One, Two, Three

First a squirrel climbed into the square green feeder. The seed is low enough that it could get all of its body inside the feeder with only its tail hanging out. Then a Sparrow landed on the perch closest to the patio doors. The first time it flew up, the squirrel shooed it away. The squirrel went back into the feeder so the Sparrow flew back and started pecking away at the feeding ports. Next the Red-bellied Woodpecker landed on the suet nuggets, took a few pecks, then flew over to the square green feeder to land on the perch on the opposite side from the Sparrow. So now there were three creatures on or in the feeder--the squirrel, the Sparrow, and the Woodpecker--all at the same time!

 

I spent a lot of the morning scheduling Substack stories for most of November. I try to alternate short and long stories for variety. Today's story was very short. Next week's is longer. I'm having fun doing this. I hope people are having fun reading them.

 

It was hard to buckle down to writing Novel November words today. I just couldn't seem to pin my mind to the page. I procrastinated all morning and finally buckled down around 2 o'clock, but I eventually managed to squeeze out 1,890 words in a couple hours. In tomorrow's words, something has to happen. No, I mean SOMETHING has to HAPPEN. I'm not sure what but it has to be conflict-y and involve Rose. I've already had a guest be a cat burglar who the police woke up and arrested in the middle of the night. Now the woman who hates Rose has more rumor fodder and is making good use of it. Oh, I'll think of something.

 

The drawing prompt today was Fabric. Fabric? Really? So I tried drawing a section of the drapes over the patio door. It's terrible. I'm only putting it on here to have something more to post.

 

And after supper I drew a gratitude journal page. I tried drawing the squirrel in the feeder. It didn't turn out too badly.

 

I took down another crook from the cluster of feeders in the backyard. Now there are only three where there used to be six. I refilled the cob corn and was surprised when I went up that the last cobs were gone too. Did squirrels bear them of to their lairs? I don't know. I looked around thinking they'd be on the ground but no such luck.

In my procrastination I even went on Amazon and ordered Christmas gifts from DD and family's wishlists. They'll arrive tomorrow. Now I'll just have to remember where I've put them until December. Last week I updated my own wishlist on there so anyone who wants to gift me something will have ideas. Ho Ho Ho!

--Barbara 

Oh, That Explains It

Right after I got up this morning I took this picture of a squirrel contorted on the tube feeder. I thought it was eating out of the lowest port. I was wrong. 

 

I've wondered how the tube feeder was emptying so quickly. When I went out to fill it this morning I discovered why. Some squirrel had expanded the feeding port on the tube so that the seed would cascade out and down to the ground. That explained the multitude of birds clustered around under the feeder all the time. I will not be buying another feeder. Nope. Not gonna do it.

 

Sparrows tag-teamed the square green feeder this morning. One flew up to the side, pecked a bit, and then flew to the other side for a few more pecks. Then it went down to the ground and this Sparrow took its place.

 

I decided to try my hand at writing in the morning today. It worked. I wrote 1,825 words in two hours. Part of the reason it worked is because I decided to send Rose on a scuba dive to a shipwreck off the coast of Anguilla. That meant I got to talk about setting up gear and all of the fish she saw on the dive. That also means I get to start tomorrow's writing with the second morning dive at a shallower, more protected site. Once the diving writing is done I'll go back to the more difficult business of making stuff up.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Holiday & Travel. Because the author is British, holiday means vacation so I drew a scene from The Clearing, my annual vacation. It's okay. Kinda hard to see but okay.

 

My other accomplishment of the day, aside from writing a bunch of words, was using the owner's manual and changing the time on the clock in my car. One of these years I'll remember how to do it without digging out the manual. Maybe.

Oh! I got a text from DD today. She's got an Airbnb reserved for when they're here for Christmas. They won't be here for long, only 3 days, but I'm so glad they're coming at all. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

--Barbara

Not The Way I Imagined

This afternoon I sat down for two hours and wrote 1,676 words but the story isn't going the way I imagined it would. Not that I'm complaining. Being able to write that many words in two hours is a real accomplishment and one I don't take lightly. I'm willing to wait and see where this story wants to go. It's early yet.

