I Got Brave

And emailed the local indie bookstore yesterday and this morning I took one copy of each title down there along with the consignment paperwork and now my books are in Lion's Mouth Bookstore in downtown Green Bay. I wasn't sure she'd take them but she relaxed her requirements a bit so I'm in. Now all I need is for someone to buy one of them. Just one, is all I'm asking.

 

You know how it usually rains on Memorial Day weekend? Well we had perfect weather for the weekend and even Monday was perfect. Today, however was another story. Since today is the traditional Memorial Day I wasn't surprised when I went out to snap some flower pictures and saw that the sky to the south had turned charcoal navy and there was thunder rumbling. It rained. Oh, man, did it rain. For about half an hour it just poured. Just as it was starting I saw a Hummingbird come to the feeder and worried that a raindrop would knock it out of the sky but it sipped a bit and then flew off. Hopefully to shelter under a big leaf or an overhang.

I got out there and took another closeup of a purple iris and it's a good thing that I did because the hard rain made quite a few of them tip over and fall on the ground.

Another of the new plants, the one called Blue Star, has started to bloom. This is the one that has bud clusters that look like upside down grapes. It's pretty, I just wish it was any other color but blue.

The Bleeding Hearts are still blooming strong too.

Yesterday I heard a bird crash into the patio door and looked up to see a Hawk land on the retaining wall. I grabbed the camera, raised it up, and the Hawk flew away so I pushed the shutter just in case and I got something. It's a Hawk blur but you can see it and I love it. I waited all afternoon for it to come back but it never did.

I saw the Oriole again today. I thought it had moved on since I hadn't seen or heard it in about a week but there he was on the crook today. Hooray!

More drawings out of Draw 20 Trees or whatever the book is called. I think the nest turned out particularly well.

The House Finches like the orange and grape jelly too and I surprised a pair of them on the orange by the kitchen window. Didn't get a picture but I did snap one of a male on the feeder just before it started raining. You know that rain is going to make the grass grow faster which means I'll have to mow. I should have mowed before it got hot and humid but I didn't. Ah well.

All of a sudden the blanket I had on the bed was too warm so I switched it out today. Funny how it was fine the night before but last night I was roasting. I guess it's not cooling off at night the way it had been. It's too early in the summer for it to get up to 90 degrees. Way too early.

--Barbara

More Yellow Ones

More of the yellow iris buds opened overnight and they are beautiful. I went around the side of the house and the irises there, which are two-toned yellow, haven't sent up any buds yet. I'm hoping that they do. My Grandma Angermeier called iris "flags," I don't know why, but I think of her when I see them.

The last surviving poppy on the side of the house has sent up a couple buds. I miss the poppies that were in the garden (and the bee balm and daisies too) but the garden needed to go. I should have asked the landscapers to transplant them rather than tossing them but I didn't. Silly me.

Lots of the purple iris have popped open this last few days. It's so nice to look out and see the row of them up on the retaining wall but I wish they were spread out a bit.

The lilies of the valley are blooming too. There aren't as many of them as there used to be, I don't know why, but the ones that are there are vigorous and fragrant. Mmm. Reminds me of 3310 Cave, right, Aunt B?

I tried my hand at painting the yellow iris today. I'm happy with the way it turned out. It's very pale, pastel-y, which is not my favorite but I like this painting.

Drawing went well today. I'm still stuck in the 20 Ways to Draw a Tree (and 44 other nature things) book. Maybe I'll shift to a different book or books once I've drawn one from every page. Today we have berries, a snail, a beetle, a flower, clouds, and an apple.

Yesterday (or the day before) I cast on another dishcloth with the Punto yarn. I got this far and weighed the remaining yarn, pulled out until I had just over half left, and tied a loop so that I'll know when to start the decreases. Hopefully my master plan pans out.

The cleaning lady came today. She's the best publicity agent for my books. She has one of each title and keeps lending them to her customers and is determined that I go see the owner of the local independent bookstore. I told her that I would but I suspect that the owner won't accept my books because the price isn't printed on them and that's one of her criteria for self-published books but I'll go and make her tell me that to my face. My instinct is to avoid rejection but MB won't let it go so I'll try.

It got up to 90 degrees today and the humidity is creeping in. I kept the house closed up and the a/c on today in self-defense. We got spoiled by having a perfect holiday weekend, weather-wise. It's supposed to hit 90 for the next few days. Yippee.

