Just That One Bird

Now that I look at it, there are three birds in that feeder. Oh well. I was happy to see a juvenile Cardinal stay on the feeder long enough for a picture. Usually they stay just a second less than it takes me to get the camera up and ready.

I painted a Hydrangea out of Ink & Wash Florals. It turned out okay. I'm not thrilled with the way the leaves turned out but at least they look like leaves.

Then I decided to draw a few figures out of 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish. I like the King Neptune the best but the cormorant is pretty good too.

And after my walk I sat down and drew a gratitude journal page. I've been watching a store down the street a ways, waiting for it to open, and it finally did yesterday. So I texted for permission to pick up LC and OJ and take them to The Brick Spot which is a Lego store. They have sets that are no longer available at retail and used bricks and other accessories. The kids enjoyed it, bought a few things, and we could have spent a small fortune if we'd bought everything that caught out eyes. OJ already said that was where he wants to go for his next birthday shop. I'd better start saving now!

I was singularly uninspired writing today. It was frustrating that my brain didn't work. At all. Maybe tomorrow I'll have better luck.

--Barbara

Another Hot One

Humid too. I looked out when I opened the patio door drapes and saw that my tomato plant had tipped over. At first I thought that it had been uprooted but I rushed out to see if I could save it and discovered that the weight of the tomatoes had pulled it over. I went out into the garage to find a tomato stake and the only one I have is one that's about seven feet tall. I'd cut it shorter but it's bamboo and bamboo is hard to cut so I left it. Now the plant is standing up tall and I'm watering it every morning so that the leaves stop drying out and the tomatoes keep growing. I know it looks sad and spindly but I'll put some fertilizer on it tomorrow and keep watering it and maybe it'll feel better soon.

Next to the tomato my sweet basil plant is finally stretching its leaves out. It started sending up a flower but I picked it off so the plant doesn't waste energy growing that when it could be making more yummy leaves.

The male Cardinal stopped by for a few seeds and then posed on top of the crook before flying away. I was just fast enough.

After supper I drew a gratitude journal page for today. I'm most grateful for my poet friend WM who messaged me yesterday looking to buy a copy of Open For Business. I found a box just the right size at Meijer this afternoon so I got the book boxed up and mailed off.

My writing friend, LL, send me an email with a link to a writing blog post about giving your characters more emotion to get the reader more invested in your book so I spent quite a bit of the day reading my manuscript looking for places I can do that. I found one. Evidently I need to reread the blog post and try again. Of course I didn't read through the whole thing but still. I got frustrated so I pulled up an old NaNoWriMo manuscript and read through that thinking maybe I'd just work on that one for a while. I won't but it was fun to revisit. I'll get there eventually.

It got up to 90 degrees today with 70% humidity. Let me tell you, the ice cream I bought at the store was very easy to scoop into portions when I got home because it spent less than 20 minutes out of the freezer and was well on the way to melting. I waited until almost sundown to walk up to the corner and back and it was still hot and sticky but not unbearable. I have got to keep walking. My legs tire too easily.

--Barbara

Even Birds Need To Cool Off

Man, it was hot, humid, and still today. Even the squirrel melted again but I missed taking a picture of it. However I did manage to snap this photo of a Sparrow having a cooling bath. It was one of a quartet but by the time I'd gotten the camera up and ready he was all alone. Oh well, at least I caught one of them at it.

One of the squirrels has learned how tasty the suet pellets are and leaps from the birdbath to the top of one crook to the next crook and then crawls down the feeder to hang there for quite a while nibbling away.

There is a good-size flock of Starlings, young and old, that come to the feeders and just hog everything. They're the worst at throwing seed out onto the ground and they crowd all the other birds off the suet pellets. I wish they'd find someone else's feeders to decimate.

I was pleased to see this male Goldfinch stop for a quick snack. He posed on top of the crook and then swooped down onto the feeder where he was blurry. Darned auto-focus.

Today's project from Ink & Wash Florals was a Rose. It's okay. I have trouble drawing the petals around the center of the bloom and making them look right. I tried and maybe I'll try again.

And I drew again today out of 20 Ways to Draw a Butterfly. No butterflies but a lot of other things with wings. I think I like the winged man the best of these.

