Frosty

When I woke up this morning and opened the bedroom shades I saw that the roofs of the houses across the street were white with frost. No more 54 degrees for us! 

It got up to 34 degrees this afternoon and that was enough to keep the birdbath unfrozen for the most part. A little of the water farthest from the heater was a little icy but it was pretty liquid most of the day.

This squirrel glared at me when I opened the drapes over the patio door. I thought it would scamper off at the movement but it just sat up there and stared. Then it leaped over to the suet nuggets feeder to try to eat the few remaining nuggets. It's the acrobatic squirrel. I saw it hang down holding a crumb of suet in its front paws and eating it before curling back up for more.

I spent most of the day trying to assemble the disparate parts of the next manuscript I want to work on. It's another NaNoWriMo effort and it's in pieces. I worked on it through two Novembers so there's some repetition so I tried to figure out which file was which and rename them so I can find them again. This one is not a part of The Seaview Series. It's its own standalone story. 

While my supper was heating up in the microwave I pulled out my sketchbook and Micron pen and drew this flower which doesn't look like any flower I recognize but I like the black things bursting out of the petals.

And I finished the second Deep Sea Hat tonight at Friday Night Knitting. I still have to weave the long tail through the stitches on the needles and weave in the tails but it's essentially done. I've got a partial skein of this color yarn left and have leftovers of other colors in the purple bin downstairs so I can fetch that and start another hat with more than one color yarn.

I spent an hour this morning going over the critique for Monday's session and then spent most of the rest of the day on that next manuscript. It was fun to read and remember parts that I'd forgotten. I'm kind of excited about it because I wasn't sure what I'd do when my current novel is finished. Now I have a plan.

--Barbara

54 Degrees!

In Wisconsin! In January! It isn't going to last long. They're talking about 38 for a high tomorrow and snow on the weekend but today was amazing. I saved some errands for this afternoon when it was the warmest so I had to throw on a fleece vest and head outside. I just went to Michaels to spend an expiring $5 voucher (bought a couple sketchbooks) and then to Office Depot to drop off the bag of year-end receipts to be shredded but I was glad to be out breathing air that didn't freeze my lungs.

 

The Red-bellied Woodpecker showed up at the round feeder this morning and stayed just long enough for a picture. I was lucky that a Sparrow landed on a perch that made the feeder spin a little farther so the Red-bellied came into view. See? It has a peanut in its beak. Snap! Gotcha.

 

A Cardinal landed on the platform feeder and spent quite a bit of time prospecting for just the right seeds to eat. He hopped around from side to side, in and out of the sunshine, until he flew away. You can see by the angle of the feeder that it was still a little windy. As soon as he was gone a House Finch landed on the feeder but in deep shade so all that showed in the picture was a silhouette.

 

I spent some time re-republishing the paperback copy of Horizon because when I republished the eBook yesterday KDP told me that there were two typos and it let me fix them. Not so when I went to republish the paperback but I was stuck in the process so I republished it with the typos, but as soon as it was approved, I went back in, fixed the booboos, and re-republished it so now it's typo-free. As far as I can tell. I really enjoyed revisiting the story when I went through it last week. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself.

The flower of today's watercolor is a Hibiscus. I wish I'd painted the petals a little higher on the paper so that the lower petals weren't squished against the stem but I like the colors, I like the leaves, and I'm not too unhappy with the way it turned out.

I drew today's gratitude journal page after supper. What I was most grateful for was 54 degrees!

While watching TV I added a few rounds to the Deep Sea 2 Hat. I've got about 6' of yarn left from the first, partial skein but I've got another skein in readiness. I know I have leftovers of other colors of this same yarn so maybe I can make one hat out of all of those leftovers. That'd be kind of cool looking, I think.

I attended a webinar about Book Launches and how to be better at them. He talked a lot about building your email list and Advanced Reader Copies and list swaps. I know what those words mean but I'm not at all sure how to implement them. Fortunately I'll get a recording of it so I can watch again and I've got KM my assistant to ask questions of. I know I have to get better at posting on Facebook and Instagram so that I stay in front of people who follow me. KM is helping me with that. There's so much more to this author thing than just writing books. That's the part I know how to do, the rest of it escapes me.

