If I Fill Them, They Will Come

I went out and filled all of the bird feeders this afternoon and it wasn't long before a Sparrow landed on the round feeder and investigated.

 

It didn't take long for another Sparrow to discover the small bit of seed I spilled on the patio. He hopped around pecking the best ones up fast. I also tipped out a fist-sized chunk of suet cakes that I was sure they'd all jump on but I only saw one Sparrow pecking at it and all of the squirrels went the other way. Maybe the bunnies will scarf it up.

 

Except for this one squirrel that leaped from the birdbath to the crook with the suet cakes and right up to the suet nuggets feeder. It spent a good amount of time savoring the fresh nuggets. A couple Starlings showed up after the squirrel left but I didn't get a picture because they don't stay long.

 

The prompt I picked out of Sketchbook Challenge was Rubbish. You can tell that the author's British because if she was American it'd be Trash. Anyway, I carefully dug out the two paint tubes I threw away the other day. The cobalt blue was was just used up but the flamingo was the tube that exploded when I opened it so I was extra careful when I touched that one. It had so much paint hardened in the threads I couldn't put the cap back on. That was one huge mess but I like the drawing.

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I worked on the sock leg and added an inch or so. It's getting to be time to measure it and think about adding the heel flap, heel turn, and gusset.

 

I went to the grocery this afternoon to replenish my supply of frozen meals. There was an older lady peering into the next freezer looking at frozen meals too. I said, "I'm sick of cooking. These days I only reheat." She looked at me, grinned, and said, "Me too."

Tomorrow is another Saturday Market on Military. We've got two in April and two in May to get through. I'm surprised that we're going that late in the season but we've paid and will stick it out. I have the feeling that we've exhausted the book-reading customers at the market. I hope not. All I ask is that I sell one book per session. Just one and I've paid for the booth rental that day. Anything else is gravy.

Now it's time to say goodnight and hit the hay so I wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for tomorrow.

--Barbara

Not Today

No snow today. Whew. We had wind but no snow. Of course I had to drive across a long, pretty high bridge over the river to get to my haircut this afternoon. That was fun with the wind trying to shove the car over to one side but I held firm and made it. Both ways. The daffodils are still happy out there in front of the brick facade of the house. Still no crocuses but I guess I can't have anything.

 

The biggest bloom on the Christmas/Easter cactus is just about fully open. It's so pretty, even if it is pink-ish. Which I have to keep reminding myself is light red and I like red so I need to get over it.

 

Look what I got in the mail today. It's the very first copy of Spies Don't Retire! I always buy one as soon as it's available so I have the first one. There's a stack of first copies on the desk where I can see them often and remind myself of how much work I've done to get that stack built. The author copies are supposed to arrive on the 11th, just in time for the Saturday market on the 12th.

 

The next prompt in Sketchbook Challenge was to draw pens. I pulled out a couple from the pen/pencil jar on the table and got busy. I didn't color them, mostly because I had to leave for my haircut, but one of them is black and silver so it would have looked like a totally black pen. The words wouldn't have shown since they're silver and I "drew" them in black.

 

I even made time to paint the next to last flower in the wildflower book. It's Asters. It took quite a bit of time to paint this since I had to let things dry after each part. First the centers, then the petals, then the stems, then the leaves. I'm no good at making the stems come together right but I'll keep trying.

 

I visited DS at Zambaldi this morning. He was brewing a batch of Good Dog Porter and also cleaning some of the Brewer For a Day equipment. I thought I'd show you the size difference between the "real" brewing tanks and the BFD ones. In this picture the white tank is for fermentation and the little silver tank is for carbonation and finishing. You can see the big fermentation tanks behind these little ones. The BFD tanks are just a little taller than I am, the big ones are really tall, need a ladder to get up to the hatch tall.

 

This afternoon I emailed the Spies Don't Retire manuscript and character list to the audiobook producer. Her rates have gone up since the last one but I've got it covered so I'm going ahead. I'll find out soon when it'll fit into her calendar. 

--Barbara

Again

Look at what greeted me when I opened the drapes this morning. Snow! Wet snow with rain. Uck. Happily it didn't rain all day, just in the morning, and it was quitting by the time I left for my oil change at 10:30. Speaking of my oil change, Steve the mechanic fixed the tire service monitor thingy that's been blinking at me for a couple weeks. It added to the bill but now that little yellow tire icon isn't lit and blinking. What a relief. Oh, and the snow's all melted away because it's 48 degrees and foggy at 9pm. Crazy. It was 28 last night. And we didn't get the ice that they got north of here. Whew.

 

Even though we've had overnight snow a couple times in a row the daffodils and tulips in front don't seem to mind. If you look closely you can see yellow-green daffodil buds in with the leaves. I keep hoping to see a crocus or two but the leaves keep being eaten so I wonder if the flowers will come. I'll keep watching.

 

Today's drawing challenge was cups and mugs. I picked out a couple of my favorites to draw and then added a couple small ones to fill in the spaces. I made the last mug of WW hot chocolate mix to sip while I was drawing too.

 

Speaking of that, I hauled up the food processor and whirred up a fresh batch of mix. It's so simple to make, it makes a whole quart, and it tastes good. Oh, that reminds me, I need to order more cocoa from Penzey's. I get Dutch Processed Cocoa from there. It's a little pricey but it's so good it's worth it.

 

I also drew today's gratitude page today, not waiting until tomorrow to do it. The two best things are hugs from LC and OJ, and selling a copy of Better Than Mom's to JR, my car guy.

 

I washed the sheets today and they managed to twist themselves around and together so well that I had a heck of a time getting them out of the washer. They were really braided together. I wonder if there's a better way of putting them in there so they don't get so tangled. They're king size sheets, maybe I should wash them one at a time?

It being Wednesday, I posted another short story on Substack this afternoon. It's hard not to post something every day but since I do this blog daily it's probably enough.

--Barbara

Still Blooming

I'm happy to report that my Christmas/Easter cactus is still blooming and the second bud is growing. There's a third bud but it's tiny and I'm not sure if it'll make it. This whole blooming out of season thing is blowing my mind.

 

Look at how much of this Goldfinch is yellow! When I saw it at a distance it didn't look too yellow but cropping the picture brought it closer and I see that there's plenty of yellow on this guy. Such a happy sight.

 

The Starlings invaded the suet nuggets feeder today and this one clung to the mesh and twisted around to peck away at the few remaining nuggets. I am amused by these birds. They descend in a bunch of three or four, poke around, and then they fly off. Usually all of them leave but this one stayed for a little while.

 

I drew a gratitude page for yesterday. I was mostly grateful for ordering books but was very happy to get all of the laundry taken care of too. I should probably throw the towels down the chute. Yesterday there just wasn't room to include them. All of the baskets were full. Now it's time to start piling it up for the next laundry day.

 

Instead of drawing a flower today I flipped forward to the official prompt/challenge #1 which was Pattern. I used a ruler to draw boxes on my paper and then got out the colored pencils to fill each box with a different pattern. It was surprisingly challenging to think of something for each space. You'll notice that I kind of cheated and ignored the half boxes on the page's edge. Hey, I was glad to get the square ones filled.

 

This morning I had a critique session with cda. Neither of us had a load of comments on each other's pages so we didn't spend all morning on Zoom. Now I get to transfer her corrections to the main manuscript. In one place I have the word "she" about 10 times in three or four sentences. That has to be fixed. 

And tonight was Writers Guild. We had a speaker from UWGB talking about the opportunities for publication and classes available to the community. It was good to be reminded of what's out there on campus. Then a few people read some of their writings for a quick critique. It's always interesting to hear what people have to say on paper.

--Barbara