She Came Back

I looked out when I was having lunch and the Turkey hen came back. She really likes the fallen birdseed. She spent some time grazing on it then and came back later in the day for some more concentrated pecking time. Her feathers are so pretty. Look at her back and tail. I like that rusty gold color with the black markings. She doesn't have a pretty face but her back end is nice looking.

Then I saw this gray bird walking around in the grass pecking at things I couldn't see. It turned so that I saw its breast and realized that it was a Flicker. They're a ground-feeding woodpecker variety and show up here every once in a while. The picture is kinda blurry because the bird was so far away that the camera didn't focus on it. I have to be so quick that I can't futz around with focus or shifting to manual to get a better picture. I just have to point and shoot.

And the Cardinal paid a visit today too. He pecked around in the platform feeder and then swooped down onto the ground to see what there was to see and then flew away almost immediately.

I have the first wildflower of the season blooming in my backyard. It's the first dandelion of the spring! I know people don't like them but the bees do so I'm keeping them. I can't bring myself to spray weed killer or pesticide on my lawn. I just can't do it. I'm happy to be the host for the neighborhood's quota of dandelions.

Watercolor didn't go so well today. This is supposed to be a landscape of a butte or mesa (I don't know the difference) and a lake or some kind of water. I tried painting this twice and am not thrilled with either one. This one is the first one I painted and it's simpler and therefore a little better in my estimation. It also slightly resembles the example in the book. I'm better with carrots.

Then I did some sketching with watercolor pencils. In the lower right is another landscape. That one I like. Maybe I'll try doing something like that with watercolor tomorrow.

Drawing went better. These are from 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish. I especially like the squid. I think the walrus looks a little inquisitive, the starfish is a bit wonky, and the whale looks upside down. I still like them.

I took this picture to show you the pit that the birds, squirrels, and rabbits have dug off the edge of the patio. That's where the seed falls so they've spent the winter (what there was of it) burrowing down to get the fallen seed and making the pit deeper every day. The chipmunk enjoys it too.

I went to the dentist this morning to have a cavity filled. Instead of freezing half of my face he used a new technique where he injected anesthetic in the root of the tooth so only that tooth was frozen. He drilled and filled and all I felt was a little pressure. And I didn't look like I'd had a stroke or end up biting my lip when I tried to eat.

I complained to the facilitator of the Novel critique group about catching the booboo of having a character be one age in the first novel and a different age in the second one. I fixed it but LL suggested that I make a document with short descriptions of my characters so that if I make this into a series I have a fighting chance of not making the same mistake again. I'm sure I'll make others but I spent the afternoon skimming the manuscript and marking down the characters as I came to them with age, small physical description, and their role in the story. It'll help me keep things straighter.

--Barbara