Better Water

It felt wrong not to paint today, so I did. I taped the edges of a piece of paper and tried my hand at the last painting KA asked us to paint on Friday. The one with reflections of buildings in water that I was terrible at. It turned out better than I thought. This water is way better than the water I tried to paint the week before my watercolor class at The Clearing.

 

I went over to Michaels to spend my expiring voucher on inexpensive frames for some of last week's paintings. I forgot to measure my best painting so I need to go back another day but for now I've got three to hang tomorrow. For some reason these skinny, leftover strips that I painted please the daylights outta me so they get framed and hung, along with one of the 5x7 ones of a cabin with poppies in front of it.

 

When I went out for a walk this afternoon I noticed that one of Dad's rosebuds is opening. It was pretty windy so I'm surprised that it's in focus. I convinced myself that I'd turned a corner and was better at walking after all of the walking I did last week. Nope. Still huffing and puffing with achy legs, but I'm determined to keep going so that I will be better when I go back to TC in October for the Women's Writing Retreat.

 

Coming back from Michaels, I saw that the poppies have bloomed. When I went over with the camera, two of the flowers were past their prime with shriveled petals but two were just opening.

 

And the Stella d'Oro lilies are starting to bloom. There are about eight open on one plant and a couple of other plants have one or two. Still no long row of yellow flowers but hopefully that'll happen soon.

 

The squirrel spent some time in the square green feeder at lunchtime today. It leaps from the suet cakes crook to the Oriole feeder, skips the jelly, and launches itself at the feeder. It catches a perch and scrambles up under the lid and in. 

 

Then at nearly sunset the baby bunny eased out from behind the birdbath pedestal for a nibble at the grass on the edge of the lawn. It kind of stretched out like it was trying to stay behind the pedestal and still reach something to eat. There's a lot of clover blooming right now so it should have plenty to eat. 

 

Oh, I didn't show you last night but when I looked across the painting classroom the other day I saw the copy of Horizon that LW bought from me. It's so much fun to see one of my books in the wild. She's going to read it and then, if she likes it, suggest to her book club that they invite me for an author visit. Wouldn't that be cool? She lives a couple hours from here so I'd have to find a place to stay overnight but I could do that easy.

 

It was cooler and windy today which made walking fun. The wind seemed to come from all directions, in my face going and coming. The 18-month-old little guy next door has finally decided that I'm not a threat. He even took my finger when we walked to take pictures of the poppies. His big sister, 4 years old, wanted to know why I had my camera and I told her about the flowers on the side of the house. She wanted to come along so the little guy had to come too. Mama came along to make sure they didn't get in my way and to guide them back to their side of the yard when the time came to go in. They call me Miss Barbara. Kinda makes me feel old, but then I am old. *sigh*

--Barbara