He Came Back

Imagine my surprise when I saw the Red-bellied Woodpecker on the suet pellets feeder not once, not twice, but three times today. He's very persistent and dedicated to pecking away at those tiny morsels of suet and grain (I think). You can tell he's a male because the red on his head goes all the way down to his beak. The female's red doesn't go much past her eyes.

I'm glad that I rediscovered my gratitude journal when I was rummaging around looking for more markers (as if I need more). There was bright sunshine for quite a bit of the day and I could have made one big sun on the page and that would have summed up my gratitude for the day but I found a few other things to be grateful for.

I redrew yesterday's Lesson 21 and it turned out so much better. I used less marker, a smaller paintbrush, and a lot less water. I like it.

This afternoon I saw a bird swoop in to land on the suet cakes. It was a Downy Woodpecker that stayed for quite a while in the shade enjoying a snack. This one is a male too. You can't see it in the picture but he has a red swoop across the back of his head. Females don't have that.

Since no one else submitted their pages for next Wednesday yet (and there are four, not three like I figured last night), I was kind of stuck for what to do this afternoon. I played around on FB and then decided to see what Day 2 of Mark Making was all about. Circles and dots. I got the pad of thick paper she recommended at Michaels so I cut the sheets in half and got started. I used my big, thick black colored pencil to make the circles, then watercolors to make green dots and whatever you call those orange marks. I suspect I have to endure a few days of repetitive mark making before something fun or challenging shows up. Time will tell.

Time ticked by slowly so I got out my sketchbook and 20 Ways to Draw a Tree for some actual figure drawing. It's a tree seed, an egg, a shell, and a log. I like the egg the best. For some reason it pleases me.

Tomorrow DD is coming! I can't wait. And tomorrow I find out what time I'm having my procedure on Friday. I hope it's late morning. DS wants to be there too and that would work best for him as he has a beer event late in the afternoon. It feels good that my kids want to be with me for this.

--Barbara

Some Birds Showed Up Today

It didn't take the birds as long to discover that I'd filled the feeders as it did last time. This time the scout was a Nuthatch which stuck around just long enough for me to get the camera up and turned on before it flew away. I got a picture or two of a Chickadee or maybe two Chickadees (they all look alike to me) and this one took off just as I snapped the shutter. Blurry bird!

Then a pair of Sparrows landed on the tube feeder. They were the first of a small flock of Sparrows and a few Mourning Doves that pecked around at the fallen seed.

This is the last lesson in the new drawing book, Drawing Is For Everyone. I liked it when I drew the bird and branch with a fine-line marker. Then I colored it with watercolor markers and put on too much water so the color bled all out of the lines and smooshed together untidily. I will definitely be making another attempt at this one using a smaller brush and a lot less water.

Tonight was a knitting night at DM's house. She made sliders, KE brought cheese and crackers, CS brought homemade cookies, and I took a veggie and dip try. We did not starve. In fact we talked and talked and almost didn't get to knitting but we eked out a couple hours of knitting. The talking didn't stop though.

While the first part of the watercolor marker page was drying, I came back here and read and critiqued the first two submissions for next week's Novel Writing group's meeting. Only three more to come. I hope at least one or two of them come so that I can go over them on Sunday after DD leaves. Suddenly time before the next meeting seems short.

--Barbara

I Filled the Feeders

But not until the afternoon and didn't see any birds. Saw one curious gray squirrel that tried his/her darnedest to get onto one of the feeders, any one, but kept getting knocked off by gravity or a bouncing Slinky. At one point he/she was soaking his/her bum in the birdbath. I didn't get a picture.

I succumbed to temptation and spent my other expiring-on-Friday Michaels voucher on a set of 24 permanent markers. I like the way the lesson turned out using the black Micron marker as the under drawing of yesterday's lesson but thought I might want to draw it again using color markers.  Besides that $5 voucher was expiring!

Today's Lesson 20 she called "river rocks." It was supposed to be calming and meditative. Not so much. I got bored making little circles and ovals in ever smaller Micron marker and then was supposed to color in more of them than I did. This is as good as it gets.

I knitted on the Cashmere Sophie scarf tonight after supper and finished the first 45 yd. ball of yarn. Finally. So I added on the next color. I added the new yarn at the end of a row so that I can run the ends into the I-cord edging and hide them easily.

