Birdies

For some unknown reason today was a bird day at the feeders--and I didn't even get a picture of all of the varieties. When I got up there was a huge flock of Sparrows and Mourning Doves mixed together under the feeders. They pecked and fluttered for a bit and then they all flew off like something came to scare them away. The first surprise visitor was a Nuthatch that stopped at the birdbath for a drink, then it showed up later on the suet pellets.

Also on the suet pellets and difficult to see through the peanut wreath was a Red-bellied Woodpecker. I was very surprised to see it come swooping in for a snack. It stayed long enough for me to take two shots. This is the better of the two. I sure wish that the neighbors' patio umbrella hadn't gotten tangled up in this crook pulling it over to one side. I stood it back up but wind and snow shoved it over again.

 

Another bird swooped in and there was a Downy Woodpecker on the suet cakes. It stayed a good long time so I could take my time and frame a shot.

 

Then I saw a pair of Goldfinches perched on one of the crooks but they didn't stay long enough for me to grab the camera. But I did manage to snap a picture of the Cardinal that landed on the platform feeder to sort through the safflower seeds. Like I said, today was a bird day.

 

I even drew a bird. This Sparrow was the next bird in Draw Like an Artist. I guess it turned out okay. I wasn't much in the mood to do anything today so this is all I did. The Daily Art prompt was to draw a thumbnail sketch of a still life and I have to say that my basket of a lemon and 3 Clementines is pretty darned pathetic.

 

In the afternoon I sat down at the laptop to see if I couldn't crank out some words on this last day of 2022. I managed a little over 1200 words but it was a real struggle. Some days the words come easy and other days not so much.

I'm not doing anything to ring in the New Year. I realized how old and out of touch I am when I didn't recognize any of the musical acts that are going to be on Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve. Had never heard of any of them and I'm not tuning in to change that. Oh, I hear some fireworks. I suppose that people will be shooting them off tonight. I won't be awake for that either.

--Barbara

Melting

My knitting friend, LB, said that it was 51 degrees at midnight last night and the temperature has fallen to 27 since then. All of that warmth made the snow melt like crazy. What was a winter wonderland just a couple days ago is now a mess of exposed grass, fallen birdseed, and rabbit raisins. Just what I want to see when I look out the window.

I felt a little perkier today so I took a shower then went to the party store to find a birthday card for LC who will turn 9 on Tuesday. First I designed a card on Print Shop but it wouldn't print no matter what I did so I had to go buy a card. Rats.

Then I sat down to draw. The only thing I drew was this little guy out of Seuss-isms. I like him.

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I finished Limited Edition Wingspan triangle number 5. Only three more to go! Pretty soon I'll need to wind up another skein. Oh boy.

My regimen of Afrin nasal spray, Zicam, and Halls honey lemon drops is doing pretty well at controlling my cold symptoms although I did have to get up in the night last night to take some Robitussin for the cough that started up. Fingers crossed that I can stay on top of it and sail on through.

--Barbara

Stoopid Cold

Well, I felt like crap today. All day. I'm not terribly sick, the Zicam and Afrin are doing their jobs, but I just don't have any get up and go. I did not have to go out and finish shoveling the driveway because the temperature got up to 45 degrees and the snow melted away. In fact, the iceberg in the birdbath melted and the big top-to-bottom icicle fell down and almost melted.

I didn't even have much energy for drawing. The Daily Art page said to add designs to these vases. I did that.

Then I drew another couple figures from the front cover of Dr. Seuss's Book of Animals.

 

Mostly I sat around half falling asleep. I did a little knitting tonight but my concentration wasn't there so I put it aside. I had to run to the pharmacy to pick up a couple prescriptions (not cold related) and I was a good girl and put on a mask. I do not want to share this cold with anyone.

Right now it's 46 degrees according to my laptop and foggy. I suspect a cold front is going to sweep through overnight which will probably make all of the nice wet roads slick as glass. And to think only 5 days ago it was barely above zero degrees. I love Wisconsin winters.

--Barbara

My Weather App Said Sunny

But the sun never appeared. However it did warm up to 37 degrees by sundown which meant that the majority of the birdbath iceberg melted and the big icicle that IM was so in love with fell off. Just a few days ago it was so cold that it barely got above zero throughout the day and the wind was blowing a gale. It may rain tomorrow. Rain! I can't even...

A couple Sparrows visited the feeder this afternoon but none of their buddies came and a couple squirrels stopped by to make sure that they'd gotten every peanut from the wreath but I didn't manage to snap a picture.