 

I got a message from one of the poets that I traded books with at The Clearing in May. She wants the sequel to The Seaview to read and then give to her daughter for Christmas but she wants an autographed copy. What a compliment! I'm thrilled. I wonder if it'll fit in one of the Priority Mail boxes I have downstairs. Hmm.

I need to remember that writing is work and that it takes a LOT of work to whip a story into shape. I find myself getting frustrated because it's not what I want it to be immediately so I spend months whining about it. I need to get over that. It's going to take a year, Barbara, get over yourself.

--Barbara

I Love My Air Conditioner

It wasn't terribly hot, 81 degrees, but rather humid, 70%, and I mowed the lawn today at midday like a dunderhead. The reason I mowed then was that they predicted rain in the early afternoon (which never materialized) so I didn't want to have to wait until tomorrow when it's supposed to be hotter to mow. It takes me 45 minutes to mow my half-mile of up and down, back and forth, and I was hot, sweaty, and tired when I was done. It was luxurious to step through the back door into the cool. Almost made the hot and sweaty worthwhile. Almost. Once I cooled down some I went back out and filled the birdfeeders. You can see the beautiful carpet-like lawn behind the freshly filled feeders in this picture.

I also cleaned the swampy birdbath and watered the tomatoes which have burst forth in a few little green balls of potential goodness. The leaves have rusty edges which I thought might be some bug infestation. Nope, I need to water more. Oops.

While I was mowing I saw tucked next to the fence on the edge of
the yard that the lone remaining Stargazer lily has bloomed. Looking at it, I think it has been bloomed for a while because the flower looks a little old and bedraggled. But I'm still glad to see it.

A couple weeks ago my windchimes broke. I took them down and tried to figure out if I could fix them but realized that I couldn't. Dang it. So I bought myself some new ones and they came today. They are much sturdier than the old ones and will probably need a bit more wind to chime but I like them. And I didn't have to get up on a chair to hang them. I figured out how to wedge the hook on the end of a thick stick and carefully lifted it up to the gutter hook. Whew.

Here's the finished Lilacs watercolor. She said not to draw flowers all over the blob of color but just suggest flowers here and there. I was surprised that she didn't have us paint the branch but she didn't say anything more than drawing it with a pencil, tracing it with an ink pen, and then erasing the pencil. 

Drawing seemed like the thing to do next so I pulled out my sketchbook and 20 Ways to Draw a Tree and got busy. I really like the way the bee turned out and the moth isn't bad either.

And I managed to draw a gratitude journal page for the first time in three days. I was so out of practice that I screwed up the first attempt and ended up tearing the page out of the book and starting over.

I spent more time on my reassembling of the manuscript, scrolling through it labeling the chapters by the POV of each chapter. That will show me where I need to add 1st person sections. I'm feeling better about being back to about 150 pages and having the story playing out the way I want it to. I'll get this figured out yet.

I ran out of lunchmeat and watermelon and pineapple so I had to go to the grocery this afternoon. They had Haagen Dazs pints buy one get one free! So I did. Chocolate, of course.

--Barbara

Even More Writing

I spent most of the day writing. I woke up dreaming about my manuscript and as soon as I was done with breakfast I came back here and got started. I finished reassembling the manuscript with all of the parts I like. Next I'll write pieces to link them and fluff up the story. It's not long enough yet and the story isn't done.

Then in the afternoon I remembered to write up the character list for Open For Business to send with the manuscript to the audiobook producer on Monday. She thinks she has time in her schedule to work on it in August. And August is just around the corner. I realized how much easier the list would be to use if it was alphabetized and found a button to push in Word to make it happen. What I can't figure out how to do is delete a line of tiny boxes that appeared when I put 3 asterisks in a space. I don't know how it appeared and can't figure out how to get rid of it, them. And when I touch Help it says something went wrong and to try again later. But it's been saying that for weeks. Gah!

I started a painting this afternoon but it had to dry completely before the next step so here's what I have so far. It's going to turn out to be Lilacs tomorrow when I get out the ink pen and draw the flower shapes over the paint splotches. I think it kind of looks like lilacs already.