Also since I got this new laptop and downloaded the printer driver I've found a little pile of printed sheets that I didn't make when I come into the room. It's happened twice now so I turned off the printer and will turn it on when I need it but it's kind of creeping me out.

--Barbara

A Wading Mourning Dove

I looked out this morning and there were three Mourning Doves on the birdbath with one of them wading in the middle. As I raised the camera two of them flew away leaving the wader there all alone. It was standing in open water in the part of the birdbath farthest away from the heater. It looked around and then flew off to join its buddies on the fence. An hour later I noticed that the water where it had been standing had iced over again. It's supposed to get up to 50 degrees tomorrow. I don't understand. It's January. In Wisconsin. And it was 47 yesterday, 35 today, and 50 tomorrow? Mind-boggling.

This morning I went over to Zambaldi to visit DS and deliver the remainder of the brownies I baked the other night. He was conducting an experiment to determine the amount of clarifier to put into the beer batch he was working on. He had ten glasses of beer that had been chilled and standing around with the yeast settling out. They all looked pretty clear to me but number ten was the winner according to the brewer. I cautioned him that the brownies were to be shared with the family, not gobbled up at the brewhouse. He said, "Boo!" But I trust they made it home okay.

I pulled out Dr. Seuss's Book of Animals again and drew this little dog. This time I just skipped the pencil and went right with the Micron pen. It turned out okay.

The sun's setting later each day which is so nice to see. Today's sunset wasn't fabulous but it was adequate enough that I took a picture. I do love the way the clouds are tinted that peachy-pink color.

And I forced myself to draw today's gratitude journal after supper. It's too easy to skip it but I like having done it so I'm trying. This afternoon I uploaded the revised version of Horizon on Kindle Create and republished it on Kindle Direct Publishing. That makes me feel good.

I've been meaning to tell you about this book I just finished listening to. It's called The Sound of Glass by Karen White. It's the story of four women of two different generations and the coincidences that bind them together. It isn't the kind of story I usually get into but I was pulled in by the personalities of the two main characters and couldn't stop. Look into it, you might like it.

--Barbara

Figured It Out

I can proudly say that I figured out how to get back on to Blogspot and make a new post. Yay, me!

The squirrels have discovered that I filled the suet nuggets feeder and wasted no time in curling themselves around and having a nice long nibble. You'd think that the wires would hurt their teeth but evidently they don't because there's no shortage of squirrels battling for a spot up there.

Man, it's windy today. It was so windy that I went across town to CS's house to knit tonight through town instead of taking the high bridge across the river. It's so windy that I had to put it on the gratitude journal page I drew for today even though I'm not exactly grateful for it.

I spent a productive hour this afternoon researching new keywords for The Seaview to see if I could find some different or better ones. I found one that I'm using now didn't have much to recommend it and one that did so I went in and changed them out. I've got an app on here that does keyword and category searches. It's really helpful.

Today I went back to Draw 500 Fantastic Flowers to find something to draw. I don't know what kind of flower this is supposed to be but I like the way it looks.

The flower of today's watercolor is Ranunculus. It's also known as a Persian Buttercup which I think is a prettier name for a pretty flower with lots and lots of petals.

And I cast on and knitted a few inches of another Deep Sea Hat. This yarn is scratchier than it looks. My fingers expect it to be soft but it just isn't. I love the colors though.

I also worked on republishing Horizon today. I did the title page, the dedication, the epitaphs, About the Author, acknowledgements, and Books by this Author. Now that I have it the way I want it, I'll upload it to Kindle Direct Publishing and get it back to the way it's supposed to be. I'll have to sell through the 14 skinny ones but that'll happen. Eventually.

--Barbara

Well, Grrr!

I've spent the last 20 minutes trying to log into this blog from my new laptop and when I get on here it won't let me make a new post. I'll figure it out or get Help to assist me but for now I have my old laptop sitting on top of my new laptop so that I can make this post. I spent most of the day loading in websites and usernames and passwords but I did find the time to go get a haircut and to go over the critique for tomorrow's meeting one more time.

It didn't take long for the Mourning Doves and Sparrows to find the filled feeders. They even managed to land on the platform feeder that was swinging in the wind.

