A Yellow Surprise

I looked out the patio door this morning when I opened the drapes and was surprised to see a yellow flower up on the retaining wall. What was it? I grabbed the camera and went to investigate (once I was dressed, that is). It was a Stella d'Oro lily! One of those hasn't bloomed in at least a month and most of the leaves of the plants are yellowing and dying back. But today there was one brave lily blooming out. Hooray!

 

Next to the lily was the pink sedum and bees! It wasn't very sunny but there were bees swarming all over the flowers. I took a few pictures and a couple of them turned out. When I was back inside, I glanced back up at the sedum and there was a Monarch Butterfly on it. I tried to sneak out there to take its picture, but almost as soon as I opened the patio door, it fluttered off over the fence and away. Darn. 

 

Last week there was a piece in the NY Times "The Good List" about the Sunday Letter Writing Project that intrigued me so I went over to Substack and signed up. I signed up for the free posts, not sure I want to pledge before knowing if I'll stick with it. According to what I read, you can sign up in a cafe and get a pen pal, but I don't know if there are any cafes around Green Bay taking part, so I just found some stationery (of course I have fish stationery) and a pen and started. There's a weekly prompt. This week's was: Write about your favorite tree. Oh geez, that was a tough one. I don't really have a relationship with a particular tree, then I thought about my family tree and I do have a relationship with that tree. So I wrote to someone on that tree. I may choose another branch next Sunday, depending on what that prompt is. I enjoyed it. You know I love writing and I love writing to people (like I'm writing to you every night, Aunt B) so don't be surprised if one of these weeks you get a letter.

 

The gratitude journal page for yesterday was easy to draw because I had LC with me and I was grateful for the whole day.

 

Today's drawing prompt was Owl. She drew four different owls, so I did too. I think each of them looks perfectly owly, don't you?

 

While LC read yesterday, I sat on the other end of the loveseat and knitted on the Regia Summer Sock cuff. I got discouraged because I keep hoping that the color will show up. I guess I have to keep knitting. It'll show up eventually.

 

I'm still working my way through the comments in the Manuscript Analysis of Three Cheers for Murder. I think I made a lot of progress today. One of the suggestions made so much sense, I was embarrassed not to have thought of it myself, but I hurried to rectify the lack and hope the story is better for the additions. Every time I add a scene, I add it to the timeline (shown here) and sometimes I even have to shift the chapter numbers because I've added a chapter's worth of stuff. I'm really enjoying this.

 

Dad's rose is flinging blossoms out every which way. They're so beautiful and they smell so good. I can't resist showing you one every chance I get.

 

 --Barbara