Two At Once

With perfect timing I looked up just in time to see two Downy Woodpeckers land on the feeders today and they stayed long enough for me to take a picture. At least I think they're Downys. It looks to me as if they have a rust-red cap on top of their heads so until I do further research, that's what I'm calling them. (I looked them up; they're juvenile Downy Woodpeckers. Good to know. Thanks, Sibley Birds East.)

Drawing-wise, the next figure in The 15-Minute Artist was a figure skate. Once again it was a fun thing to draw. I enjoyed it.

Then I decided that I needed to draw something cute so I tackled the next page in Drawing Cute where I found a whale and seal. Cute!

When I got out my paints I meant to figure out how to paint a person but ended up painting red and yellow tulips again. One of these days I'll paint something I haven't painted before. Someday. I'm having a crisis of confidence in my painting ability but I'm not giving up. Yet.

Today's toss was a pair of red slingback shoes that I wore to DS's wedding, that day and not ever again. Why am I keeping them? So they can get dusty? Out!

I knitted a few rounds on the brioche hat but four rounds doesn't make a huge difference. Plugging away.

I got to take the bag of 20 book sale books over to LC and OJ this evening. They were gratifyingly excited, especially OJ. He made a pile of "his" books and stuck out his lip when I told him that they were to share. He's reading a Dork Diary book that someone told him was a girl's book but DIL1 told him that all books are for all people and to not pay attention. "Besides," she said, "they probably can't read that well." Take that.

--Barbara

I Got It

I think I did anyway. I spent the last few days thinking about brioche knitting and watched another instructional video, a different one this time, and yesterday I cast on--again--and this time I think I got it. I knitted six rounds yesterday and six rounds today which is about all the intense concentration I can tolerate in a day. So now I only have to keep knitting around and around and around until I get to eleven inches. That will take me a while.

A squirrel popped up onto the suet pellets for the first time in a few days. Usually they're up there all the time but lately it's been Sparrows and Downy Woodpeckers but then there came this squirrel dangling there having a suet snack.

I enjoyed the next figure in the 3-D book today. It's a Migrating Martian according to the book.
It was fun to draw.

From 10-Step: People I went back to the beginning and drew the eye, nose, ear, and mouth all on the same page. I took a stab at drawing both a right eye and a left eye and it wasn't until I'd finished the page that I realized that I'd drawn something weird. Poor cross-eyed thing, her parts are all disarranged.

I don't know if the Hummingbirds are visiting the nicotiana but I'm liking the red trumpets. They're fuzzy like petunias and an excellent shade of red.

For today's watercolor I went back into the sketchbook I made at my watercolor workshop and tried replicating one of the first paintings we did. I like the stormy look of the sky.

I texted my friend KW and we met at the downtown library to sort donated books. There weren't very many there to be sorted so we only worked about a half-hour but I brought home a couple DVDs to watch that were going to be thrown away. Score!

--Barbara

There Still Are Flowers

Even though the landscapers used a tractor and scraped off all of the flowers that were in the corner of the garden I still have a few flowers in the yard. There's a nice bunch of spiderwort that's growing up around the sump pump (if I had one) outflow pipe that's merrily blooming these days.

And the first orange daylily has started to bloom.

The row of Stella d'Oro lilies across the retaining wall has opened up buds all down the line,

and in the front the red daylily is celebrating its new mulch by sending out a load of flowers.

A Bluejay stopped for long enough to have a picture snapped before hopping down to the ground and nabbing a fallen peanut.

The next lesson in You Can Draw in 30 Minutes was seahorses, both the main drawing of a regular Seahorse,

and the Bonus Challenge of a Leafy Seadragon. Cool.

For today's watercolor I tried my hand at capturing the Asiatic Lilies that are growing little brown spots and getting to the end of their life.

I was digging around out in the garage and found an old coffee can that I didn't need anymore so that became my toss of the day. Mostly I spent the day reading, drawing, and working on brioche knitting. I think I might have cracked the brioche code but I'm not ready to show my work just yet. Let me get a couple more rounds under my belt and I'll consider it.

I have been eating strawberries like they're free. But they are so good I can't leave them alone.

--Barbara

Hooray!

I was driving down Ridge Road this morning on my way to the branch Post Office to mail a package when I spied a truck with a big sign. The Sunny Hill Farm truck was back in the Ace Hardware parking lot. Hooray!

Now, it's too early for Sunny Hill Farm sweet corn but it's just the right time for Sunny Hill Farm strawberries. I bought 2 quarts that I sliced into a bowl. I might have already eaten two small bowls of berries. Oh my, they're delicious.

 

I noticed pink spots on my feet while drying them after my shower and couldn't figure out where they came from. Then it dawned on me, I'd gone to the park yesterday and got sunburned in my sandals. I wasn't out long enough to have bright red spots and I wore a wide-brimmed hat but I got my first sunburn of the season.

 

I was quick enough to snap a photo of this male Cardinal at the platform feeder. I think that he and the Mrs. are very busy with a nest because neither of them linger very long at the feeder anymore. I keep wishing that they'd bring the babies to the feeder like the Sparrows and Starlings do but not so far.