To show you how windy it was I offer the thawing birdbath for evidence. You can see how ripply the water is and if it's windy enough to ruffle that water you know it's WINDY.

I took a few minutes while my supper was heating up in the microwave to draw this little morning glory out of Draw 500 Fabulous Flowers. I like it. I really like drawing with those Micron pens. For some reason it pleases me and makes me feel like I can really draw.

Also at suppertime I quickly stirred up a batch of "The Best" Brownies to take to knitting tomorrow night. There will be only three of us so I've put six brownies on a plate to take along. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the remaining eight (I ate two, but they were the smallest ones.). I'll probably freeze the rest. Or maybe I'll drop them off at the brewery for DS and his family. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

After supper I took a quick shower and then finished knitting the Deep Sea Hat. I even wove in the tails so it's all done--and there were a lot of tails because I used up some leftover balls from another project or two.

When I came home from getting a haircut at lunchtime the garage door opener quit working. I thought about letting myself in and opening it but realized that I'd just be frustrated later so I turned right around and retraced my route to Batteries Plus and had new ones put in. That should take care of that little problem for a while. I keep forgetting to take the bag of shredding along when I go to Office Depot/Office Max. I've been there twice in the last two days and the bag is still leaning against the wall by the table. I'll put it into the car in the morning and maybe that way I'll remember to stop and drop it off. It's too much to put through my home shredder so I have to pay to have it disposed of.

--Barbara

Well, It Worked

It took most of the afternoon but I got my new laptop up and running and on the internet. I downloaded Kindle Create and it opened. Hooray! Now I can set my mind to republishing Horizon as a PDF so that the font size goes back to 12 so the book has the correct number of pages and the cover fits right. Once I knew that the program would open and run, I spent hours copying files from this laptop to a huge capacity USB drive to transfer them to the new laptop. I got some of the websites bookmarked and will make a list of the others I need to get. One thing I didn't get was another mouse. I thought I had another one but it isn't working, not even with a new battery so I'll stop for one on my way home from my haircut tomorrow. It's tedious switching the mouse from one computer to the other. I'm not a fan of the touch pad.

I was making my lunch when I glanced out the patio door and saw a little Sharp shinned Hawk sitting on the patio table. By the time I got the camera on and ready it flew up to the fence but I managed to get a couple shots of it. This one is the best. You can see how windy it was by the way its feathers were flapping. I was so excited to see it even if it didn't stay very long.

This squirrel wasn't the acrobatic one. Instead it would lean down and nibble off a chunk of suet, then perch on top of the feeder to eat it, before going back down for more. I put "fill the feeders" on my to-do list today but didn't get around to it until 5 o'clock so no birds came to them. I'm sure they'll show up tomorrow.

When I went to hang up my coat after filling the feeders I saw that the sky was pink with sunset so I hurried to get the camera. The sun's behind the neighbor's house so you can't see it but the clouds looked so pretty with their dark gray color tinted pink.

After I went to Office Max for a new laptop I went to the grocery for a stack of Lean Cuisines and a few other things. Part of me feels guilty for not cooking and freezing dozens of meals but another part of me thinks what the heck. Then I spent too long not figuring out that I needed to use the touch pad to click the button to connect the laptop to the internet. Once I got that, things moved along more quickly. Dell wants me to sign up for McAfee but that's who the scammers I nearly fell prey to said they were from so I'm a little gun shy. I'll find a different company, thank you very much.

--Barbara

Just Dandy

I looked out this morning and saw this Sparrow sitting on the top of a crook, all puffed up and basking in the weak January sun and I thought he looked just dandy. It was in the teens and a little windy so it made sense that it was fluffed up but I thought he looked like a little brown tennis ball sitting there.

A little later I saw the Sparrows attacking the suet cakes. They usually leave them alone, let the woodpeckers and squirrels eat them, but most of the seeds are gone so they moved on to the suet cakes. At one point there were four of them but by the time I was ready to take a picture only two were left.

