm taking the class, to learn to paint better.

Today's toss was a book about making a watercolor journal. Again it was way too advanced and precise for my level of expertise. Great pictures but way beyond me.

I spent a lot of the day listening to an audiobook or reading an eBook. How else should I spend a dreary day once I've done a little drawing? Being retired is so satisfying.

--Barbara

Daffodils!

My daffodils are blooming. I looked out the window earlier and a rabbit was sitting by one of them so I flung the window open and hollered at the rabbit not to eat it. Didn't scare it away, it didn't even move, so I grabbed the camera and went out to take a picture of the daffodils. That scared the rabbit away. Good riddance.

I wasn't fast enough to snap a picture of this Mourning Dove taking a bath. Mourning Doves are very sedate bathers. No energetic flinging themselves around in the water like Robins, they dip and flutter. Very ladylike.

It was nice outside today, nice and warm but windy. I went out and swept off the patio, then I cleaned out a bunch of broken pots, loading up the trash bin for Wednesday pickup. After washing my hands I took my sketchbook outside and tried to draw the birds that came to the feeders. I didn't do such a great job, the birds didn't stay long enough for me to get a good look at them, but I enjoyed the attempt. A dragonfly zoomed by so I included it in the mix.

The daily art page today had a row of three diamonds and said to continue the pattern using different materials. I used colored pencils (of course I did, I'm addicted to them), crayons, markers, and confetti crayons. This is not great art but it was fun to do.

Then I turned to the next page in the 10-Step Nature book to find a Robin to draw but not a North American Robin, a European Robin so it looks a bit different but it was still a fun challenge.

Today's toss was one of my watercolor books. It has a very precise and realistic style and I want to learn the smooshy and impressionistic style but can't figure it out on my own. That's why I'm taking the class.

I had a small assistant this morning for a couple hours. We took a walk to the nearest park only to discover that they'd removed the play equipment and paved a parking lot. I ask you. So we hopped in the car and went to two other parks where he ran around playing on all of the climbing structures. Then we came home and drew and colored. A very enjoyable morning.

Oh, and it turns out that I will know someone at The Clearing when I'm there for watercolor. I know the Poetry teacher and her husband will be in painting class with me. Hooray!

--Barbara

72 Degrees!

That's how warm it got today. I opened the house up to let the warm fresh air come inside and I still have a couple windows open. It's still close to 70 and I don't want to close the place up yet. I went out and cut down the tall ornamental grasses left from last year and then I raked away all of the leaves that got winter-blown against the back of the house. So now I have a pile of stalks, fallen branches, and leaves at the curb. Hopefully the stick and leaf trucks will start coming around. I just watched the weather and we're supposed to get back to below normal next week. Yippee.

This fully yellow Goldfinch stopped by to pose for a portrait this morning. I'm very happy to see their bright little selves flitting around the feeders.

And the rhubarb is sprouting like mad! Pretty soon there'll be big pink and green leaves and the temptation to make rhubarb sauce or pie or crumble.

The daily art page taught about using a pencil and your eye to measure the angles of an object. I don't think that I did a very good job of it. My apple was rounder than the drawing, I'm sure of it, but I ate the evidence when I was done with the drawing and coloring.

An ant was the next figure in the 15-Minute Artist book. It was a fun challenge to draw something so small on such a large scale.

For the first time in a week I made a gratitude journal page. I couldn't resist celebrating the warm temperature.

I went to the birdseed store this afternoon and was sorely tempted to go to the U-Bake in the same shopping center to buy something sweet to eat but I resisted. I have got to get myself off of the sweets and crunchies and back to eating the right things. I'm such a trial to myself.

--Barbara

Back To Gray

It was sunny for about a minute when I got up this morning and then the clouds crowded in and the rest of the day was gray and dreary. It spit rain a little bit but not when the basement fixit guy was here looking at the window well situation. He thinks they can fix it so now I wait for an appointment and hope that the whole backyard doesn't swirl down into the hole before they get here.

The Cardinal is a regular visitor to the platform feeder and he also checks to see if anything good is on the ground. The female stops by too but she mostly stays up on the feeder.

Today's daily art page said to fill it up with all of the fruit I could think of. So I did. I started coloring the fruit that I'd drawn when I realized that it looked way better if I outlined it with the pen so I did that too. I am especially pleased with the trio of plums. Don't know why.

The next figure in the 3-D book was a Jiggling Jellyfish. It was easy and fun to draw. I also redrew the eye from the 10-Step book but I didn't take a picture of it again.

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I worked on the Owl Sock. I'm not doing a pattern on the leg, just knitting around and around so there's very little if any thinking involved. My kind of knitting.

I spent a lot of the afternoon reading a book. It was lovely to just sit and read. I should do that more often.

--Barbara

Sunshine All Day

Today felt like Spring. It was sunny and while it was windy all day it wasn't a chilly wind. I walked to the mailbox in a fleece vest and a hat and was comfortable. Naturally it's supposed to pucker up and rain tomorrow. *sigh* Why can't we have two sunny days in a row?

I bit the bullet and called The Clearing to sign up for a watercolor class. One of the three classes held in May billed itself as for Beginners/Intermediate. The teacher used to teach 5th graders so I'm guessing she's patient, at least I hope so. It'll be weird being at TC without a friend but I'm sure that I'll make one. Only 4 weeks until I go!

When I came back from the mailbox up on the bank corner I saw green along the top of the retaining wall so I went back out with the camera and took this picture. These are Stella d'Oro lilies and irises sprouting. Hooray!

The daily art page asked me to draw something that makes me happy so I drew LC and OJ. Not very realistically but I recognize them and they definitely make me happy.

From the 10-Step Nature book I drew herbs--a bay leaf, sage, and thyme. I do enjoy drawing things out of this book.

Tonight I sat watching TV and finished knitting a cast sock. It's one that I knit with little leftover balls of yarn. I kind of like the patchwork quality of it.

In the "What next?" department, I got a text from my renter that there was something she wanted to show me on their patio yesterday. I went over and she showed me that the ground was washed out next to their patio and they've gotten a little water in their basement. I went over to look at it again this afternoon and saw that the window well was sunken and washing away. Looks like when we had them dug out and refilled for better drainage a few years ago they didn't fill that one well enough. So I called a basement guy and he said he'd come over tomorrow afternoon to look at it. Man, I hope he shows up. I'll be checking the other window well tomorrow too.Seems like it's always something.

--Barbara