I Mostly Wrote Today

Seeing that I only had 47k words last night kind of threw me into a tizzy. Somehow I thought that I had most of a novel first draft down. Turns out I don't. So I spent quite a bit of the day, all of the afternoon and a bunch of the evening writing new scenes to plug in there somewhere. I found a place for one scene, well, extension of a scene, but the other 8 page scene I can't figure out where to put it. I'll figure it out. (she says with more confidence than she feels at the moment)

When I got back from the grocery (I was out of bananas) I had an Amazon package on the front porch. It was a thin little thing but I was glad to see it. It is going to loom large in my life for the next weeks. It's the other Ink & Wash book, the one with flowers. (yes, I gave in to temptation and ordered it last night) Paging through it I'm already a little intimidated but I'll jump in in a few days and see what happens.

Also when I got back from the store I saw that Dad's roses are still blooming so I had to go out and take their picture. They're at the end of life and don't smell as strong as they did before but they're still awfully pretty.

This little Goldfinch stopped by to check out the Finch feeder this afternoon and I was lucky enough to snap a picture. I think it's one of this year's crop of new birdies because it's not as pale as a female but not as vivid as a male.

Today's insect is a Bumblebee. There was no drawing of the bumblebee just painting and I think that there's something wrong with the head. It looks to me like an Elephant Man headed bee. Just saying. I do like the way the daisy turned out. I added a little yellow to the edge of the center just to brighten it up a bit.

Under Dad's rosebush the purple mums are opening up more flowers. It's time to go out with my snips and cut them down by half so that they re-bloom in the fall when they're supposed to, not in summer. Silly flowers.

I was carrying the big carton of yogurt from the fridge to where I was going to assemble my breakfast this morning when it dropped. I must have been holding the lid and it came off. The carton hit the floor and a big bunch of yogurt splurted out on the floor and my Croc. When I picked the carton up I realized that the bottom edge had split and there was no way to fix it so I dug around in the recycling and found the carton that I'd put in there a few days ago and slipped it over the broken one. That should work, right? I also planned to make another batch of rhubarb sauce today but got consumed by writing and missed my chance. Maybe tomorrow.

--Barbara

Only Stuff That Held Still

I tried. I really tried to take pictures of stuff that moves but all of it moved faster than my camera skills so the only pictures I have are of things that held still. No picture of the Goldfinch. No picture of the Bluejay. No picture of the Cardinal. No picture of the Red-tailed Hawk that landed in the yard and flew away with what I think was a chipmunk in its talons. And no visit from the Whistlepig.

The orange day lily below the kitchen window is still blooming and still forcing its way between fern fronds. I'm a fan of the orange against that yellowy green.

I noticed that the rose pink lily up on the retaining wall burst forth in blooms today. I don't like pink very much but I have to admit that this is a very pretty lily.

And as I walked up to take its picture I noticed that something had dug a little hole in the lawn near it. When I looked closer something moved in the hole. It's a bunny nest! Filled with at least three baby bunnies! They're almost impossible to see but, trust me, they're in there.

Along the retaining wall from the rose pink lilies is the clump of Stella d'Oro lilies that continues to bloom like crazy.

On the west side of the house the peach lilies are still blooming and
there are a bunch of buds yet to open. I like the dark center of this lily. Very pretty. I'm sure I planted it but wonder what possessed me to pick that color.

The insect from Ink & Wash today was a Ladybug on a dandelion. I like it. I like it a lot. Only two more insects to go and the book will be finished. I'm tempted to go on Amazon to order her first book which is the same idea only in the garden. Maybe I'll look at it when I'm done here.

I spent most of the afternoon and early evening going through the new manuscript, moving things around so that they're in a more logical order and doing a little writing. When I was done I checked the word count--47k. A novel should have about 80k words. I have a ways to go and I'm stuck for ideas. Maybe I'll try programming my dreams. Durwood used to tell me to do that when I couldn't think of what to write. Mostly my dreams are scattered and make very little sense but I guess I could give it a try.

--Barbara

Much Closer, Less Blurry

This afternoon the whistlepig decided to investigate the fallen birdseed so it lumbered down the lawn and posed for pictures. I don't know if it's good or bad that it discovered the birdseed. Do I really want a woodchuck hanging around? What kind of mischief can they get into? I guess time will tell.

Birds showed up today. First a Goldfinch landed on the round feeder. He was so bright and held still long enough to have a picture taken.

 

Then a Downy Woodpecker juvenile (you can tell by the tiny patch of red on top of its head) landed on the suet pellets, drove off the Sparrows that were clustered around on it, and had a nice snack. It even moved around to the side so I could take its picture without the Oriole feeder finial-thingy in the way.

But one of the squirrels discovered the suet cakes and relearned how to hang on the feeder and nibble on the goodies. It stayed for quite a good length of time before dropping to the ground and scampering away.