LC and I had a fine time today lunching and shopping. We went to her favorite restaurant, Olive's, for a turkey and cheese sub with lettuce and onion on fresh homemade bread for her and a pesto and artichoke hearts flatbread for me. Then we walked two doors down to Zesty's for dessert of Dirt Dessert, which is chocolate ice cream, ground up chocolate cookies, a drizzle of caramel sauce, and one gummy worm. Yum! We then headed to The School House where she spent her birthday coupon on a squishy cube and a bracelet that lets her track the movements of a sea turtle (Meemaw volunteered to pay the difference.). After that we went to the mall where we were lucky to find a parking place in walking distance and visited two jewelry stores for more earrings and Bath & Body Works for lotions and soaps. Then we came here and I spent a couple hours teaching LC to crochet her Wooble Unicorn kit she got at Christmas. I forget how hard it is to learn a craft like that. It's been over 60 years since I learned to crochet but I managed to help her learn single crochet and how to read the pattern which I printed off instead of her having to watch online videos. Tonight LC, OJ, and I looked at free crochet patterns on Ravelry, a fiber lovers website, and now OJ wants to learn how too. I'm patient, I'll be happy to teach him too. I've got lots of hooks and yarn.

I didn't have a lot of time for art today but I managed to eke out a few minutes to draw another Seussian figure. This one is better proportioned. Sorry it's so pale but I didn't press too hard on the colored pencils.

LC tried on the Baby Alpacas Hat that I finished the other day and it
wasn't quite long enough to cover her ears so I decided to add a couple inches onto the Deep Sea Hat. I need to measure again but I think it's almost time to start the crown decreases.

I tried to download Windows 11 this morning. Didn't work. I don't have enough free memory. Even if the computer was brand new and had nothing on it, it still doesn't have enough RAM, so guess who's going to Office Max tomorrow for a new laptop? They've got one with twice as much RAM and it comes with Windows 11. And it's on sale. I'll get some big USB drives so I can download files and transfer them. Sounds like a lot of work but I'm stubborn enough to do it.

--Barbara

Strength In Numbers

The Sparrows have been showing up in larger than usual numbers. They cluster under the feeders and work diligently to peck up all of the fallen seeds, leaving behind the seed they don't like. This little flock of them spent a lot of time under the finch feeder. They all land together and then at some silent signal they fly away, not too far, but away, and then they come back and start all over again.

I'm not at all impressed with today's watercolor effort. It's two Sunflowers and they're pretty darned terrible. On the shorter one the darker orange bled into the yellow too much and the brown from the center did too. The taller one isn't quite as ugly but it's no prizewinner. Sunflowers are not my forte. Maybe tomorrow's flower will come out better.

 

Today's gratitude journal page was pretty easy to draw. I had the idea to start earlier in the day and add to the page as the day went on. That seemed to work fairly well. 

 

I knitted the Deep Sea Hat almost up to the crown decreases tonight at Friday Night Knitting. I've joined two good-size leftover skeins and one just barely worth knitting length so there will be plenty of tails to weave in but I'm determined to use the yarn efficiently. Once this hat is done I'll have enough yarn left to knit another one just like it. Good thing too, because I've got a knitting date on Tuesday night and I'll need something simple to knit. Oh, I can't forget to make a pan of brownies on Monday to take along Tuesday night. I printed off my favorite brownie recipe this afternoon so all I need to get at the grocery is flour and eggs and I'll be in business.

It occurred to me that Kindle Create might not like the version of Windows 10 on my computer so I'm considering downloading Windows 11. It's either that or trade in this 7-year-old laptop for a new one with a bigger, faster processor and bigger brain. I'll try the download first. It's free. Which is in my price range.

Tomorrow LC and I get to go to lunch and on her birthday shop. I gave her a book on her birthday and a card promising lunch and shopping, and tomorrow's the day. She gets to choose the lunch spot and where we shop. Should be interesting. And fun.

--Barbara

An Inside Day

 It was sunny and 17 today. Not as warm as yesterday's 20 degrees. I didn't really need to go anywhere so I didn't. Naturally I went out on Tuesday when it was a jillion below zero wind chill but not today. Oh well. I took a shower and my hair was wet. That's why I stayed home, not because it was cold. Wet hair's a good reason not to go out and freeze it, I think.

The Sparrows have moved their base of operations to the finch feeder. They've pretty much emptied out the round feeder so they've moved feeders and are still happily throwing seed to the ground for their compatriots to peck at. There's a thin layer of thistle seed under the feeder. Evidently Sparrows don't like that.