I spent most of the day working on a little editing before I sent off my third submission to the Novel Writing Group. I cut out a few unnecessary sentences and did a little clarification of names because people have been commenting that "there are a lot of names to keep track of." And here I was assuming anyone who reads the sequel will have read the original first. Evidently I can't count on that.

It was another cloudy, dreary day. I went to Michaels to pick up my pre-ordered markers, to the birdseed store for supplies because I was flat out of seed, and to the pharmacy for a prescription. I was happy to find a close-up parking place at the grocery where the pharmacy is so I didn't have to be out in the cold wind for long. 34 degrees might be above freezing but it's not that warm.

--Barbara

You Are Not Gonna Believe This

I went out the front door to pick up a delivery this morning and saw this. It's daffodil and tulip sprouts. In January. In Wisconsin. That's how warm it's been all winter. We've had a couple snowfalls, one blizzard, and a few days of frigid temps but mostly it's been mild. Granted this is on the south side of the house and the sunshine bounces off the bricks and makes a little micro-climate in that front bed but this is way earlier than there have ever been sprouts before.

I spent a lot of the morning working on the Barbara Writes website (barbara-writes.com) because I realized that I didn't have my books listed on there or where they can be bought. (Have I shown you this? I don't remember and I'm too lazy to scroll back and check.) Anyway the website's only been up for about 6 days so I'm really fumbling around trying to do what I want to do, learning how by hook and by crook, but I managed. It took me a couple hours but I did it. I had to take new pictures of the books' covers and retype the blurbs so I could copy and paste them under the book covers. Then I wrote a new blog post because there's a blog attached to the website too. Blog posts I can do, it's the website setting up that's all new.

 

Today's lesson in the new drawing book took some concentration. I don't have permanent markers so I had to do the preliminary drawing with a black Micron pen and then color over it with watercolor markers. I forgot to wet the shrubs in the front, grassy area so that green spread all over but overall I really like this. I especially like the trees in the background with the various greens and the thin black lines. (I ordered a set of fine point Sharpie markers from Michaels and can go pick them up tomorrow.)

The metallic gel pens that I ordered the other day were delivered this morning too. I opened them right away and used the gold one to enhance the feathers I drew yesterday. It didn't change the look of them all that much but they'll be fun to use in future drawings.

This morning I looked out back and there was the Red-bellied Woodpecker on the suet pellets. The level of the pellets is low enough that the bird is on his side so it's a trick to get his head in the picture but I managed. Yay, me!

I looked out when I passed the front window at 4:30pm and realized that the sun hadn't dropped behind the neighbor's house yet and it was still kind of light. Proof positive that the days are getting longer. Thank god. And the sun came out this afternoon after days and days of overcast and morning fog. Hallelujah!

In the afternoon I went to KW's house to drop off a Girl Scout cookie order form. She offered to collect orders from the staff and residents of the senior living complex where she lives which is amazing. Even if she only gets a few orders they'll all help LC reach her huge goal of selling 600 boxes again.

I stopped at ALDI on the way home for a few things and bought more than I meant to as usual. I've been craving pretzel rods so I bought a canister of them. Oh, they're so good and crunchy and salty. Now if I can only control my consumption of them I'll be all right.

--Barbara

Still Melting

It was another (relatively) warm day today. I didn't go out except to throw things into the recycling bin but the cold in the garage wasn't the sharp stab that it usually is in January. I looked out an hour ago and it looked like it was raining so I opened the patio door and took a picture of the birdbath to see if I could see any raindrop rings. Nope. I guess what I saw was swirling fog but at the base of the birdbath you can see bare grass. Two weeks ago we had 13" of snow in a day. Today there are patches of bare grass and for the last couple days I've heard sounds of snow sliding off the roof. Wild.

I've been focused on incorporating the critiques from the Novel Writing group into my manuscript. This is the critique from the group leader. She has a lot of excellent suggestions, some of them require thinking which can be a challenge because I'm so locked into what I've written. But I'm learning.

I repainted the feathers today and I think they turned out much better. I didn't splash as much water on them, maybe not enough, but I was afraid I'd make them turn into smudges again. The metallic gel pens I ordered from Michaels are supposed to arrive tomorrow so I can use the gold and silver ones to jazz up the feathers a little bit.