 

This evening I went to the Stadium View Bar to meet a few of my Class of '69 classmates for our 55th class reunion. It wasn't an official reunion with invitations and a rented hall and a band and all that. This committee has organized a get-together on the last Saturday of July for the last 5 years. I haven't gone but went this time to keep RS who is also in the St. Agnes Class of '65 from yelling at me at our next lunch. It was fun to see old acquaintances. There were about 12 grads and some spouses and I had a good time. I handed out 5 or 6 bookmarks and got an order for my newest title from DS who has read three of my titles and is looking forward to the sequel. Hooray!

Today was a pajama day until after lunch when I thought I should probably get dressed. I don't know why. I didn't go out in public until after 5 o'clock but getting dressed seemed like the thing to do.

--Barbara

Mostly Writing With A Little Knitting

That was my day. I spent most of it working on The Seaview 3 trying to get the manuscript in some kind of shape. I managed to rewrite a couple scenes taking them from 3rd person to 1st person. Then in the afternoon I tackled rearranging the manuscript so that it goes from 3rd to 1st and back again. I know I tried this before and abandoned it but there are segments where two of the characters have secrets and there's no way for my 1st person character to know what's going on and the story is kind of pointless without them. I'll get it figured out but it sure can be frustrating.

There are still a lot of these dark red and bright yellow day lilies blooming. There are two long stretches of them on top of the retaining wall.

This big black bird landed on the grape jelly and had a little try of it. I think it's a Grackle. I looked it up and it's about the right size and shape. I'm pretty sure it's a Grackle.

The first thing I worked on at Friday Night Knitting was finishing duplicate stitching on the orange fish on my Monterey Sea Life beanie. It took me a couple hours to finish the four remaining fish that needed to be stitched on. I'm glad it's done. I used to like to embroider but this was tedious and a little tricky.

Then I picked the Zauber Crazy sock back up. I'm evidently knitting a ribbed leg because I didn't stop at 2" with the ribbing to move into plain stockinette stitch for the rest. That's all right, it'll stay up better this way. The color changes motivate me to keep knitting.

And that's it. I didn't paint and I didn't draw a gratitude journal page. I just worked on writing and made myself frustrated. I took a little walk to the corner and back, then visited with the neighbor for a few minutes so my day wasn't all work and no play.

--Barbara

Caught

I got a phone call this afternoon from my neighbor. He caught the woodchuck in his live trap and intends to relocate it in the morning. I'm not sorry to see it go. He showed me a huge hole it had dug under his deck. I didn't know how destructive they can be. And I suspected yesterday that she was making a nest because she kept trotting across the yard with a mouth full of dried leaves. Hopefully it's the only one.

The lilies are still showing off like crazy. The orange day lilies are tall and bright and blooming away.

The red and yellow day lilies are blooming too. They're so pretty and so unusual.

Today's project in Ink & Wash was Poppies. With this one we painted the washes first and then drew on the petals afterwards. I was most impressed with my ability not to press too hard when I was painting the stems so they're nice and thin. Usually I press too hard and they're too thick. Not this time. This time I controlled myself.

A pair of Cardinals flew into the backyard under the feeders. She didn't stay long but he flew up onto the step and then onto this rock so I could take a quick picture.

I got frustrated writing this afternoon so I went out to the table and drew a gratitude journal page for today. My big accomplishment today was getting myself out the door for a little walk. I only walked from here to the corner and back but it's a lot farther than I was able to walk last year at this time so I was happy. I'll extend over time once I build up some endurance. I keep remembering that mowing the lawn is a half-mile. That counts, right?

I shouldn't have been frustrated because I wrote a new, three page long scene and it's conflict. That's a good thing. But I couldn't think of what else to write so I quit for the day. I did listen to the revisions of Island Dreams so now once the producer/narrator lets them know that she's been paid the audiobook will go through their Quality Check and then be available for listening on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Woohoo!

I also went downstairs, found some steel wool, and poked it into the gaps around the spigot in the garage which is where I suspect the mouse got in. I hope there are no more mice in the basement. So far the glue traps are empty of critters.