At the same time the Downy Woodpecker visited the suet cakes and had a good time moving around pecking at different spots on the frozen solid cakes. She's persistent, I'll give her that.

On its second visit (that I saw) I managed to catch the Red-bellied Woodpecker on the round feeder. Its beak is much longer than the other birds' beaks so it can reach seed in the bottom of the feeder. There was a squirrel on the suet cakes but it wasn't the acrobatic one so I didn't take its picture.

I wasn't in the mood to paint today (I wasn't in the mood to do much today.) so I drew this kid out of Seuss-isms. I thought it was going well and it wasn't until I was coloring it that I realized his body is too long for his legs. That's okay, at least I drew something today.

After supper I finished knitting the Baby Alpacas Hat. I only had four more rounds to knit and then weave in the tails so another project is finished.

Then because I need something to knit tomorrow at Friday Night Knitting I cast on another hat with the same needles and pattern but with some 50/50 wool and acrylic yarn called Landscapes. It's long discontinued but I like the colorway. It's called Deep Sea so that's the name of the hat.

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Kindle Create again today and when I double-clicked the install file it tells me that another program is using the file. Now I just tried again and it would have let me reinstall again. I tried Kindle Help last night and got someone who thought I wanted help with my Kindle reader but when I told him I wanted help publishing a book he sent me to the page where I've tried to get help and haven't had any luck. Maybe I'll call them one of these days when I've got a couple hours to burn and see if I can't get help that way.

All afternoon I sat and read through a different manuscript, one that I've tried to resurrect a few times. I've added and subtracted characters and today I realized that what I have is way out of order. So I did a little cut and paste rearranging. I like the story and I've got 90 pages so that's not nothing. Maybe I'll keep working on it.

I wore my new dental appliance for sleep apnea last night and it wasn't too bad. I took a couple Tylenol before I went to bed and didn't have too much trouble falling asleep. It's very tight on my teeth. It kind of feels like I'm pulling teeth when I try to remove it but so far I haven't. Pulled teeth, I mean. It's too soon to tell if it's helping me sleep better.

--Barbara

Warmer Today

This afternoon the temperature got up to 22 degrees! It felt colder than that when I was out and about but it was a little breezy and that always changes things. When I got up this morning I was happy to see that the birdbath had thawed about halfway overnight. I still went out and topped it up but didn't have near as hard a time opening the patio door as I did the last few days.

The acrobatic squirrel was back on the suet cakes this afternoon. I was sitting at the table painting and saw movement out of the corner of my eye and there it was hanging on the feeder by its back feet nibbling on a chunk of suet that it had bitten off. I'm impressed with its abs because it just effortlessly curls back up to grab another bite.

Here's what I painted today. It's called Muscari or Grape Hyacinth. It wasn't as difficult to paint as I thought it'd be. I like the way it turned out. I was relieved when she switched from the size 12 brush she uses for stems and leaves to a size 6 for the little flowers. Much easier to be a bit more precise with the smaller brush. And this picture is about 10 times bigger than the flowers in real life.

 

In the afternoon I paged through my three Chinese Astrology books to see if I can't make some little cards about people's horoscopes for the Chinese New Year supper that DS is planning. I'm not sure I put a lot of stock in those things but I think they're fun to read.

While I sat and watched TV tonight (didn't get the Final Jeopardy!) I knitted on the Baby Alpacas Hat. Got the body up to 5 1/2 inches so I started the crown decreases and knitted four of the eight rounds before quitting for the night.

I even managed to make myself sit down and draw the gratitude journal page for today. I had an appointment with the dentist to pick up my sleep appliance. It's very tight on my teeth and is supposed to prevent my tongue from falling back and closing my throat off so I snore and my air is lessened. I'm anxious to find out if I can sleep with it clamping my teeth but then I think that people with braces have clamps on their teeth and they manage to sleep. He said it'd take about five days to get used to it. Let's hope he's right.

I meant to get in touch with Kindle Direct Publishing on Amazon today to see if they couldn't help me with getting Kindle Create up and running. I suspect they can't but I want to try. I wonder if it's because I'm using Windows 10 and not Windows 11. Lordy, I hope I don't have to upload a new OS but I will if it's what I have to do to get my next book published.

--Barbara