When I was digging around looking for non-watercolor markers I pulled a basket down from the shelf in the closet and there was my gratitude journal which I haven't entered anything into for about 8 months. I did today.

 

Then I decided to draw a bit out of 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish. Look at the dolphin. I'm amazed at the smooth lines and proportions of the thing. I still think I can't draw but I practice every day (almost) and I'm not bad, if I do say so myself.

 

I went back into MailerLite which is where my monthly progress email is sent from and watched (and watched and watched) a tutorial video about authenticating my new email address on GoDaddy which hosts my website (I have a website!) and writer-ly email. There isn't much on my website yet. I have to figure out how to put my books on there so people can read about them but today all I did was link the email to MailerLite. And I only had to call Tech Support once. This is truly progress. The other day I called them four times in two hours.

--Barbara

Rain? In January?

It rained today. Well, it sprinkled today and it was warm, it got up to 36 degrees in the afternoon and it's still 36. Looking at the long-range forecast it's supposed to stay in the mid-thirties all week and hit 41 on Thursday. I'd rather rain than snow. As long as it doesn't fall below freezing and ice everything up.

 

This morning I was lucky enough to grab the camera without scaring away the birds under the feeder. There were Mourning Doves and Sparrows pecking away at the birdseed that was exposed by the melting snow. This is the time of dirty snow. I want to know what's in the rabbit raisins that tints the snow blue in places.

 

Lesson 18 out of the new drawing book was feathers. I thought they were turning out pretty well but I splattered too much water on a few of them so some don't look like feathers anymore. I'm going to try this one again to see if I can't do a better job of it. I thought I had some non-water-soluble markers but I didn't. All the markers I could find are watercolor markers but I had a voucher expiring at Michaels so I went on their website, found a set of metallic gel pens and a pad of the paper I need for the Mark Making class, and ordered them. 

I knitted exclusively on the Cashmere Sophie scarf tonight at Friday Night Knitting and added about 40 rows. I don't know how many inches that added but I can see the change. I'm finally seeing the first little ball of yarn ending so I'll be able to add on the next color soon. Good, because I'm tired of this cocoa brown color.

I got a call from the nurse at the GI center at St. Mary's doing the check in and asking when I'd like to come in. I told her late morning or early afternoon and she said most everybody wants to be first so they can eat but I don't want to have to get up at the crack of dawn. I'd rather wait to eat until later and get to sleep until I wake up. I asked about recovery time and she said that we could go to lunch when I leave so evidently there's no recovery needed. I'll be good to go. DD is coming up to drive me to the test and be with me for a couple days. I think she's been very worried and feels too far away so when she asked I said I'd like her to come. It'll be great to have her here for a little while.

--Barbara

All the Wildlife Flew Away

There was a flock of Sparrows under and on the tube feeder when I opened the drapes over the patio door but they all flew away and never came back.

I lost patience waiting for Lesson 17 to dry so I cued up Day 1 of the Mark Making class on Creativebug that I've been anxious to start and was underwhelmed by the day's assignment. First she had us fill a page with straight lines, then fill a page with Xs. I used a fat black watercolor pencil so that my lines were chubbier than they would have been using a regular colored pencil so I could fill up the page faster. Next time I'll use a different fat colored pencil. Ooh, creative.

Lesson 17 took a longer time because you wet the big circles, waited for them to dry, drew and wet the smaller circles in the centers, waited for them to dry, then embellished them with dots and dashes and other marks on the "flowers." (The drying time is when I did the Mark Making.)

I knitted on the Sockeye Salmon Hermione sock tonight. I don't think that it looks like the pattern picture. Maybe my yarn's too variegated or something. Anyway I'll keep going.

I heard from the nurse in the GI department today. They found something with the capsule endoscopy! Seems capillaries in my stomach are seeping blood. I don't know why they didn't find that when they did the endoscopy two weeks ago but I'm glad he found it now. Maybe it's an intermittent thing? Next week Friday I go in for another endoscopy when they'll cauterize the leakers and hopefully solve the problem. I asked if I should be eating or not eating something but haven't heard. I'm sure they'll call again with more information, maybe tomorrow.