I texted DD to tell her that SIL1 left his cold germs behind when they went home on Monday and she offered to Door Dash me some chicken soup. I thanked her but made my own cauldron of Egg Drop Soup. I had all the ingredients needed and a few chicken drumsticks in the freezer so I thawed them out and added them for some protein. I ladled out a bit to taste. It's good.

On the next page of Sketching there was a Christmas tree, an Easter Egg, and a couple other holiday icons that I didn't draw. Instead I drew a happy mug of hot chocolate and a fast food soda cup in a bad mood.

I picked out the astronaut and Native American from the spread in How to Draw People. I like drawing these people. I'll be sad when I've drawn them all.

So far Zicam and Afrin are doing a pretty good job of holding the cold germs at bay. My nose is runny but my sore throat isn't so sore anymore. I've been sucking on Halls honey lemon drops which helps too.

I went out and scraped some of the leftover snow off the driveway this morning. It was compressed and came apart in chunks. I confess that I didn't clear it all the way to the street. Maybe I'll go out and take another run at it tomorrow. If it isn't raining, that is. Weird weather.

--Barbara

Not Sunny

Because it was overcast it was also warmer, all the way up to 21 degrees, but I missed the sunshine. I feel much happier when it's sunny.

This squirrel played king of the crook for quite a while this afternoon. It leaped from the birdbath to the suet cakes feeder, then to the top of the crook where it stretched across for a nut. Then it would balance on top of the crook shelling and eating its peanut while other squirrels prowled below. The king squirrel would glare down at the others and kind of grunt growl at them to keep them at bay. It worked until the squirrel lost its balance and hit the ground, landing on its paws, and then was chased away by another squirrel. It was quite entertaining.

This Sparrow wasn't nearly as entertaining. It just sat there, all puffed up, picking through the seed in the feeder and tossing what it didn't want down to the snow. No other birds came to join it today.

The next bird in Draw Like an Artist was a Finch. It didn't say what kind of Finch it was but it kind of has Goldfinch markings. Again the bird's back was to the front so I didn't have to draw all of the feet. Whew.

In Drawing Cute I found a Platypus and a Dragon on the next page. I know that Platypus's aren't purple but that's the color she made it in the book so that's what I went with. I like the Dragon's coloring and it's little flame breath makes me smile.

Tonight's sunset wasn't quite as bright as last night's or maybe I was too late but I can tell that it's staying light a tiny bit longer every day, thank heavens.

I think I've got a cold. I woke up with a sore throat this morning, I'm sneezing, and my nose has been extra runny. I took a COVID test that turned up negative so I'm confident that it isn't that. I'm gobbling up Zycam and Halls honey lemon cough drops hoping to stave off the worst of it or at least shorten it. This is the first cold I've had since before March 2020, so almost 3 years without one, which proves that masks are good for something.

--Barbara

But Now It's Just Monday

 I had a plain old Monday today. First thing I stripped the guest bed sheets, threw them in the washer, then into the dryer, and put them right back on the bed in case I have a guest anytime soon. Which I doubt.

The birds came back to the feeders today (it got up to 17 degrees! a heat wave!). Sparrows were diligent about tossing seed down onto the ground and a flock of Mourning Doves took advantage of the free food.

Then a pair of squirrels finally discovered the peanuts so they took turns perching on top of the crook either peeling and eating the nuts right there or turning one over and over before shoving it into their mouth, dropping to the ground, and then scampering off.

I took a break from doing Daily Art pages last week but picked it up again this morning. Luckily I have a lemon that's aging fairly well so I could use it as a watercolor subject. Painting this lemon almost made me want to dig out the big paints and a postcard. Maybe tomorrow.

Today's drawing from Seuss-isms is a, well, I'm not sure what it is. Is it a wall? Not really, it has too many holes, but it has that staircase and a door at the top. Where does it lead? I don't know but I like the way it turned out.

As I was getting my coat on to head over to DS's for the evening I noticed that the sunset was looking pretty so I snapped a picture for you. It was sunny most of the day so I was sure that the sunset wouldn't be much but I was happily wrong. See?

I spent a happy hour rearranging the colored pencils in my new case. I decided to put all the sets together in color order instead of having them all separate. I'm disappointed that there are very few red colored pencils. There are many green and blue ones but only a few red ones. I don't count pink in the red category.