 

In the morning the Sparrows visited the square green feeder. They take turns flying up to the perch to toss seed down to the Sparrows on the ground. I meant to go out to fill the tube feeder because it's almost empty today but I ran out of time.

 

Before my writing/critique Zoom with cda this morning, I pulled out my paints and a fan brush and painted in the pine trees on yesterday's tree trunks and branches. It's a winter scene which is why the water isn't all blue. It's partly frozen so the blue is splotchy. I'm moderately pleased with how it turned out.

 

After writing I sat down to watch a little TV and finished the toe decreases on the Iron Pyrite sock. It didn't take long and I found a stitch I'd dropped so I used a little crochet hook to get the stitch back almost to where it belonged then I held it on a little plastic safety pin stitch marker until I could loop a little yarn through it and tack it in place. Whew. It would have been bad if that stitch had run all the way up the foot.

 

I got a phone call this morning from the knitting friend who bought a copy of The Seaview from me when I was having lunch with LC at a cafe. She just wanted to tell me how much she's enjoying the book and said she can't wait to order the next two from Amazon. She was excited when I told her I'm working on book 4. Made me feel terrific.

--Barbara 

Oops

Today started out to be a great day. Zambaldi Beer had a pancake & porkie breakfast to launch their new Maple Brown Ale. I don't drink beer but love pancakes and pork sausage so I went down around 10am and there was OJ to eat with me. Hooray! I forgot to take a picture of my plate so you get to see a picture of some pancakes (with butter) that I crocheted a while back. It was so long ago that I don't have the same couch anymore.

On my way home from breakfast, I swung by the store for a few things. One item on my list was a new shredder because I emptied the old one the other day and when I put the top back on it wouldn't run. Nothing I did would make it go so I figured it was broken. When I got the new one home and was starting to remove the old one, I pulled the cord... and it was unplugged. THAT'S why it didn't work. *head, slap* I plugged it in and it works just fine. Honestly. I'm a danger to myself. So I'll be going back to the store to return the new, unneeded one.

 

By sheer luck I caught the Red-bellied Woodpecker just as it was about to fly away with a peanut half in its beak. It's a little blurry because it was literally starting to move when I depressed the shutter button.

 

The neighbors' roofs were really frosty this morning when I put the shade up. The sun was just getting high enough to start melting it when I took the picture. I hurried into the kitchen to open the drapes to see if the birdbath heater was working and it was, although the feeders were all frosted too.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Monsters, Ghouls & Goblins. I just copied a bunch of the little drawings on the page, coloring a few and leaving others just inked.

 

After supper I drew a gratitude journal page. One of the chores on my bullet journal today was to go down and check the mouse traps. Ugh. I found a very old, dessicated mouse stuck to a glue board wedged under the side of the freezer. I've been looking all over for that glue board with mouse since it disappeared from where I put it months ago. Found it. I had to use a stick to pry it out from under the edge of the freezer. It stuck to the stick so I could just ease a plastic bag over the whole thing and seal it to be tossed away. I was wearing gloves just in case.

 

Then I decided I wanted to paint. And knew I had to practice patience to let the water and sky dry before I added the trees in front. So I watched the next episode of The Great British Baking Show. Then I added the tree trunks. Now I have to let the tree trunks dry before adding the pine needles on top. That will have to happen tomorrow.

 

Writing started slow today but then something that's been scratching at the back of my mind leaped to the front and flowed out my fingers. I love when that happens. I turned one of the b&b's guests into a cat burglar who took his wife to all the swank resorts for an evening meal every night, and while she sat in the bar after supper, he crept from room to room stealing jewelry and cash. He stashed his loot in Rose's safe every morning. Brilliant! If I do say so myself. And it got me to 1,761 words for the day. 

--Barbara 

A Better Day

Today was The Art Garage National Author's Day Book Fair. There were more customers and more buyers. I sold 5 books to five different people. I had a little more space today so I was able to stand my poster up and not block anyone. It was a good day.

