1-2-3 Woodpeckers

I can't decide if these are all the same Downy Woodpecker or if there were three of them today. First one hung on the bottom of the suet cakes feeder and finally turned to the side so I could see its head and not just the tail.

The second time I saw a Downy Woodpecker it was clinging to the Slinky waiting for the Sparrows to finish at the suet cakes.

And the third bird landed on the suet cakes and pecked at the remnant of suet in the feeder. I was only going to post one picture but I liked seeing them all so you get to see them all too.

At Women's Spirit Zoom today, SND played a video of a woman philosophizing about life while making bread. It made me want to make bread too so I was thrilled when I found a packet of yeast in the fridge that wasn't too out of date. I had semolina flour in the freezer and plenty of all-purpose flour to make half a batch of semolina bread. I used the recipe out of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day which is my favorite bread recipe. I'll let it sit and age in the fridge until Sunday when I'll form it into boules, top the loaves with sesame seeds, let it rise, and bake it. Or maybe I'll only do half and then bake the other half in a couple weeks. The dough stays good in the refrigerator for 14 days so that's doable.

I was looking for something different to draw today and found a drawing book on the shelf that I hadn't used so I turned to the first project and gave it a go. I like it. The book's by Mark Kistler who teaches kids to draw but I like his cartoon-y style so I enjoy his books.

Then before supper I decided to paint the next herb in the new watercolor book. It's St. John's Wort. This doesn't look too much like the picture in the book but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I'm not throwing it away.

I added a lot of rounds to the Wool Ease 2 Hour Hat tonight at Friday Night Knitting. Three more inches of hat and then it'll be time for the crown decreases. Using this super bulky yarn and size US13 needles makes my hands ache but maybe if I knitted more my hands would get  used to it. And even with huge yarn and even huge-er needles it'll still take me many hours more than 2 to knit this hat. I'm adding about an inch an hour.

I had a bone density test this afternoon and have already got the results but I've read and reread the report and I can't make heads or tails out of it. I'm hoping that the doc calls to tell me how I'm doing and if I should be doing anything like taking calcium or extra vitamin D.

I didn't do any writing work today. I was so frustrated yesterday I decided to give myself a break.

--Barbara