--Barbara

Hippity Hop

I was finishing my breakfast this morning when I saw movement right outside the patio door. It was a bunny moving slowly along, nibbling on a leaf that had blown over the snow. It only took one nibble and spit it out. Must not have tasted good.

This morning was my second Novel Writing critique group meeting on Zoom. We used every minute of the two hours and I got a lot of comments that made me think about my chapters. I have a lot of rewriting to do this weekend.

In my never-ending desire for art supplies I got my latest Amazon order today. It's a package of 72 watercolor markers, double-ended too. I had a small set of 8 watercolor markers but this last section of the new drawing book uses a lot more than 8 colors of markers so I had to order more. Had to.

And then I used the markers to do Lesson 15 which she called Expressive Lines and Wash. It's another non-representational set of marker circles that are then dabbed with clear water to make the marker bleed into itself and the paper with some stippling and little flowers around the edge. I like this a lot better than the Magical Forest which was the final colored pencil lesson.

I got a surprise in the mail today. There was an envelope from Caramel Crisp bookstore in Oshkosh with a check inside because they sold two of my books! Hooray!

And I called GoDaddy and got help getting into my GoDaddy email account. I had to use one of those securely generated passwords that are a gobbledygook of numbers, letters, and symbols. There is no way that I will ever be able to memorize that but I wrote it down and told the computer to save it. God help me if I lose it.

Two weeks ago today I got slapped into the hospital and I'm still enjoying my ability to walk and breathe. I was on the phone with DS this morning and he asked if I had a big pipe wrench he needed for a project. I went downstairs, found the wrench, measured its gap, called him back, and walked upstairs carrying the wrench while talking on the phone and didn't get out of breath. An earth-shattering improvement. I thank the cardiologist every day for ordering the blood test and his lab for running the test so quickly. They truly saved my life.

--Barbara

And Dreary

It got up to 32 degrees today. In fact, it's still 32 degrees and it's supposed to be a couple degrees warmer the rest of the week. Not many birds showed up today but I did spy a Nuthatch and a Sparrow on the suet pellets at the same time. They were looking in opposite directions so they didn't try to chase each other away.

This afternoon I did Lesson 15 in the new drawing book. This third of the book is all about drawing with inks of various kinds. Today's lesson was about filling in the spaces with hatching, cross hatching, stippling, and scribbling. I cued up an audiobook and kind of zoned out drawing lines and curves.

I spent most of the day setting up a GoDaddy website. The site I used to send out my monthly mailings won't accept free email providers anymore so I had to get a paid website and set up email though it. Now I didn't write down my new email address and password so I'll be calling GoDaddy again tomorrow for help recovering it. How foolish of me to think I'd remember it. I complained to one of the tech people that I spoke to today that I was struggling to set up my website and he offered that they could do it for me--for $800. Uh, no thanks, I'll figure it out.

And after almost 2 weeks I finally sunk my teeth into a Five Guys burger and fries. DS offered to bring me one when I was in the ER but the timing didn't work out and the idea has been hanging over me for all those intervening days. This evening after I returned the sensor gear from the Capsule Endoscopy to the hospital I drove straight over to Five Guys and got me one. Man, they aren't cheap but are so tasty. They even have grilled onions which I love on a burger.

I don't know how I managed to stay up this morning when my alarm went off at 5:15am but I did. And I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and got to the hospital on time. It only took about 20 minutes for the nurse to truss me up in the sensor belt and blinking receiver thing that had to hang around my neck for 12 hours so I was back home before it even got really light outside. Wearing that stuff prevented me from going back to bed but I managed to snatch a nap in the chair and another short one at the kitchen table. I hope I get the results soon so I can know where I stand in the great Red Blood Cell Disappearance Caper.

--Barbara

A Whole Lot Warmer

I got a surprise when I looked out late this morning. The birdbath glacier was starting to melt. I went out and topped it up and saw that the ice was receding. I don't know where all that water goes but I keep having to refill it every day.

And the snow wave started falling this afternoon. The sun came out and shone on the retaining wall blocks and things started to fall apart. Hey, it got up to 32 degrees this afternoon!

I tackled Lesson 14 this morning. It's supposed to be a magical forest but I think it looks weird. All the strange colors and the little dashes all over it all doesn't look right to me. Maybe I'm too literal and not artistic enough but I'm sorry that I put some of that on there, especially the dashes. But I'm a good girl and followed the directions.