--Barbara

It's Been Christmas

All day it's been Christmas around here. I set my alarm so I'd be up whenever DD and her family decided it was time to come to open gifts. SIL1 made scrambled eggs for breakfast after the stockings were opened. The eggs were delicious, cheesy and herbed and done just right. After breakfast we opened the gifts of which there were many. I got the gift I was hoping for--it's a zippered holder for colored pencils that holds almost all of my colored pencils. It has four double pages like this. Very cool! Everyone seemed to love the gifts they got. It was a happy, messy time.

My other gifts were small things, a tin filled with ink cartridges for my fountain pen, an IM picture 2023 calendar, a soap dish and some fancy smelling soap, and last but certainly not least, a donation made in my name to World Central Kitchen for Ukraine.

A squirrel finally came out of hiding since the wind died down overnight and burrowed into the snow looking for fallen seed.

And a Junco was hopping around under the birdbath looking for I don't know what. Certainly not the rabbit raisins that are all over out there.

After my shower and some lunch I sat down to draw a little. From How To Draw People I picked out Santa and a Singer.

From Dr. Seuss's Book of Animals, I drew a Maizy bird and a cow.

 

We went over to DS's house for supper and gift exchanging. IM was shy for a while but he warmed up and eventually played with LC and OJ. He especially liked Porter the dog. We had yummy tacos for supper with queso, Caesar salad, and chocolate birthday cake for dessert. 

Tomorrow morning early DD, SIL1, and IM will start back to Kentucky. The weather is supposed to be okay for driving, no big storms to dodge on the way home. I'm so glad that they came.

--Barbara

Still Cold and Windy

But with sunshine! It's always better on a sunny day. I went out and snowblowed the driveway this morning before DD and her family arrived. Then I tramped through the snow drift right outside the patio door so I could refill the birdbath. I'm afraid if it gets too low the heater will burn out so I try to keep it topped up.

I filled the peanut wreath with nuts the other day hoping to attract squirrels for IM to enjoy but none have come yet. We did have a couple Sparrows that he was happy to see but he was most excited to see the bunny that came tonight. I had to turn off the flash so the picture is a little blurry but the bunny was declared "so cute" by the smallest person in the house. Now he wants to trap a wild bunny like his YouTube hero, Coyote Peterson, and then release it. Good luck, DD!

The next picture in Seuss-isms was The Cat In The Hat and a little Cat in the Hat riding an elephant. It was fun to draw. I should have colored it in but just wasn't in the mood.

Then I turned to the next page in Sketching to find this mean-looking bowling ball crashing into a bunch of unhappy bowling pins. I'd be unhappy too.

That was my whole day. We met at the pizza place next door to Zambaldi for their lunch buffet, then stopped next door to get beer for SIL1's dad. All of the wrapped gifts got carried upstairs and are now under the tree, even the ones from Santa (he stopped here early on his rounds).

Oh, I made Beef Stew in the slow cooker for supper and it turned out delicious. The gravy wasn't as thick as I would have liked it to be but no one complained and there's enough left for a couple suppers next week. Yum! I meant to take a picture of my plate but IM was kind of spiraling out of control (he didn't sleep well last night) so we ate quick so they could go back to their hotel and settle him down. He's been so good these last few crazy days, he gets to go a little wild when he's overtired. They'll be back in the morning for present opening.

Merry Christmas!

--Barbara

And Now We've Got the Wind

Hoo boy, is it windy today! I went out to clear the driveway after the plow came through this morning and I was nearly blinded by the flying snow that the snowblower was throwing into the wind. It blew and snowed all day. It was so cold that we did not go out to play in the snow today, instead we went to the Hyatt to swim. I snapped this picture of the icicle that grew from the basin of the birdbath all the way to the ground. IM wanted to go out and pick it off but was told that it wouldn't survive inside besides it was just too cold to go out.

The only drawing I did today was the Daily Art challenge. This time the page said to draw the hand that you don't use to draw. I am happy with the way it turned out.

DD and her family went out to Kroll's for supper. I stayed here because we went to Kroll's on Wednesday and I've eaten much of the wrong stuff all week besides I didn't want to go out in the cold again. They decided to go back to the hotel after supper to give IM the chance to have a normal night's sleep so I got to go to Friday Night Knitting after all.  I added about an inch to Limited Edition Wingspan triangle number 5.