I watched a show on PBS tonight where Lidia (the Italian cooking lady) visited a bunch of different immigrants to experience their different foods and to talk about their American experience. I was so jealous. I'd have given anything to be in her pocket (with a fork) to try all of the wonderful-looking food. The people were from Bhutan, Punjab, Cuba, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. I've always said that I want to be the token white person in my neighborhood and have one of every culture living around me so I can get to know about them and have them feed me. Wouldn't it be great to try all of that interesting food from around the world? I'd want Native American (or are we supposed to say "First Nations" now?), soul food, Hispanic food, and other types of food from cultures closer to home too. I'm an equal opportunity diner. I want to try some of everything!

--Barbara

A Yellow One!

Another iris bloomed overnight--a yellow one! I forgot that there was a yellow iris up on the retaining wall. I wish I had more colors.

The Blue Star "Blue Ice" (or vice versa) is fixing to bloom. I'll be interested what the flowers look like because the buds look like upside down clusters of grapes. And speaking of grapes, I miss them. Evidently there were terrible rains in Chile where most of our grapes come from so the crop failed and it's a little early for Mexican grapes. I'll be glad when they're back in stores.

I booted up one of the Creativebug painting classes I've already taken this afternoon and painted along with a couple exercises just for fun. The red vase and flowers was a "no peek" contour play and the blue one was a "peek" exercise. Neither of them are much good but I had fun and that's what counts.

Evey day I have to add water to the birdbath and I couldn't figure out where all the water was going until I saw this pair of Starlings bathing. I've never seen such enthusiastic splashing. Cups of water were sloshing over the side. Crazy. Again the Bluejay came for a single sip of water and was gone before I even had my hand on the camera. One of these days I'll luck out and get a picture.

Once again I turned to Things With Wings and drew some of the things that I haven't drawn before--a dragon, another fairy, a gargoyle, and a dragonfly. I'm really enjoying these "Draw 20..." books.

Tonight I added four rounds on the Rainbow Brioche Beanie so I'm up to 7 1/4". I need to get to 11" before doing the crown decreases. I'll keep slogging away at it.

Did you do anything for Memorial Day? I didn't. I hung around the house like I always do, ran to the grocery for bananas (as usual) and a couple other items. I was surprised that the store wasn't very busy late in the afternoon. Guess everyone was grilling hot dogs.

--Barbara

At Least I'm Clean

I think my biggest accomplishment today was that I took a shower and got dressed. Today was one of those unmotivated days where I just couldn't muster up a lot of enthusiasm for anything. I spent quite a bit of the day listening to an audiobook. It was Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger and I have to say it was kind of a drag. I know a lot of people loved it but I found it hard to get into and hard to keep going back to. But I finished it so I returned it and will move on.

There was a surprise visitor on the grape jelly today. The male Catbird was perched on the orange so I thought he'd peck at that but he hopped down to the jelly dish and took a few dips into the jelly. Then I saw him on the other grape jelly feeder so I guess he's a fan. I didn't hear or see the Oriole again today. Boo.

The Downy Woodpecker male stopped for a drink at the birdbath this afternoon. Seeing him today reassured me that I was right the other day that there was a Hairy Woodpecker at the feeders. I have to refill the suet pellet feeder tomorrow because the Sparrows, squirrels, and various Woodpeckers have completely emptied it. I had to refill the Hummingbird feeder today too. It emptied so quickly that I was afraid the feeder was leaking so I changed to a different one. I hope that one is all right and doesn't leak. Didn't see a Hummingbird either.

Drawing was fun today. I drew a cow and a deer chibi first.

Then I opened a few pages in the Things With Wings book and drew a vintage airplane, a moth, a beetle, a fairy, and a peacock. Fun.

 

After having bad luck painting an iris yesterday I decided to try again today. It's a little better. The top of the flower is so pale it almost disappears but I don't hate it. I'll try again tomorrow only next time I'll get out my little sketchbook of notes and see what I'm doing wrong.

 

I broke down and turned on the air conditioner this evening. It was 79 degrees in the house and I was getting a headache. Time to cool it down.

--Barbara

A Whole Bunch of Irises

When I opened the drapes this morning I saw that a whole bunch of iris buds had opened overnight. They're so pretty even if they are blue purple, which is not one of my favorite colors. I'm hoping that the water they're getting because of the new plants around them will give the stalks enough strength to hold up the heavy flower heads. I tried painting an iris this afternoon. It was a disaster. I threw it away before it was even dry. I forgot everything I learned. *sigh*

On my way to Home Depot for some coleus plants and some potting soil I was just about to turn off Mennen Ct. (my street) onto 7th St. when I saw movement next to the curb. There was the hen turkey that had been hanging around the neighborhood leading at least eight little chicks. I wonder where the nest was and where they were going.