 

When I got home, after I unloaded the car and reloaded the books I sold, I sat right down and got to work on today's words. I didn't get to 1,667 like I was supposed to. I ran out of steam at 1,365 but that's okay. With the pre-writing I did last week I'm ahead of the game. Whew.

 

Just before I left this morning the Red-bellied Woodpecker landed on the suet nuggets and nicely moved around to the side instead of to the back so I could take its picture.

 

And that's all I have today. I didn't draw, didn't paint, and didn't knit. I should have done a gratitude journal page but by the time I was done writing and had supper I was pretty well done for the day. I watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show and came back here to blog. I'll try to draw tomorrow. 

Man, that alarm was loud at 6:45am and it was pretty darned dark. Oh! That reminds me, I have to turn the clocks back before I go to bed tonight. Good thing I thought of that.

--Barbara 

Seventeen Hundred Sixty-Eight Words

That's how many words I wrote from 3 o'clock to 5 o'clock this afternoon. Now, some of the words I used more than once, so it isn't that many separate words, but still I'm pretty pleased with the day's output. Tomorrow's November 1, the official start of Novel November, and I'm happy to be a little ahead of the game since I've got a few things cooking during the month that might interfere with my daily writing.

 

Look at the way the Red-bellied Woodpecker contorted its neck to try to find a peanut this morning. It kind of looks like it hurts but it didn't stay that way for long. Just after I took this picture, it found a peanut, clutched it in its beak, and flew away.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Hobbies. I thought about my hobbies--knitting, painting, drawing, writing novels, taking bird and squirrel pictures--and settled on painting. My paint brushes in particular. This vessel of brushes sits on the kitchen table and only moves into the guest room/art supply storage when company is coming.

 

At Friday Night Knitting I worked on the Iron Pyrite Sock. I got to the toe decreases and am to the point where now I decrease every round, instead of every other round, until there are eight stitches left total. Then the last stitches get joined with the Kitchener stitch which is a fancy dance of a tapestry needle back and forth between stitches so it doesn't look like a seam. It's a smooth join that doesn't irritate your tender toes.

 

I've got the car loaded and my lunch mostly packed for the National Author's Day Book Fair at the Art Garage tomorrow from 10am-2pm. Let's hope lots of people come to look and many of them buy books!

--Barbara 

An Important Cultural Moment

DS made the school run this afternoon then swung by my house to pick me up. LC and OJ didn't know where we were going so they were on pins and needles. We went to the Military Ave. Farmer's Market where the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was making an appearance! They got to go inside and each got a wiener whistle. After visiting the Wienermobile we walked through the market and got a package of apple empanadas to share. Mm, they were delicious.

 

I was just thinking this morning that the squirrel hadn't been in the square green feeder in a couple days because the level of seed hadn't really fallen. But it wasn't long before I saw this. Yep, there it was comfortably nestled under the cover digging out peanut halves and gobbling them up.

 

At the same time the Red-bellied Woodpecker landed on the suet nuggets and had a little snack. I didn't see if it tried landing on the square green feeder or if it just flew away. I caught sight of the Bluejay down near the feeders before it flew up to the empty corn cobs, poked around, and then flew away. All too quickly for a picture. I don't know why I'm so enamored of Bluejays. Blue is not one of my favorite colors. Maybe because they're so rare in backyard feeder land.

 

I was intimidated by today's drawing prompt. It was Family. In the book, the author had her 4-year-old draw the family's portraits. You can imagine them--heads on stick legs with wild hair. I am not four years old. No, I'm seventy years older than that and I'm reluctant to try drawing people. I've become a little able to draw heads so that's what I drew--nine heads. My family. In pencil, not pen, not markers, just pencil.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page for today when we got back from the market. I was most grateful that DS took the time to pull the patio umbrella out of the patio table. I'm not strong enough to do it myself anymore so I really appreciated that. Then I stuck with my writing this afternoon and made it to 1,667 words, the number multiplied by thirty that equals fifty thousand. I added up the words of the writings I did this week and I'm right around six-thousand-eight-hundred which is a good amount heading into November 1.