At Friday Night Knitting I persevered on the Monterey Sea Life Hat until time to cut the green kelp yarn and add in the silver herring yarn. There are a lot of long segments where the blue stitches aren't broken up by the silver so I have to catch the silver yarn so that the piece on the inside of the hat (called a float) isn't too long. It's a pain and I'm rather sorry that I embarked on this project. I swear that I will not knit another two-color project ever again, cross my heart.

After two hours of hat I'd had enough so I put that away and knitted a few rows of the Beachy Warshrag. I can't finish it because I've got another knitting evening on Monday and will need a fallback project then too.

Today's insect in Ink & Wash was a Beetle. I didn't make the body round enough but I like the way the color turned out. The dirt's okay too. Just a few more bugs to go before the book is finished. Then what will I paint?

My audiobook producer sent me the corrections for The Seaview this morning and I spent some time listening in the afternoon. There were only two that I had to send back to her, she redid them, and I approved the production just before I came on here. Now it's in ACX's hands. They'll do a review before giving their approval which takes about 10 days, then it'll be available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Now I just have to figure out how to get people to buy copies.

--Barbara

aka Whistlepig

I looked up woodchucks and found that they're groundhogs, relatives of squirrels, a variety of marmot, and in some places called whistlepigs. Isn't that a cool name? I don't even know if they whistle but I'll bet they do or make some similar sound. I thought our woodchuck had moved on but just now I saw the weeds waving around and caught the (blurry) little creature eating away back there. All of a sudden there was a loud boom, like a shot, and the woodchuck took off down the retaining wall at a dead run. It stopped to listen a time or two and then kept going.

Another way tinier creature was in the backyard this evening too. It was the tiniest baby bunny I've seen maybe ever. It would have fit into a teacup. It was hippity-hopping along behind a bigger bunny (Mom?) but every time it got close she would scamper off. Maybe they're weaning. It hopped over to see what a squirrel was doing under the round feeder in the spilled seed and the squirrel whacked it and sent it sprawling. The baby bunny righted itself, shook its ears, and went back to nibbling on grass blades.

I was glad to see a Nuthatch swoop over to the round feeder this morning in search of a nut. There are peanuts and sunflower nuts in the seed mix in that feeder so it didn't have to dig long to come up with something to fly away with.

These two House Finches were standing on the edge of the birdbath when the one on the left leaned its head and breast into the water and started flailing around taking half of a bath. I think the other one is looking at it like it can't figure out what the bathing one is doing.

Today's bug in Ink & Wash was a Grasshopper. I think it turned out pretty well. I'm not sure about the rock it's standing on but I think the bug looks like a grasshopper.

And I did a Gratitude Journal page this evening too. I checked online as soon as I woke up to see if The Seaview was approved so I could make the few other changes I'd found after I uploaded it last night. Thank heavens it's easy to do. I can't be the only person who finds errors and goes back to fix them. Anyway I fixed it and it's now as error free as I can make it. I think.

I was invited out to Shawano to DS's in-laws house for lunch and an afternoon of swimming, water balloon fights, and eating too much. I didn't swim or take part in the fights, I watched those, but it was fun to spend the day with people I like. My brownies were a big hit, the Banana Split Snack Cake not so much. Only DS and I had a piece which means I have plenty cake to take to knitting on Monday evening as my contribution to too much food. I don't usually bring the dessert but this time I'm ready.

--Barbara

How Much Wood

Would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? I do not know, but the woodchuck (aka groundhog) that moseyed down the retaining wall this afternoon was munching on Stella d'Oro buds and some tall weeds. My pictures aren't particularly clear but you can see how big it is. (It's about the size of three or four squirrels.) I looked it up and it's a sort of enormous squirrel or marmot. I find myself wondering where it came from and where it was going.

More Dad's roses. They're so pretty and they smell so good. I can't get enough of them.

I went out after supper to clean out the birdbath and fill the feeders. The first visitor was this male House Finch that came to have a few snacks of grape jelly and then, after wiping his beak off on the crook, hopped over to the platform feeder and had something else.

 

And this chipmunk was on cleanup duty. I spilled a little seed and it diligently worked to clean it up. A squirrel tried to investigate and the chippie lunged at the much bigger animal and drove it off. Way to go, little guy!

But before all that, this morning I was busy baking. First, before I even got dressed, I stirred up a batch of Hershey's "The Best" Brownies. I don't know if they're truly the best but that's the recipe name so I'm going with it.

Once the brownies were done (and I was dressed) I mixed up a Banana Split Snack Cake which made the house smell so good it was all I could do not to cut in to the thing on the spot. But I didn't. I'm providing the dessert for tomorrow's July 4th cookout in Shawano and it's bad form to bring a dessert with some of it already eaten. Now if I was going to cut things and put them on a plate to take along I could maybe have some but not when they're still in the baking dish. Nope, no can do.

I sat myself down and drew a Gratitude Journal page this afternoon. I confess that I didn't paint today so I put yesterday's painting on today's page.