In the Zentangles book, I paged to Day 10 and found these tangles that I'd done very poorly the first time. They turned out a little better on this attempt.

The flock of Sparrows swarmed around the feeders this afternoon and a couple of them spent time on the suet pellets feeder. There were three but just as I clicked the shutter one flew off.

I'm going to bed as soon as I post this because I need to be at St. Mary's at 6:15am for my next test. I've got my alarm set for 5:15am and I know it's going to be hard to haul myself out of bed but I figure I can take a nap during the day. I'm good at napping. Not as good as I was before getting all that blood 10 days ago but still I'm no slouch in the napping department. I just don't fall asleep as often.

--Barbara

Another Cold Day

Windy too. I met CS and DM at Zambaldi to knit the afternoon away and DS was tending bar so I got to see him and visit with him for a few minutes. I started the afternoon knitting on the Cashmere Sophie scarf like you see in the picture and then switched to the Sockeye Salmon Hermione sock because I couldn't remember to knit the increase on Row 8. You'd think that since it's the only row that isn't the same as the rest it'd stick out and I'd remember. Evidently not. Or maybe there was too much talking for my feeble brain to concentrate. And I was drinking root beer instead of beer beer.

I spied a couple Juncos on the snow this morning and thought that they were in the right place. You can see that the bunny has been around by the scattering of rabbit raisins.

Instead of drawing out of one of the 20 Ways... books I pulled out Dr. Seuss's Animals and tried to draw this wavy creature. I should have colored it in but ran out of time before I had to leave for the brewery.

When I got home from the taproom I pulled out the new drawing book and drew Lesson 13 while I listened to an audiobook.

I knitted the second half of the sock cuff this afternoon and evening. Now I'm ready to start on the leg of the sock. I'm trying a new sock pattern which I hope will make interesting knitting. I'm kind of sorry that both of my new projects are with small needles and skinny yarn. I should have cast on one on bigger needles with thick yarn to have a variety but I wanted to knit with these yarns so I guess I take the bad with the bad. Suck it up, Barbara!

Man, I'm cold tonight. I almost tootsed the thermostat up a couple degrees while I was knitting but then I decided that I'd just turn in early and get under the covers where it's warm. We're supposed to have high winds later. Oh goodie.

--Barbara

All The Little Birdies

Today was a bird day. It was sunny and not too windy and all of the little birdies came to the feeders. The most surprising was a Junco (on the right) and a Chickadee (on the left) on the platform feeder. Juncos do not feed on feeders, they feed on the ground, but this one had high hopes and even chased the Chickadee away.

Then a Nuthatch swooped in and chased away the Junco, then flew down to the (empty) tube feeder. I need to get to the birdseed store and stock up. I should have gone today but I spent the afternoon critiquing the submissions for next Wednesday's Novel Writing group.

And then I saw a little spot of bright yellow when I looked up and there were three Goldfinches, one on the crook and two on the tube feeder. You can see the little spot of yellow on his throat which I take to mean that they're getting ready for Spring. Any sign of Spring is appreciated.

I did some more on Lesson 12. This is the same peacock feather drawing but the two lines of flags are today's attempts at following the instructions. I don't know how to make the colored pencils darker but I'll try tomorrow.

I got another thank you note, this one from LC. I can't tell you how happy seeing that return address in the mailbox makes me.

Instead of adding more rows to the Cashmere Sophie scarf I decided to cast on and start knitting the ribbing of the Sockeye Salmon Hermione sock. The colors are unlike any other sock I've knitted. I like 'em.

First thing this morning when the sun was shining low across the backyard I noticed how the wind has carved the snow. BTW, the snow wave is still curving over the retaining wall but I suspect it's going to decay and fall this coming week when it's supposed to get into the 30s and maybe rain.

I took a shower today and hand-washed my compression socks. Both of which activities were so much easier now that I'm not 4 pints low on red blood cells. I have the next test on Tuesday, don't know when I'll hear the results, and the next step is the hematologist if Tuesday's test doesn't show anything. I dearly hope I get an answer from someone and not "beats the heck outta me." I'm sorry to bore you about how I'm feeling but I feel so good and I was feeling so bad that the contrast is amazing.

--Barbara