They Wouldn't Pose

Those pesky woodpeckers, the Hairy especially, were singularly averse to posing for pictures today.  I bet I saw the Hairy Woodpecker half a dozen times but as soon as I had the camera ready she would fly away.  I did manage to capture a picture of a Downy Woodpecker which I will share.

The Gray Catbird came for his daily bath.  He's so elegant and persnickety when he bathes.  He dips, looks around, dips again, then flutters his feathers with none of the abandon that a Robin has.

Three Sparrows stopped for a communal bath too.  The bathing birds were the only ones that held still-ish long enough for pictures.  I watched a Wren build a second nest in another birdhouse.  He sang as he worked but, again, didn't hold still.

I found some more Dress no. 1s to toss today.  I'm down to two of them that I think I'll keep

The daily prompt asked for a novel synopsis where a great secret is revealed.  I made a married couple, one of them happy, the other unhappy, and meant to give them a secret but couldn't think of one.  Ah well, I tried.  (I should have made one a spy. Now I think of it.)

It was a gray and dreary day today with intermittent rain showers that were just enough to be annoying.  Blah.

--Barbara

I Read A Book

That's what I did today, I read a book from cover to cover.  I didn't mean to read a book all day but I got into it and was surprised to be caught up in the story.  The book is by a woman from whom I took a writing class at The Clearing years ago and I didn't want to like it because her class wasn't the greatest, but it ended up capturing my interest and I didn't put it down.

Today was a bird day too.  First a Goldfinch came to the crook and posed with one wing up.  I took the picture through the screen which explains why the picture is a little murky.

Then a Hairy Woodpecker came to the suet pellets first and then to my neighbor's suet feeder.  Hairy Woodpeckers are about half again as big as Downy Woodpeckers and their beak is longer and pointier.  Hairys don't come visit as often so it was fun to see her at the feeders.

And finally I caught a glimpse of a Hummingbird this afternoon.  Of course it perched on the side of the feeder where I could barely see it but I managed to get a little of it in the frame.

 

Today's toss was six pairs of ankle socks that have the terrible habit of falling down and ooching under my foot when I wear them.  Not comfortable at all.

The prompt today said that you're late for an important meeting when you see someone in distress and no one else notices.  Do you drop everything to help or do you go on to your meeting?  Ooh, that was a hard one.  I'd probably help, at least I hope that I would.  I'm already late so what's another bit of time?

--Barbara

Rose Bouquet

Today we have all the roses blooming.  The sun was blazing and the wind was hot and it got up to 90 again.  If I was these roses I'd give up and droop but there they were blooming away and perfuming the air as I watered the plants.

 

This little rosebud was all by itself looking perfect.

And the reddish day lily is going strong.  There are lots of flowers and it seems a shame that they only bloom for one day before dying.

 

The Downy Woodpecker came to snack on the suet a few times today and I managed to snap its picture on one visit.  It spent some time on the platform feeder edge looking confused too but finally managed to make its way to the suet.  It looked more comfortable there.

I finished the ribbing brim of the Chocolate Snow Day hat at Friday Night Knitting and made my way into the body of the hat.  I'm glad that I ripped out the earlier attempt at this hat and went with the smaller size.  I still think that it'll fit me so it'll fit a grown up sailor.

Today's toss was a pair of black linen Pants no. 1.  I thought that they might be okay to wear but I put them on, over my capris, and they were still too big.  Good thing I ordered a couple more pairs of capris from Walmart today, my supply of summer pants is shrinking rapidly.

The prompt today was to write a sonnet with the first letter of each line in alphabetical order.  No.  I remember the rhyme scheme for a sonnet ( ABAB CDCD EFEF GG) but there was no way I was writing a sonnet much less one with the letters in order.  Nope, not doing it.  So I skipped to the next one which said to write the first scene of a play with the first line, "An onion has many layers."  It's easy to write a play scene because you can just write a conversation, just the lines with a few stage directions.  So that's what I did.

I did the laundry today because of my pants shortage and it's too blamed hot to wear long jeans.  Tomorrow I get to fold.  Yippee.

--Barbara

Impression

I was watering the pots this morning and noticed the fading peonies and this one looked like an Impressionist painting to me.  Maybe with a Dali-esque melting flower aspect.  Maybe I needed more coffee.

I watered the geraniums and redistributed the soil that the chipmunk had dug around in.  I don't know what it's burying there but I'm sure something like safflower seeds will sprout soon enough.

 

There was this puff of rabbit fur under the feeders this morning.  I don't think it was a hawk, maybe an owl tried a grab in the night.  There's no blood or other parts so I'm assuming that it was an unsuccessful grab.