The daily art page today said to fill it with apples. I used mostly pencil and colored pencils to draw apples in a lot of shapes and colors but did manage to tuck a watercolor apple into the lower corner.

The next figure in The 15-Minute Artist today was a beach ball. Boring. So I won't show that to you, instead here's the next page in 10-Step Drawing: Everyday Things. It's a very snazzy toaster and kettle. I can tell that these books are from England because we don't have small appliances that look like these here in the good old US of A.

Today's watercolor is the reddish day lily that is in front of the brick facade on the front of the house. I like the way the leaves and bricks turned out on this one.

I am happy to say that my hose timer works great, turning on the sprinkler to keep the new grass seed moist. I'm not as good at watering the new bushes on the corners of the house twice a day. Once a day I think I'll manage but not hauling the hose across the front of the whole house morning and night. Once a day will be okay, I think. I hope.

--Barbara

All Done

The landscapers showed up around 8:30 this morning and got right to work. It was a big job clearing the stakes, wire fences, and landscape timbers not to mention all of the mint that had made a mat of runners just under the ground that held everything in place. It was an even bigger surprise to learn that there was a thriving community of mice living in there. The two women were skittish, doing little gandy dances when the mice scattered.

By the early afternoon they had spread topsoil over the scraped area and eased the slope so that I'll have an easier time mowing, then they rolled out a straw filled mesh cover that they pinned down over the seeded and fertilized ground. I had them leave the end of the hose that carried water to the garden, got out my trusty hose timer, and have an oscillating sprinkler all ready to start watering the grass seed morning and evening starting tomorrow.

The next figure in the 3-D book was a Meandering Manatee and I wasn't so sure that it would turn out but I think it looks pretty good.

Then I got out 10-Step: Nature and a bird ID book so I could redraw the Hummingbird and make it look like our Ruby-throated Hummingbird that visits the feeder. I had to laugh when I saw a real Hummingbird this evening because it's about one quarter the size of the drawing and it was too quick to have its picture taken.

I had three bananas too ripe for eating so I made some WW "Nice" Cream with them. You put the peeled bananas, almond milk, vanilla, and frozen fruit into the food processor and whir it up. I put in fruit mix that has whole strawberries in it and they didn't get very cut up but it tasted good anyway. And I still have two servings in the freezer for next time. I forgot to take a picture but it looks like a pink smoothie so you can use your imagination.

I went out and took pictures of a bunch of flowers and decided to paint a pansy. I think it looks more like a flower and less like a monkey or a paw print than previous attempts.

DS texted this morning that he and OJ were going to be at Titletown Park and did I want to come and hang out with them. Of course I did! It was a beautiful sunny breezy day and OJ had a wonderful time on all of the playground equipment and especially rolling and running down the tubing hill.  We played foosball too. DS and OJ beat me. A fun time was had by all.

--Barbara

Half Done

The landscapers came again this morning with all their shovels, rakes, and wheelbarrows. They used the tractor to yank out the bushes at the corners of the house and replaced them with new, smaller shrubs. Then they trenched across the front of the house and around the side and spread a thick layer of mulch over the area. It looks nice. When they got done with that they packed up and left because they were predicting rain for the afternoon and they didn't want to open the garden and have the dirt get all wet and slimy. Well, it didn't really rain, it only sprinkled, but they said they'll be back tomorrow to finish the job. It was a real disappointment when they drove away.

I happened to look out just in time to see a Red-bellied Woodpecker fly away from the suet pellet feeder but I caught the Downy Woodpecker on the suet cakes.

The next thing to draw in You Can Draw In 30 Minutes was a nose. Just a nose so I drew it three times because the first one seemed kind of lonely there on the page all alone.

Then I opened 10-Step Drawing: People to the beginning and drew the first three things--an eye, a nose, and an ear. I didn't like the first ear so I drew it again and was happier with it. I despair of ever getting any good at drawing faces. Every time I draw one it doesn't look anything like the example but I'll keep trying.

After that I looked to see what the next figure was in 10-Step: Nature. A Hummingbird! It isn't the best bird I've ever drawn but it isn't bad. This coloration must be the type of Hummingbird they have in England because it wasn't until I was coloring it that I realized that it didn't look like our Ruby-throated ones. I think I'll take another stab at it another day and change the color to look more like what I see at the feeder.

And that's it. I didn't paint a watercolor today, I just didn't feel like it. I don't know why. I borrowed an ebook from Hoopla (a service through the library) and sat at the table reading for most of the afternoon. Reading is a valid way to spend the day.

--Barbara

Well, Rats

I got all excited when the landscaper pulled up and drove his tractor along the side of the house early this morning. He called at about 8 o'clock to say that he had another job to finish and would be over about midday. Okay, fine. Then they pulled up just after lunch and he came to the door to say that the other job had gotten a bit bigger (and more annoying) so they wouldn't make it today. Tomorrow for sure. Unless it rains. Then Sunday. I'm not holding my breath but I've still got the tractor as a hostage so I am confident that they'll be here soon. One of these days.

