Not As Hot...

 ... but rainy. The morning was dry but clouded up pretty quickly and the afternoon and evening was off and on rain. Naturally OJ had a soccer game and his loyal fans were seated on the sidelines, umbrellas in hand. We all got pretty wet, not as wet as OJ, but wet enough to be chilled on the drive home. I caught a picture of the male Oriole in the rain. He was not happy but didn't let being wet deter him from snacking on the grape jelly. He'd hop up to the top of the crook, shake off the water and fluff his feathers, then go back to the jelly dish.

Before it started raining I went out and filled all the feeders. It didn't take long for the Sparrows to discover the fresh suet pellets and suet cakes. They wasted no time landing on the feeder and pecking away.

I also took a picture of the line of blooming Stella d'Oro lilies along the retaining wall. I wish the woman that owns the place would get out there and weed but she doesn't seem to be able to make herself go out there in the heat and the rain. Maybe if it was in the low 70s she'd be more inclined.

Oh, I'm really happy with today's watercolor. I took my time and drew and painted slowly, letting the paint dry between steps just like the directions said to do, and I really like the way it all turned out. I like the branch (stick). I like the feeder. I like the bird. And best of all this Bluebird looks like a North American Bluebird. Finally, a bird I recognize.

I gave myself the day off from working on the manuscript. My brain feels mushy and I can't think of what to write next so I took the day off. I even put the day off on my Gratitude Journal page. Along with the wet soccer game and a couple other things.

I have to say that I kind of enjoyed sitting on the side of the soccer field in the rain. LC sat next to me and her umbrella dripped rain all down my side through the game. Fortunately it wasn't a particularly cold rain so I didn't get chilled until I got into the car and the a/c came on. I turned it off when I started shivering. At one point it started raining on the other side of the field long enough before it started raining on us that we could hear the rain but not feel it. Very interesting. Naturally the players were soaked but they played on. 

--Barbara

It Was So Hot Today...

... that a squirrel melted. I know, I crack myself up but when I glanced out at the patio and saw the squirrel lying flat out like that all I could think was that it had melted. It was a real scorcher today--90 degrees with a feels like temperature of 97. Needless to say, I didn't go out much.

I spent most of the day rereading my new manuscript and trying to figure out where to put new parts with Rose and Iggy into the mix. I wasn't very inspired today. I blame the heat (even though I was inside in the air conditioning). That's my excuse anyway. At least I read through the whole thing and did a little rearranging and a little bit of new writing. A very little bit.

Another day, another watercolor of a European bird that looks nothing like its North American counterpart. This one is supposed to be a Goldfinch but my Goldfinches are all bright yellow with black caps and no red face. I like this one and I like the way the nest turned out, it's just not what I expected.

The Stella d'Oro lilies are loving this weather. They're busting out the blooms like crazy. Look at all of the flowers on this one plant and there are about five plants blooming the same way.

The female Oriole visited the jelly a couple times today that I saw. She dipped her beak in a few times and came up with a bit of the jelly stuck on it. She tried to wipe it off on the side of the dish but had no luck so she flew off. Maybe some lucky nestling got a taste of jelly.

I had to stop and think about what to put on the Gratitude Journal page today. It felt at first like I didn't have much to be grateful for, at least, not things that I could draw. But I managed to dredge up a quartet of things that made it on to the page. I'm listening to Kristen Hannah's The Women on audiobook and it's keeping me up late at night because I don't want to turn it off.

The air conditioner tech came today to do the annual tune-ups on the a/c in my side and the rental side. He reminded me that the unit on the rental side is 21 years old, very old for an a/c unit, so it will probably need to be replaced soon. It's always something.

--Barbara

I Caught Her

Yesterday I missed getting a picture of an Oriole on the Hummingbird feeder but not today. Today this little female House Finch spent minutes clinging on to the feeder and dipping her head down to sip nectar. I thought for a minute that she was going to hop right over to the jelly for dessert but she wiped off her beak on the crook and flew away.

