We Won't Ever Starve

 When I get together with my knitting friends once a month there is never any danger of anyone starving. We each bring a treat of some kind and it's never anything measly. Tonight I took a round of Boursin cheese and multi-seed rice crackers. There was also a small wheel of Brie and some yummy crackers, shrimp with seafood sauce, hummus and pita chips, cherry salsa and scoops, and pretzels that had been baked with oil and herbs. Oh my, it was a good thing that I didn't have any supper because I didn't stint on snacks.

This Downy woodpecker took a ride on a Slinky before hopping over to the suet cakes for a snack. I love watching them land on the Slinky and calmly ride down and up a few times before going about their business.

There are still irises blooming. These are sort of red violet. I wish that they were standing tall on their stems instead of lying ignominiously on the retaining wall blocks but they're still pretty.

The next lesson in You Can Draw In 30 Minutes was a penguin. It was fun to draw and fun to shade. I think it really looks like a penguin.

The Bonus Challenge was another penguin. I like that one too.

I'm having a weekend guest so I made farro salad today for supper tomorrow night because it's better if it marinates for a day. I got everything together and realized that I'd forgotten scallions so rather than leave them out I went to the store again for them. I also passed, okay I went looking for, the display of graphic novels that LC and OJ like and picked up a couple of them each because we need new car books. Anyway, I thought maybe I could paint a picture of making the salad and then remembered that I have watercolor pencils so I was able to draw it the way I wanted it to look and then smoosh clear water over to make the pencil marks turn into watercolor. It's very pastel but I like the way it turned out.

We watched the Jan. 6 hearing broadcast at knitting tonight so I didn't get as far on the Hankie washcloth as I'd hoped but I'll take some time tomorrow before Lala comes to get the first crochet round finished. That will be a better place to stop than in the middle which is where I am right now.

I went down to the Central Library this morning to meet the guy in charge of book sorting for the Friends of the Library book sale. I figured that I needed something to do that didn't involve sitting at the table and a couple of my friends sort books so I figured that I could arrange to meet one or another of them down there once I'm fully trained. I used to work there so it was partly familiar but fun to be behind the scenes. And one of the perks is you can take books home to read as long as you bring them back eventually. Cool, huh? The only disappointing part is there's a special crew that sorts children's books so I won't be able to find books for the grandkids as easily. Ah well, can't have everything.

I overslept so I ended up running around like a crazed weasel getting ready to go to the library so I didn't take the time today to find something to toss. When you start your day on the wrong foot it seems like the whole day is off and then having to go back to the grocery for scallions didn't help.

--Barbara