Instead of painting I came back here and listened to the last eight chapters of The Seaview, then I typed up the list of corrections so that I could send it off to the producer. She did such a terrific job, most of the corrections are mispronunciations, and there are a few of my typos and story corrections that I'm having her make too. I'm definitely going to upload a new manuscript to KDP since I like the version she voiced better than the printed one. The chapter separations make more sense and there are a few additions that I have no idea how they didn't get into the first printing. I'm happy that I can fix that.

The most frustrating part of my day was realizing that I didn't have enough all-purpose flour to make the two desserts. I was about a half-cup short. I wasn't worried because there was a partial bag of flour in the pantry cupboard, except when I looked at it it was bread flour. Then there was the small unopened bag of flour downstairs, which turned out to be self-rising flour. Grr. So I hopped in the car and tootled over to the grocery for a bag of all-purpose flour. I had flour on the grocery list for a month but thought, oh I've got that partial bag in the cupboard, and never bought it. Wrong. Now I have plenty and it'll be months and months before I need to bake something again. Oh well, it won't go bad. I don't know that I couldn't have used a little bit of either of the flours I had on hand but I wasn't willing to risk it. The grocery isn't much more than a mile away, I had to pick of a prescription anyway, and I ran into a mom of kids my kids went to grade school with so it was worth the trip.

--Barbara

It's a Real Downpour Out There

It drizzled a bit this morning and throughout the day. By late afternoon the drizzle had stopped and the street started to dry. But then when I drove to the GB Writer's Guild meeting it was spitting rain again. During the meeting it rained off and on. (I know because I could see out the window.) Just as the meeting broke up and we were leaving the skies opened up and it was a downpour. There was no getting to the car without getting wet. Luckily I could shelter under the eaves of the restaurant until I got to my car. That last six feet was really wet. It was a little too dark to take a rainy birdbath photo but I wanted you to see the crazy rain.

I saw the male Oriole this morning. He wasn't on the jelly, he was just posing on the crook but I managed to snap a couple shots before he took off.

The insect of the day from Ink & Wash was a Dragonfly. Mine isn't as flamboyant as the one in the book. She said to spatter clear water over it before it dried and I did that but evidently not enough because my paint didn't spread out past the outlines like hers did. I kind of like it. The leaf looks weird but hers looks weird too.

Most of the day I spent listening to The Seaview audio chapters. I have nine more chapters to listen to and I'm thinking of issuing a second edition of the novel because the manuscript I sent her is different from the one in the book and I like the audio one better. I'll have to look on the KDP website to see how I do that.

I showed off Open For Business at the GB Writer's Guild meeting tonight--and sold one copy and got inquiries about buying some of the 2-book series next month. You'd better bet that I hurried to make sure I have extra copies of both books in The Seaview Series in my car box when I got home.

--Barbara

Fancy and Not So Fancy

I haven't seen many birds lately, mostly because I haven't spent a lot of time at the table looking out the patio door. And most of the feeders are empty. Today I got lucky. First I saw this female or juvenile House Finch pecking away at the dried up jelly stuck to the bottom of the dish. Not so fancy.

Then I went out to put a fresh orange half and more jelly in the dish and look who came. A male Oriole. I purely love seeing them. This is the first summer that they've kept coming back after a first few springtime visits. Fancy.

Today from Ink & Wash we have a Common Buckeye Butterfly (that looks like a moth) perched on a dandelion (that doesn't look like a dandelion because she told me to use sienna instead of yellow paint). I was sorely tempted to ignore her direction to use sienna for the dandelion but I caved in to pressure and followed directions. One of these days I'll be brave enough to follow my instinct.

Oh, Dad's roses are loving all of the rain and sunshine we've been having. Look at them! They're just exploding out in bouquets of fragrant, velvety red roses. The aroma while I was taking the pictures was intoxicating.

And the lilies on the side of the house that I thought were going to be yellow are actually peach. They look pretty bedraggled, don't they? But they're an interesting color.

I remembered to sit down and draw a Gratitude Journal page today. I mowed the lawn. I didn't want to, I really didn't, but I knew if I mowed it when it wasn't quite so high it'd be easier on the mower. And it was but I confess I kind of resented every step of the half mile of back and forth-ing. Funny how I was happy to mow the last time thinking about how hard it was to do last summer and how much I wasn't happy to mow today.

Today was the July St. Agnes Class of '65 lunch. I had a BLT that was just so-so. Overcooked bacon, mealy tomato slices, and too thick Texas toast. I won't be ordering that again. Oh, I ate it but like I said it was just so-so. The tater tots were outstanding, though, which kind of made up for the mediocre sandwich. Maybe I'll have a wrap next month.

Even though I made time last week to write the July Writing Progress Email I neglected to upload it to my mailing service until about 10am today. Sheesh, way to screw up the last step, Barbara. 

I didn't listen to any Seaview chapters today. What with lunch and mowing and watercolor painting and showering I just didn't have time. I'll do better tomorrow.

--Barbara