I'm glad I went to Home Depot for coleus because they were in flats of eight plants, I have four planters, so buying two flats gave me the right number of plants. So much more math when they're in flats of three.They look a little flopped over because I had just watered them and the spray was stronger than I thought.

When I was planting the last pot I glanced over and noticed a yellow blob on the wood chips. I have slime mold! It's about the diameter of a saucer. I don't know why but I think it's very cool. I'm not touching it though.

Yesterday I planted the patio pots with red geraniums and red salvia. I try to have red flowers in the back to lure in the Hummingbirds. I saw Hummingbirds a couple times today but didn't have the chance to take a picture. I'm just happy when I see one.

I took my drawing out onto the patio again today and again today I repelled all of the birds except one Bluejay that landed on the birdbath for a drink. It calmly drank its fill and then flew away but not before giving me the eye. These are from the book 20 Ways To Draw A Tree (and other things from nature).

And I finished the Punto Washcloth this evening. I only had about ten more rows, each row one stitch shorter than the last, until I got back down to three stitches and bound off. I weighed the cloth, it's 27 grams, which means I have 23 grams of yarn left. So maybe I'll make a smaller washcloth to use up the yarn?

I tried writing today but didn't get very far. I don't know if adding the old spies to the story is going to be the solution but I'll keep them because I like them. The big problem is that I shifted Point of View to first person so Rose has to witness or at least hear things which restricts the interactions of other characters. I'll figure it out. Or not.

--Barbara

One Iris

One of the iris buds popped open overnight. It's the first of a whole bunch of them that are standing up straight--for now. Usually once they open the flower head is too heavy for the stalk and they flop over so I'm taking pictures fast before it falls.

I don't know the name of this new plant but I suspect that it's a kind of perennial Russian sage. I had a plant like this before and it didn't come back last year. They planted three or four of these so we'll see how they go.This is the new purple plant.

The blue plant hasn't bloomed yet but there are flower buds so I have hopes. This is called Blue Star so I'm guessing that the flowers are blue. Pretty clever of me, no?

Then there's the grasses. One is green and the other is blue green. This is the blue green one. I don't know its name either.

 

I like today's drawing. It's out of the 10-Steps: Flowers book and it's a Bird-of-Paradise. It was a little challenging to draw and fun to color.

The Hummingbird showed up just after I washed and refilled the feeder. Naturally after the first sip it moved around to a spout behind the feeder but if you look closely at the left side of the feeder you can see its wing blur.

I refilled all of the feeders this morning and by afternoon the squirrels hadn't found the peanut wreath but the Bluejays had. I was lucky enough to capture one Bluejay on the crook close to the house and the other one is in the background on the peanut wreath.

I pulled out my second (and favorite) Oriole feeder this morning and stuck it in the ground in the cluster of feeders right outside the patio door. So far I haven't seen any bird on it but I have high hopes. I know that the House Finches like the oranges too so I'll settle for one of those but I'd prefer an Oriole. Of course.

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I did my nightly two rounds on the Brioche Beanie, then knitted a few rounds on the Hayden sock, but mostly I knitted on the Punto Washcloth. I've only got a few more rows to get back to three stitches and the end.

This afternoon I took a few boxes of tosses to Goodwill and then went down the highway to Stein's Garden and Gifts for some geraniums and red salvia for the patio pots. I considered leaving the pots empty this year but decided that was a bad idea. Tomorrow or Sunday I'll go to Home Depot to see if they have any Miracle Gro potting soil and some coleus for the pots in front of the house. I looked for the soil at Stein's but only found the 40# bags. Way too much. I'm hoping that Home Depot has the smaller bags. I'm not really in the mood but I might regret it if I didn't plant in the pots.