 

The last art assignment was called Shadow Portrait.  We were supposed to bend hanger wire into a profile of ourselves and embellish it as we wished.  Um, hanger wire is very hard to bend so I used this thin wire that I had in a drawer and it wasn't too easy to shape and bend either.  It's about as thin as twist tie wire so the profiles I made were small, as small as the palm of my hand.  I couldn't figure out how to embellish them until I ran across a box of beads downstairs so I strung a few beads on the wires and called it finished.  Neither of these looks remotely like me (I hope) but it was an interesting and fun challenge.

Today instead of tossing something I took the latest tosses to Goodwill.

The prompt today said to list ten things that are green.  Peas, green beans, a chameleon, paper money, one pair of my glasses, a bell pepper, a four-leaf clover, a lawn (not mine right now, it's brown and crunchy, we need rain), leaves, jade.  There, that wasn't so hard.

--Barbara

Like A Bouquet

All of the Stella d'Oro lilies are blooming up a storm.  I went out to take a picture and one of them looked like a bouquet so that's the one I chose.

 

I went to Zambaldi this morning and look what I saw.  The tap handle for Charlie Gerst Pilsner with his face on there. Charlie was my great-grandpa and a home brewer. It never occurred to me that if that picture is from 1927 then he was brewing during Prohibition.  DS said that last night was its first night on tap and it was the biggest seller during the Trivia night.

DS was starting a brew day when I got there so I got to go up on the brewing platform to watch the ground grains go into the mash tun with the water.  Here he's checking the rate the water is going into the big vat.

 

 

I restarted the Chocolate Snow Day Hat this afternoon and knitted on the brim ribbing while listening to my audiobook.  I love audiobooks, they keep me company when I'm driving and while I'll knitting too.

Today's toss was another pair of Pants no. 1 and the matching Tunic no. 1.  I can still wear both but they're too big and baggy and don't look good anymore.  Someone else will like them.

The prompt today asked who you'd like to be stuck on a subway train with.  I picked Durwood.  Predictable, I know, but he's the person I'd most like to talk to lately.

I had a haircut appointment today and arrived to find my stylist had taken a fall and broken her heel so she's in one of those rolling kneeling things which  meant that she cut my hair in her kitchen because the salon is three steps down.  She had a barstool to sit on and I had a shorter one.  She couldn't wash my hair but I'd washed it yesterday so that wasn't a deal breaker.  I still got a good haircut and that's what counts.

--Barbara

Close Up

 I decided to get close to the flowers blooming in the backyard this morning.  My first frame was the Spiderwort.  These flowers are open in the cool of the morning and close by midday.  The bees love them.

 

 

A lot of Stella d'Oro lilies are opening lately.  Some plants have six or eight flowers on them.  I don't see bees on these.

The Russian Sage is still blooming.  I don't know how long these spikes of flowers last but it's been a couple weeks and they're still going strong.  I saw a fly or type of bee with an iridescent green head on one stalk today.  Naturally it didn't show up in the picture.

On the side of the house, the Day Lily is blooming like mad.  I swear the flowers used to be more orange, now they're more reddish like the ones in front.  Maybe they're mutating?  Cross-pollinating?

And one bird.  This Goldfinch came to visit just long enough to get his picture taken.  My neighbor has a very Goldfinch-attracting seed mix so I get the pause before they land on the feeder over there.

Today's toss was a pair of Pants no. 1 that I made last year.  I could still wear them but they're so baggy I don't like the way I look in them.

The prompt today said to take a poem and change all of the adjectives to the exact opposite.  I found a short poem by a poet I like and, man, did that change the tone of the poem.  It went from a gray day to a sunny day and an old man to a young one.  Completely different feel.  Interesting.  Finally, a semi-normal prompt.

--Barbara

Meemaw-ing

I spent my day meemaw-ing with OJ.  This was his first Meemaw day in about 6 weeks and he was very excited.  We played with Legos and then went to the zoo.  After that he played with the play food and toy animals, actually he said that he wanted to play with everything.  And he did.  We capped off the day with a short jaunt to the Titletown playground.  It was a fun but exhausting day.  People who are 5 have lots of energy.

We enjoyed watching the birds while we ate lunch.  OJ was lucky enough to spot a Hummingbird at the feeder and he liked seeing the Catbird take a bath.  He's very concerned that birds drink and bathe in the same water.  I assured him that I clean out the birdbath every couple days.

Dad's roses are putting on their early season show.  I am so tempted to go out, cut them, and bring them in to enjoy in a vase but they don't last nearly as long so I leave them and go out to sniff them.  I'm sure the neighbors think I've lost it when I go out a few times a day to smell the roses.

This little chipmunk entertained us at lunch too.  He (or she) scampered around on the birdseed cans, jumped to the Adirondack chair, and up onto the birdhouse roof.  He can jump up onto the birdbath in one leap from the ground.  He just stands there looking up and then, boop, there he is on the rim getting a drink.  Amazing.

Due to my day-long guest I didn't toss anything and I didn't write any prompts.  I could have done that after I dropped him off but I just didn't have the oomph.  Tomorrow.

--Barbara