Little Beer Making

I went down to Zambaldi Beer to visit DS this morning because he said he was brewing and that means he has time for a visit. Usually he's making hundreds of gallons of beer in a giant vat with a lot of grain and water. Today he was making a small batch of specialty beer with smoked malt. He said that everybody doesn't like smoked beer, that it's an acquired taste, so he's just making a little bit. Like 50 gallons instead of 650. In this picture he's getting ready to set up the "small" system while the grain grinds and the water heats.

 

It was raining AGAIN when I got up this morning. We've had such a rainy April and it's only half over. There's flooding in the area and probably more to come. The East River overflowed its banks and a lot of streets are flooded. Luckily not around me.

 

A Robin stopped for a drink this afternoon. I was fooled for a minute thinking it was a Catbird but then I realized it had an orange-red breast which meant it was a Robin. I don't usually see them getting a drink so this one must have been extra thirsty.

 

Then a Goldfinch stopped to pose for a minute or two. Just long enough for me to snap two pictures before it flew away like it had an appointment elsewhere. It made me happy to see it all yellow instead of its winter avocado yellow green.

 

I was making my lunch when I glanced out the patio door and saw a blue haze under the lilac bush. Grabbing the camera I went out to see that the tiny blue squills under there are blooming. Years and years and years ago I got these from my brother's mother-in-law. She said they'd spread all over. Well, they haven't. There are maybe a few more than when I planted them but not many and for sure not spread all over.

 

And there are buds on the lilac. Leaf buds, not flower buds, but I'll take any buds right now.

 

The rhubarb is continuing to grow. Grandma Angermeier would be so happy that the plant from her farm in Evansville, IN is still growing strong 63 years after we moved up to Green Bay, WI and planted a clump from her garden. Pretty soon I'll be able to chop off some stalks and cook up rhubarb sauce to put on my breakfast yogurt. I can't wait.

 

Today's drawing is a Daffodil. I was flipping through the book and this page fell open so I took it as a sign and got busy drawing. It turned out pretty well, I think. 

 

 

I worked on editing this week's Novel Intensive submission using the comments from the other members and the leader. Then I cut and pasted Week 4's submission and got that sent out. Tonight I had a Marketing Zoom with some writing friends and I'm happy to say that I did not get kicked off and didn't even get a "your internet connection is unstable" warning. Yay! Tomorrow I have a 2-hour writing Zoom and a 3-hour knitting Zoom. That will be the real test.

--Barbara