This male Oriole was doing his own version of Parkour on the feeders and the crooks today. He landed on the jelly dish for a snack and then flew to one crook after the other and finally came back to the jelly for a last bite before flying off.

And for the first time in weeks a Downy Woodpecker showed up on the suet cakes. It's a good thing he came in the morning because by suppertime the suet cake was no more. The Sparrows just devoured it. There's fallen bits of it on the ground below the feeder like orange dust. I don't know what will eat that but I bet it'll be gone soon too. This is a different suet cake from the one I usually get and the birds are just mad about it. The rate that they're eating it makes me want to stop buying it. I know that sounds mean but, jeez guys, have some restraint.

Today's watercolor out of Ink & Wash is listed as a Robin. It's definitely a Danish Robin because it looks nothing like a North American Robin. Don't get me wrong, I like this bird and this painting but it's not a Robin that I recognize. And my painting looks very little like the one in the book. Oh, the shape's the same but I got the wing, tail, and belly colors wrong. According to the book anyway.

I went out to take this picture of Dad's roses in the blasting heat and humidity of the afternoon because I looked out the window and saw this little bouquet of roses on the same cane.

On the way back into the house I glanced over and saw that the reddish and yellow day lily is blooming too. I have tried and tried to paint this day lily with less than acceptable success. Maybe I'll try again.

I made rhubarb sauce again today. I really love it on my breakfast yogurt with a little granola sprinkled on top of it. I finally realized why such pretty stalks produce such odd looking sauce in a strange golden brown color--red and green paint mixed together makes brown--so red and green rhubarb cooked together makes brown too. It's so yummy. I've just about decimated the plants this summer. I read somewhere that if you pull the stalks rather than cut them off they'll grow back so I tried that today. Maybe the plant will bounce back. I don't think I can kill it unless I dig it up so I'm not really worried, I just want it to keep growing so I can keep making sauce.

 

It was raining so hard when I drove across town to see if OJ's soccer game was on that I had the wipers on as fast as they would go. There was thunder and lightning and pouring rain but when I got to the park there were people there and the rain moved off taking the lightning with it so the game went on, only delayed 15 minutes. So the game made it on to my Gratitude Journal page, along with the rhubarb sauce, working on the new manuscript, and taking a luxurious hot shower.

I finished copying and pasting pieces of the new manuscript together this afternoon. I was left wondering why I'd taken the "Rose" parts out in the first place because I just put them back in today. *head, slap* I spent a lot of time making sure that the island name is correct all through the manuscript and changed some of the locations and dive site names to fit the island change. I can see that it's going to take a lot of work to whip this thing into any kind of shape. But I'm up for the challenge!

I called the fridge fixit people today only to learn that the fridge guy is on vacation this week so I get to spend the week mopping up the water that's on the shelves in the fridge and wait until next Monday for the fixer to arrive. The appliance lady said it sounds like the drain hose is plugged and I agreed with her. Hopefully it's an easy fix.

--Barbara

Why You Sneaky LIttle...

I was watching the birds this afternoon and saw something pretty amazing. A male Oriole landed on one of the flower ports of the Hummingbird feeder and leaned down to the one beside it to sip nectar! Evidently it isn't only the Hummingbirds drinking the nectar but also the Orioles. Or at least one of them. I wasn't fast enough to get a picture that time but I managed a snap the next time he visited the jelly.

The most exciting thing that happened today was the delivery of the first, the very first, copy of Open For Business. I wasn't haunting the front porch but I was listening for the delivery van but still I missed it. I checked the tracking and it said it was delivered so I raced to the front door and there it was lying sedately on the doormat waiting for me to pick it up. And here it is, in all its glory. Woohoo!

Since I filled the feeders yesterday afternoon the Sparrows have been working hard to empty the round feeder. I can watch the seed fall as they dig around in the openings looking for whatever they like best. It sure isn't this yellowish white millet seed. That gets tossed on the ground for the Mourning Doves and chipmunks to clean up. They do a good job. In a couple days all of that seed will be gone.