I had a lot of fun art-ing this morning. The next page in 365 Days of Drawing said to use paper to make a picture so I brushed black watercolor ink over the page and then cut out shapes in homage to Matisse's Icarus which is one of my favorite works of art. When Matisse was old and nearly blind he made art with scissors, cutting out shapes and gluing them to canvas, some of them were gigantic. I like them.

Then the next figure in The 15-Minute Artist was a paintbrush. It was surprisingly interesting to draw. I enjoyed it.

After that I turned to the next page in Drawing Cute wanting to mix things up. I was happy to see that the next figures were a jellyfish and an octopus. Also fun to draw.

The Stella d'Oro lilies are starting to pop along the retaining wall but they aren't quite ready for that long shot. This single lily posed in profile for me.

Oh, my writing friend, JMcK, knew the name of that white flower--penstemon. As soon as I read it I knew that she was right but I sure couldn't think of it myself. Thanks!

Dad's roses are going great guns, just blooming away. The buds on either side of the rose that I showed you the other day are opening so I have this lovely trio of roses.

For today's watercolor I went back to the pictures I took at the Botanical Garden and took another run at the yellow peony. It still isn't right, I think it looks more like a daffodil, but that's way better than the yellow blob of the last attempt. And the blurry green leaves look better too, I think.

Today's toss was a teddy bear that Durwood ordered over a decade ago and left to gather dust on a top shelf. It had on a mask, snorkel, and fins. The rubber of the mask gave out so that's trash but the teddy is still fuzzy and lovable in his swim trunks. Some child will like him.

I really hope that the rain holds off tomorrow so that they can make a start on the garden removal. I'm anxious to have it over and done with.

--Barbara

Slow Learner

You know, I used to be a quick study, picking up new things fairly quickly but evidently I've lost the touch. I decided to take another run at knitting a brioche stitch hat tonight so I cast on and got started, sitting here in front of the laptop with a YouTube video at the ready. I followed along and got through two rounds but when I went to start the third round what I was faced with didn't match what the lady on the video had and there was no way I could figure out what went wrong. I took a picture before I turned this tiny bit of knitting back into two separate balls of yarn. I'll get it. I'm not giving up. CS has agreed to tutor me, thank heavens.

I got a call from the landscaper this morning that he'll be here tomorrow with his crew to tear out the garden area and turn it into grass. I'll be sorry to lose the flowers that make up about a quarter of the space but it will make mowing the slope a whole lot easier. I'm all for that. I'm willing to sacrifice the asparagus and perennials for mowing ease and safety. I did find and transplant a clump of chocolate mint for the grandkids to munch on. I hope it survives. What am I saying? Mint is the cockroach of the plant family, it's pretty much indestructible.

These little white flowers will be gone too and I still don't know the name of them. Oh well.

Today's figure in the 3-D book was fun to draw. It's a mouse on a pencil/rocket. I got to show it off to LC and she was delighted with it. Me too.

The next picture in 10-Step: Nature was a bird's nest. It doesn't look much like the picture and those are supposed to be feathers there on the left of the eggs, not bunny ears.

I decided to try my hand at painting the waterlilies that I saw at the Botanical Garden a couple weeks ago. I think it turned out okay except I regret trying to paint the dark shadow of a tree looming over the pond. It looks like a stump sticking up from the front. I'll try again another day. Without the shadow.

I can't wait to get the garden gone and the shrubs in front replaced tomorrow. It's supposed to be blazing hot again, naturally, but I'll make sure that they have plenty of water.

--Barbara

Still Sunny But Not As Hot

Today was a much more comfortable day. The temperature only got up to 86 degrees with 32% humidity. Totally bearable. I basically goofed off today, spending a lot of time listening to an audiobook. I just didn't have the oomph to do anything much--but some days are like that.

I liked the drawing today. It's a sunflower and it was surprisingly easy to draw. This is the second time I'm drawing my way through this eBook and I find that the lessons aren't as much of a challenge as they were the first time through. Big surprise.

More of the Stella d'Oro lilies opened overnight or this morning. A lot of the plants have stems with buds on them poking up out of the leaves. Pretty soon I'll have a whole row of golden yellow flowers to take a picture of.

I saw a Downy Woodpecker perched on the side of the birdbath but it left before I could take a picture. They're so small and neat looking in their black and white striped outfit.

I haven't kept up with doing a gratitude journal page every day. It got to the point where I was having to be grateful for the same things day after day so I only do a page every week or so. I did one today.

Today's watercolor is of a clematis that I saw at the Botanical Garden when Lala and I went there a couple weeks ago. Has it been that long ago already? Well, it was the 11th so I guess it's 11 days ago, that's almost a couple weeks. Time sure flies...

Today's toss was a couple sports bras, one lime green and one aqua, that I just don't wear because I don't like the colors of them when they peek out of my shirt necklines. Silly reason to get rid of things but there you go, I'm shallow.

I didn't knit today but I did sew. DS handed me a pair of LC's leggings yesterday with the waistband pinned. Seems she tried to wear them and they fell right down. Thank god for safety pins but I fixed the waist today so she can wear them and they'll stay up and not have to be pinned. She's so tall and slender they have a terrible time finding clothes to fit.

--Barbara