I was sitting here at the laptop this afternoon when DD was trying to get IM to rest for an hour, maybe even take a nap, and I realized that there was a small gale blowing through the window over my bed. So I went downstairs and found a box of window plastic with a roll of double-sided tape and sealed the window. It's going to be much cozier in my bed without those cold breezes coming in. Why do I wait so long to seal up that window? I know that it's leaky, I should cover it up sooner. *head, slap*

--Barbara

We Got the Snow

But only about four inches of the stuff. It's been windy all day so what dry and fluffy snow we got has been blowing around but it wasn't too hard to clear the driveway before SIL1 and IM arrived around 12:30. IM was excited about all of the snow so after lunch he and DD went out to play in it. He had a blast, got cold and wet, and came in thrilled with the experience.

I was lucky enough to have the camera up and ready when this female Cardinal landed on the crook so I got this shot. It flew over to the platform feeder and then away.

With our company I didn't spend the afternoon drawing like I usually do. I just drew the Daily Art page which said to fill the page with seashells. I was stumped but then I remembered that there was a page of seashells in 10-Steps: Nature that I could copy. I'm so much more comfortable copying someone else's drawings than doing my own original ones. Maybe someday.

Three little Sparrows flitted around under the tube feeder but didn't stay long. I filled the peanut wreath after lunch thinking squirrels would come to amuse IM but none came. Maybe tomorrow.

I spent an hour this morning working on writing and managed about 1000 words before my oomph petered out. I'm happy to get any words down.

I hope that they're wrong about the strength of the wind tomorrow. I just checked and the temperature right now is zero. Z.E.R.O. and the wind is whipping the snow around. The wind blew water out of the birdbath and created an icicle that reached from the bowl of it to the ground. Yikes.

--Barbara

Gearing Up

 DD and I spent the day running errands and getting ready to wait out the storm that's supposed to bury us tomorrow. We went to the new Hy-Vee grocery store to look around and buy a few things. It's a big, impressive store with lots of cool things to see and buy. We bought some fruit and a birthday cake because IM's birthday is Christmas day and he requested a chocolate cake. Check. DD ran into Target to pick up some Christmas pj's for IM because SIL1 couldn't find the ones that she had bought and hidden for Christmas Eve.

Then we stopped at Seroogy's candy store for Meltaway bars and candy for Santa to put in the stockings. We might have bought candy for ourselves too. We went to Hobby Lobby where DD looked for hankies to crochet edging on but they didn't have any. The hardest stop was for gas. It was all of 2 degrees and a little breezy but I was hardy in my warmest hat and gloves and got through it. Whew.

 A Nuthatch showed up at the feeder this morning. It came and went a few times but I was able to snap this picture of it sitting there with a Sparrow. See how puffed up the Sparrow is? It was really cold out there, single digits for most of the day.

I looked at the drawing books in Hobby Lobby and didn't buy any (none were marked down) but they had 10-Steps: Nature which reminded me that it had been a while since I had drawn anything out of it. So I did. I'm pretty happy with this sea turtle on a beach.

Then I pulled out Drawing Cute where there was a giraffe and a camel on the next page. I like the giraffe but I think the camel is a little funny looking. DD says that camels are funny looking anyway so it's fine.

We made an evening revisit to Target after SIL1 called from the road to say that he had forgotten his socks and IM's toothbrush. We also searched the candy shelves for a Lifesavers Candy book. Remember those? They used to have all different flavor rolls but the ones today have only 5 Flavors. I got one and I'll share the rolls out into the stockings. I used to love Lifesavers when I was a kid.

No snow yet. It's supposed to start overnight.

--Barbara

But Sunny!

 It's so cold. I just drove home from DS's house an hour ago and my car thermometer said that it was 8 degrees. No wonder my feet were freezing. But I had a sunny, blue sky drive home from Milwaukee where I picked up DD right on time and brought her home with me. It had snowed a little overnight so I even got to shovel the driveway when we got here. Yippee.

This little Sparrow visited the feeder this afternoon. It kept looking around like it was expecting its buddies to show up but only a pair of squirrels came.

Yesterday's daily art page said to "add patterns to the socks." So I pulled out my colored pencils and got busy. I wasn't very creative at first, only adding stripes or a colored cuff, heel, and toe, but then I drew other things on the sock blanks, like kittens or sunshine or grapes.

 

The next bird in Draw Like an Artist was a Quail. It turned out okay. I'm kind of happy with the feet.

 

That's all I've got today. We got to spend the evening with the small people which is always fun. DD and I plan to tour the new Hy-Vee grocery store tomorrow and then go to her favorite candy store. Both should be dangerous to our waistlines and our pocketbooks.

--Barbara