Spent the evening watching the last two episodes of Queen Charlotte, a Bridgerton story. I watched the first episode last year and thought meh. But on the recommendation of friends I tried again. This time I had to ration the episodes to one a night because I didn't want to stay up til the wee hours watching TV. It was one of the better love stories I've seen in a long time. I cried at the end, and I'm not much of a crier.

--Barbara

What'cha Doing In There?

I looked up from my lunch to see this face looking in at me. It looked around, side to side, then climbed down from the step and left. I saw it tramping across the yard a couple times with a mouth full of dried leaves. Is it a female building a nest in the corner of my backyard? Lordy, I hope not.

One of the squirrels is an acrobat. It leaps from the birdbath to the suet cakes feeder, then up on top of the crook, onto the Oriole feeder, and finally to the suet pellets feeder. It samples a bit of the grape jelly, then clambers back down. It doesn't drop from the feeders like the others do, it takes its time and shows off its moves.

A Downy Woodpecker lit on the suet cakes this afternoon for a short time. By then the Sparrows and House Finches and Starlings had eaten the cakes down to nubs but the Woodpecker tried. It didn't stay long. Too much work, I guess.

I had an issue with the project of the day out of Ink & Wash. It's a Dahlia and the drawing turned out pretty well. I was pleased with it. Then the instructions said to splatter water over the flower and leaves and just spatter the paint on and let it move around in the water. Well, I didn't like the way it looked in the book but I tried it. And hated it. So before the paint was dry I took a wet brush and spread the paint out so the flower is colored and the leaves are too. It's not great but it doesn't look like a studio accident like the picture in the book does.

And I managed to get a gratitude journal page drawn for today. I was having a terrible time trying to think of something to write in the manuscript so I gave up and went to draw in that journal. At least I got something accomplished.

I've been having trouble downloading a writing app and had contacted Support 2 days ago. I hadn't heard from them so I called Cyberworks because I wondered if the security they put on my laptop was preventing it from loading. Well, the tech called me back and shared my computer so he could see what I was doing. I clicked the executable file, the app downloaded, and the danged icon showed up on my desktop. Evidently the 5th time was the charm. I spent a bunch of the afternoon researching keywords on the new app and loading the best ones into the details of The Seaview ebook and paperback so maybe more people will find it and buy it. Better Than Mom's is still leading the pack this month and I don't know why. I'm not complaining about it, I just wonder why.

As soon as I post this I'm going to go on GetCovers website and order an audiobook cover design for Open For Business. I got so consumed by trying to get that app loaded that I forgot about it until just now. And I ordered Sticky Traps from Amazon to trap the fruit flies that I've got attracted to apple cider vinegar. They'll come on Saturday so I can get rid of the little buggers once and for all. I knew about the vinegar but not how to get rid of them once I had them all congregated. YouTube video to the rescue.

--Barbara

One Fish, Two Fish

Orange fish, silver fish? Well, that doesn't rhyme like it's supposed to, does it? This morning I started duplicate stitching the orange fish onto the Monterey Sea Life beanie. It's not hard, it's kind of tedious. The hardest part is not tangling the tail of the yarn into the stitches so I can bury the ends in the stitches when each fish is complete. I have five more fish to go.

It really rained this morning. I think it rained off and on all night. It was raining all three times I got up to go to the bathroom overnight. Three! I was not amused. Since I fell asleep thinking about the baby mouse I found in the basement I dreamed of catching giant rats most of the night. Not restful dreams, not even close.

I glanced out the patio door to see a Downy Woodpecker sitting on the arm of the Emma's Chair out there. It's a juvenile. You can tell by the red patch on top of its head. It visited the suet cakes for a little peck and then took off.

This morning I drew the gratitude journal page for yesterday. I meant to draw today's page tonight but I got caught up watching an episode of Queen Charlotte which is a Bridgerton story. I'm addicted to Bridgerton. I haven't read the books but I can't get enough of the Netflix show.

I got the Island Dreams corrections typed up and sent off to the producer. She'll get them back to me, I'll go over them again, and we'll publish. Next I have to type up the character list for Open For Business and I have to get an audiobook cover made up. Maybe I'll order that tomorrow.