 

And after supper I decided to paint. I rifled through the landscape photos I printed off for watercolor class and picked one. It didn't turn out too badly. I especially like the trees on the left side and the color of the water. I'm disappointed that when I painted the headland my brush accidentally touched a wet piece of sky so there's a bit of green in the blue sky. Dang. I'll try again and be more patient to let the first paint dry before I plunge into the next step. I am not very patient when I'm painting.

 

I had fun plumping up my Amazon Wishlist so that people who want to get me Christmas gifts will have some ideas to choose from. It was a little difficult to try to decide what hobby or writing things I'd like when I'm in the habit of just buying things for myself. I'll try to be patient. But patience isn't often my best thing.

I also tried to upload my November writing progress email newsletter to MailerLite and managed to royally screw it up so I had to ask KM to do it for me again. She even made me a lovely video with step by step instructions and between making the video and now, MailerLite has changed their site just enough that I got frustrated, screwed it up, and gave up. Thank god for KM. 

DD texted me some photos of IMM playing flag football. I wish I lived closer so I could go watch him play and cheer for him so I requested pictures to enjoy vicariously. He looks like he's having fun. 

--Barbara 

I Colored

Instead of drawing a new picture today I colored in the one I drew yesterday. I liked it yesterday but I like it better now. I used watercolor pencils and a water-filled brush to smoosh the colors around. I tried to blend colors in a couple places. It kinda worked.

 

The Red-bellied Woodpecker was back this morning. First on the suet nuggets and then on the square green feeder. This is not the one with the full red head so it's either a juvenile or a female.

 

I've started Car Knitting Washcloth #19. This is some yarn I bought ages ago in South Dakota and knitted a hanging kitchen towel with right after I bought it. I'm knitting a matching dishcloth with the remainder.

 

I visited DS at Zambaldi Beer this morning. He was brewing Yard Games IPA and cleaning kegs. His assistant has been out with an injury so DS has been doing his jobs too. When I asked him what he wants for his birthday he said, "a nap." I can't buy him that but he did give me another idea of something that I can get.

 

When I got home I saw that the lawn mower/leaf collector had been here. I could tell because of the little pile of clippings he left behind.

 

The autumn leaves are really falling these days. We're having perfect fall weather--cool and sunny with a little wind. It was a little windier today so a lot of leaves fell. This is the tree on the tenant's side of the duplex. It's leaves are just beautiful.

 

In the afternoon I wrote just over 1000 words of the new Seaview Series story. I know I'm not hitting the 1,667 words per day to make 50k words in 30 days but it isn't November yet so I'm not worried. I guess I've got about 5,000 words written so far which is 1/10th of what I need but it's a start.

 

I spent some time trying to figure out signing up and adding my audiobooks to a payment option. I get confused, frustrated, and then I quit. I think I have one of the options kind of figured out but the other one thwarts me every time I try. I asked KM for help and she said she isn't familiar with any of the options one website offers but she's willing to dig in and learn how to help me. She's worth her weight in gold.

--Barbara 

An Infrequent Visitor

Man, I was lucky. I looked out the patio door in time to see a Bluejay visit the cob corn and it even stayed long enough for me to snap two pictures. In one it was just a shadow but in this one you can see its blue crest and fluttering wing. Yay!

 

Naturally a squirrel also visited the cob corn and had itself a little corn kernel snack. I am amazed that it can hang there upside down and eat comfortably. 

 

I got a haircut this morning and for some reason decided it was an occasion to take a selfie. I never take selfies but I did today. I had to turn around to have a halfway decent background but then the light from the patio door reflected in my glasses. Oh well, that's life. And I realized that my smile is crooked. Do I sleep on that side too much? Anyway, I asked JS to cut my hair shorter, more pixie-ish and she did. I like it like that plus it's six weeks until my next appointment so shorter now means less annoying then.