--Barbara

New Plants

Just as I parked in front of the library this afternoon my phone rang. It was the landscaper saying that they'd be over at my place later this afternoon to fill in the gaps in the plants on top of the retaining wall. When I talked to him originally I told him that I wanted red, orange, and yellow flowers. He brought purple and blue because, he said, all of the red, orange, and yellow plants looked crummy. He said that I'd have had lilies and daisies. That sounded good to me but there they stood with a wheelbarrow full of plants in pots so I shrugged and they planted them. I found the hose bib where the two soaker hoses buried in the mulch come together, hooked up the hose, and turned it on. The soaker hose on the left started dripping immediately, the right hand one not so much. I let it run for a little while then I turned off the left one to see if that helped. It did--a little, but not enough--so I went over to Home Depot, bought a new soaker hose, and installed it. By installed it I mean I unrolled it on top of the mulch and wove it around the new plants. I just turned it off and I'll turn it on in the morning and let it run for a few hours. We're short on rain so hose water it is.

There was only a couple tables of books to be sorted at the library today. I got through a couple boxes and bags of books. I threw a lot of them away because they were old and smelly which seems a shame but no one will buy them like that.

The Hummingbird female showed up today and hovered long enough for me to get her picture. I heard the Oriole a few times and saw a flash of orange a couple times but wasn't lucky enough to see him on the feeder or the crook.

I am not going to show you the two pictures I "painted" using the new colored pencils today. They're terrible and I'm glad that I drew them in the sketch book and didn't waste paper on them. While I waited for the landscapers I drew a few things out of the Things With Wings book (Draw 20 Butterflies is its real name). The horse is an odd drawing with all the circles and I like the pterosaur drawn with dots. I'm constantly amazed that my drawings turn out at all.

I got lots of packages from Amazon today. Most exciting was the carton with copies of Horizon and Better Than Mom's with the new covers. Better Than Mom's is a small change, I just re-cropped the photo I used so it looks less like a cookbook, but Horizon is a huge change. It's much brighter and shows a painter in a sunset. I like the way they look. I got them all signed, stickered, and put a bookmark in each one, now they're all ready to be sold. I miss the excitement of the bi-weekly farmers markets but every week all summer long outside is too much of a commitment and I'm afraid that I'd soon run out of customers since many customers are repeat visitors.

It was still cool today (63 was the high), cool enough that a cotton sweater was the right thing to wear, but it was a whole lot less windy. It's supposed to hit 75 tomorrow and be sunny and warmer all the way into the middle of next week. Guess I'll leave the hose attached to the soaker hoses. Give the new plants a chance.

--Barbara

And I Turned the Furnace Back On

When I went to bed last night I left the windows open because it was 79 in the house. During the night a cold front came screaming down from Canada bringing cold temps and big wind. It was 55 degrees when I woke up. Brrr. So I turned the furnace back on. I'll turn it off again on Friday when the temps get back into the 70s. Sheesh.

I got some new watercolor colored pencils today. They're the same kind that KA let me play with up at The Clearing a couple weeks ago. They're short and stubby and I guess they're meant for little kids but big kids can play with them too.

 

I couldn't wait to try them out so I opened a sketchbook, drew some flowers from a picture I took at the Botanical Garden on Sunday, colored them in with the new pencils, then used clear water and the paintbrush to make the coloring turn into paint.

Then I did it on the next page with a different picture from my walk at the Botanical Garden. I'm not as crazy about the way this turned out as the first one but it was fun coloring and then turning it into paint. KA used it in addition to watercolor so I'll have to try that next.

The Oriole showed up again today, not on the feeder, but on the crook. I don't care where he is as long as he keeps coming back and I get to see him.

Another of my favorite birds showed up today too. It's a Catbird, called that because it's song sounds like a cat's meow. No, really, it's kind of creepy when you hear it and realize it's a bird. And I like the smooth gray of its feathers, the black on top of its head, and the jaunty angle of its tail when it's pecking at the fallen seed, kind of like a Wren. An all around good looking bird.

Today's drawings were out of the Things With Wings book (I've gotta look at the real title)--a toucan, an angel, a bat, a flying fish, and a bee. I'm enamored of drawing those little things with a pen. I think it's the confidence I feel just going in with a pen and not having to draw and erase with pencil before tracing it over with the pen. I'm having fun.

When I went outside just now to put a postcard out to be picked up tomorrow I saw that the allium had bloomed. It's just one little purple ball of florets about the size of a golf ball but it's a new flower and I'm glad to see it.

I don't have a picture of the big event of my day. Today was the Spring Concert at LC and OJ's school so all the parents and grandparents met and sat in the audience beaming at their performance. It was funny and fun and short. Didn't they used to have concerts in the evening instead of in the middle of the day? How many parents can't break away from work to come watch their little ones perform? We were all in a row--DS, DIL1, HZ, JZ, and me--all happy and proud to see LC and OJ up there on the stage. It was great.

--Barbara