Visiting Birds

I had a small variety of birds visiting the feeders and the birdbath today. First thing when I opened the drapes I saw a House Finch come to the platform feeder. It didn't stay long and it was kind of tucked in the feeder but you can see his soft rose pink chest and head.

Another Red-bellied Woodpecker showed up on the suet pellets. I never saw its head so I couldn't tell if it was the same bird or a different one. Despite the feeder being full it hung from the bottom with its tail aimed at the house so this is all I saw of it.

A couple Mourning Doves were getting a drink and this one decided to take a little bath. It didn't flap around like the Sparrows and Robins do but it dunked itself a couple times and did a little flutter. Nothing too dramatic but it must have felt clean because it flew away.

Just so you know, I saw the first Junco of the season yesterday. I didn't get a picture of it because it landed on a patio chair and only stayed for a few seconds but it was definitely one of those "only comes in the winter" birds. *sigh*

Today's drawing went okay. These are out of 20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish and I think I like the shark in the upper right the best. Although the cormorant head with the fish in its beak at the bottom was pretty fun to draw too.

I took a walk after supper and snapped a picture of some autumn leaves against the blue sky.
Pretty.

I wasn't very motivated today but managed to pad out the scene I started yesterday using the names of a couple guys I went to grade school with and their wives as new guests at Rose's bed & breakfast. I use so many names because people come and go so quickly. Then I printed off a few scenes that I hadn't put in my binder and did a little rearranging on the computer. I'm up to 68k words, only 12k to go! Once I get there I'll let the manuscript marinate for a couple weeks and then dive back into it for the next edit.

Today's Gratitude Journal page was a pretty easy one. My knitting friend, CS, brought fresh tomatoes from her garden to give us on Monday night so I made a BLT for supper. So good! I've got four more tomatoes. Guess what I'm having for supper tomorrow night. And the next night. And the next night. Until they're gone.

I looked on Amazon for book stands that fold up instead of the rigid plastic ones I have. The plastic stands take up a lot of space in the rolling backpack I use to take books to events and I want to take more books and less volume of stands so I bit the bullet and ordered some. I was hoping to be able to order 10 or 12 but I think the smallest quantity was 24. Oh well, they weren't too expensive and I'll have enough for all occasions.

I just got a text from DS. They can see the Northern Lights from their place. I went out to look but there's too much light pollution in my neighborhood for them to be visible. Too bad. However he sent pictures. Here's the best one. So cool! I'm more than a little envious.

--Barbara