Today the cleaner came and she whizzed through the house because I had an appointment in the afternoon to have a blood draw. For some reason the doc wanted a kidney function test so I went in and got poked. I still have a zillion fruit flies in the kitchen and the bathroom. What they're doing in the bathroom I do not know. There's no fruit or food in there. I keep forgetting to google how to get rid of them. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow too.

--Barbara

Just Passing Through

The woodchuck (groundhog) (whistlepig) came by this afternoon. It moseyed across the backyard rooting around in the grass looking for things to eat. I don't know what they eat but it didn't come down to the fallen birdseed this time. And it's too big for the Hawk to prey on.

I refilled the grape jelly dish this morning and caught a young House Finch having a snack. I had hopes for an Oriole but wasn't by the patio door much during the day so I might have missed one.

Most of what I did today I did on the computer. First I watched the 3rd Keyword video from the Ad Challenge because the videos are going away in about 45 minutes. I could have signed up for Ad School for 3 months for $249 but I don't know if I'm willing to devote enough time to the ads to make it worthwhile. I know, I know, I spend quite a bit of my days sitting here writing but I'm not concentrating on polishing up my ads. I did try downloading an app for helping find keywords and categories but it doesn't seem to have downloaded. I have an email in to Support for help. Then I listened to the last six chapters of Island Dreams and started typing up the corrections to send to TH so she can fix things and we can get this fourth book's audiobook out there.

In between chapters I drew and painted a Snowdrop. I wasn't sure that I'd like it but it's all right. It was challenging to paint around the flower and not get any of the color on it so it stayed white but I managed.

I've fallen into the habit of doing the gratitude page on the morning after so I'm going to put yesterday's page on here so you don't think that I've quit being grateful or turned into a slacker.

The other thing I did this afternoon was put Decon out in the garage for the mouse to eat. I do not want mice in my house and mice in my garage is too close for comfort. I had an old Decon block from last year out there that suddenly got eaten this year and there are a lot of mouse droppings around the holder so I refilled that and opened a tray of pellets so there's a mouse poison smorgasbord out there for the little beasties. Ick.

Now that I have the audiobook listening almost done I can get back to the three-quel of The Seaview Series. All I need is an idea. I sent off my second submission to my new critique group today and have their submissions to go over too for next Monday's Zoom. Maybe the pressure of needing something to submit will help the ideas come. Let's hope so.

OMG! I just went downstairs to grab some granola for breakfast and there was a baby mouse at the bottom of the stairs. Eek! I trapped it in a cup with a paper plate over it and threw it outside, then I put two glue traps downstairs. I just know they're getting in by the spigot in the garage which comes through to the basement. Now how to deal with that. I'll get back to you.

--Barbara

Almost Empty

Almost all of the bird feeders are empty. It took them only three days to do. The Finch feeder isn't empty but there are few birds that like the nyger seed so it empties more slowly. And the suet cakes aren't empty this time. The last batch of suet cakes were less suet-y and more like compressed bird food. I don't know what it was but the birds were crazy about it and pecked away at it like maniacs until the ground below the feeder was powdered with suet cake dust and the feeder was empty. This old standby suet cake isn't as popular so maybe it'll last longer. This Sparrow seemed to like it, at least for a little while.

 

On the ground the Mourning Doves pecked through the grass seeking any fallen goodies they could find. I don't know what's below there but they were focused.

 

Here's the biggest of the baby tomatoes. I checked on the tag and it's supposed to be mature in 70 days.That would mean that I won't get a tomato until the middle of September. I'd better go to the Farmer's Market next Thursday to see if anyone has tomatoes yet. Suddenly I want a fresh tomato badly. Or maybe a BLT.

In between listening to audiobook chapters to check for corrections I dived into the next project in Ink & Wash. It's a Sunflower and I was very hesitant to start it because I was sure I'd screw up drawing all of those petals with an ink pen. I think I did okay. I wish I'd painted a few more petals but over all it's not bad.

I spent most of the day listening again. Eight more chapters down, eight more to go and I don't have a full page of corrections yet so that's good. Most of the corrections are mispronunciations which are a challenge to write down because I have to do it phonetically so that TH can understand. I'm getting it. I think. I hope.

--Barbara