 

After my wellness checkup this afternoon (I am in good shape, all tests came out great, and it takes at least 3 months for a hamstring pull to heal so that's a relief), I worked on early Novel November writing over 1000 words and adding a few names to my list of characters. I'm so glad I started doing that. It's so easy to refer to the list instead of having to scroll back to find the names of people. This little unlined notebook is perfect for the purpose. I'm just getting started so it's a short list. It'll grow.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Inside the Laboratory/Weird Science so I copied some of her drawing. At the time I thought I'd leave it just in ink but all evening I've been thinking of using watercolor pencils to color it in and then use the water brush to smoosh the colors around. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.

 

We are having cherry Jello for a snack tonight. It's the only flavor besides the citrus ones I like. Plus it's red. Red is my favorite color. But then you all know that.

 

I drew a gratitude journal page today and had to start a new book. I thought I had more things to be grateful for but I didn't. (I just thought of something else I could have put on there. I went to the grocery after the doctor's office and didn't have to worry about paying for my groceries. I'm grateful for Durwood's insistence on investing and saving. Thanks, Dear!)

 

When I asked the doc how long it should take for a muscle strain to heal, he asked which muscle and I told him the back of my knee. He said, "Oh, hamstring pulls take at least 12 weeks to heal, just like for football players." I didn't have the heart to tell him I don't follow football so that's a reference I don't understand. The doc also said I probably won't get dementia because I use my brain so much to write. I'm not sure how valid that is but it was reassuring and makes me want to not stop writing.

I ordered a bunch more author copies of some of my books today. GBB called wondering if we'd need more books since one of the craft/vendor fairs we're signed up for has 14,000 people "interested" on Facebook so what if we sell out. I decided she had a point. I've been stocking up slowly through the summer but thought a few more copies of the most popular titles wouldn't hurt. It takes 2 weeks for them to be printed and shipped so we can't wait until we need them to order them. When I ordered them it said they'd be shipped November 10 but on the order confirmation page it said delivery November 17-21. So cruel.

--Barbara 

Not Frozen

The first thing I noticed when I opened the drapes this morning was the birdbath wasn't frozen. That means the heater is working because all of the neighbors' roofs were frosty so I knew it would have iced over without the heater. I put the white rock on top of the heater so no pesky squirrel knocks it out of the water.

 

The gold mums are still blooming a little. I had the landscapers leave them the Saturday before last so that there'd be a little color in front of the house. The copper ones are fading fast and the purple mums are almost all finished but the gold ones are still making a little show of it.

 

I wondered why the round feeder was emptied so quickly and today I found out why. One of the squirrels has figured out how to hang upside down from its back feet and nibble seeds out of the bottom ports. When this squirrel left another one shinnied up to the suet nuggets and had a snack. I didn't see one in the square green feeder but the top was kind of cocked so I'm guessing one had been there.

 

I got to do the school run today and I finished the last few rows of Car Knitting Washcloth #18. Not that I've knitted 18 washcloths this year, that's from the time I started leaving a bag of knitting in the pocket of the driver's door. And there was the pandemic gap so about 10 years maybe.

Once the squirrels all had their afternoon snacks I went out and filled the feeders. I took down the platform feeder and took its crook out of the ground. Actually I stuck it in the ground closer to the house without the feeder on it because I didn't know where I'd store the big, awkward thing. The squirrels have rediscovered the cob corn so I filled that too. I'm determined to get rid of most of the birdseed and just keep the suet cakes and nuggets for the winter.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Light & Dark. She said to draw squares on the paper, number them, and then fill the squares with tone starting with light and moving to dark. My paper is pretty small so I only had five rows of four squares. I used my mechanical pencil, a #2 pencil, a brush pen, a Micron pen, and a wax pastel. It was an interesting activity.

 

I came back here meaning to write another 1000 words toward the next novel manuscript and instead I wrote the next writing progress email that I'll schedule to be sent on November 1 to my greatly expanded mailing list. Taking part in those free book promos has added over 100 names to my mailing list. Pretty good!

 

This morning I had a Zoom with cda. She sent me a poem that needed a couple tweaks and I sent her the first draft of the blurb for Anneke's Legacy. She helped me polish up the middle of it which it desperately needed. It's funny how other eyes can see things that you miss. 

--Barbara