Today's bird from Ink & Wash was a Nuthatch. It doesn't look the same as the Nuthatches around here so it must be the Danish version of a Nuthatch. Even if these birds don't look like the ones in my yard I'm enjoying painting them.

I spent quite a bit of the morning and afternoon reading through the next manuscript, the one from last November's National Novel Writing Month, and copying and pasting sections into a new document. While I was reading I started making the character list for the book. I have a special notebook and pen I got from SND up at The Clearing that's just right. It's a little notebook without lines (I'm a fan of unlined notebooks) and the pen is one of the nicest writing pens I've ever had. I like it even though it writes with blue ink. Making this list is such a godsend when I get into writing a book. I note every character, even the very minor ones, so that I don't forget a name or repeat a name. In fact, this afternoon I found that I put the same man in charge of the snorkeling group and the birdwatchers and that's wrong. I've fixed it. 

When I finished drawing and coloring today's Gratitude Journal I realized that I've pretty much stopped drawing so I pulled out my drawing sketchbook, the pen case, and 20 Ways to Draw a Tree and got busy. I drew the blossom pretty big so I only had room for three more figures on the page but I enjoyed it.

It rained all morning and then the sun came out and it got hot and humid. I didn't go out to take a flower picture so you're getting another one of Dad's roses that I took the other day.

While I was drawing late this afternoon I got a text from one of the St. Agnes Class of '65 lunch people. She said that they were on their way to Zambaldi and did I want to meet them there. Turned out I did want to go meet them. I had a root beer, they had beers, and we had a nice chat for an hour. I got to meet their adult children and admire their 5 grandchildren. It was fun. 

I need to call the appliance fixers tomorrow. My fridge has water on the floor of the freezer, well it's ice, and water on the shelves in the fridge. I wonder if the self-defrosting line is clogged but don't know how to check. Man, I hope that it's an easy fix. I really don't want to have to buy a new refrigerator.

--Barbara

Lots of Orange

There were lots of orange birds around today. The Orioles were here and gone any number of times and I took lots of photos of them. I promise that I'm not going to pile all six pictures of them on here but I will say that the ones I took with my phone are decidedly substandard. I grabbed my phone because both the male and female were here at the same time and the female was even fluttering like she wanted to be fed. Oh, I wonder if that wasn't a nestling asking Dad for something to eat. Maybe. Anyway a Cowbird tried to horn in on the jelly and the female/nestling was very vehement about not letting the Cowbird have any. Bird fight!

Last Christmas LC gave me a little jar that says "World's Best Grandma" on it. She was so proud and excited because she found it at the museum kids Christmas store. When she was here a couple weeks ago she asked if I'd figured out what to put in it and I hadn't, but I did today. It's just the right size to hold my paintbrushes when I'm letting them dry and between uses. I'll have to remember to show her the picture the next time I see her.

And here's what I painted today. A Woodpecker. It's not any variety of Woodpecker I've seen around here but it was fun to draw and paint. The next project is another bird. I'm sensing a theme.

Just as I finished taking Oriole pictures with my phone a real Woodpecker flew over and landed on the edge of the birdbath to take a drink. It was a Woodpecker afternoon, I guess.

Oh, speaking of the birdbath, I gave it a good cleaning today. Man, that thing gets swampy pretty fast. Anyway I also filled all the birdfeeders and before I'd gotten all the way in the house there were birds on them, especially on the suet pellets. The Sparrows have discovered them and they are ravenous. I filled the feeder around 4pm and by 8pm it was half empty. I also put two suet cakes in the feeder on Monday and they were gone by Thursday so I filled that up too. I'm surprised that the feeders are emptying as quickly as they are because my tenants are feeding the birds too so you'd think that would lower the population at my feeders. It has pulled most of the Starlings away for which I am grateful, but there are still plenty of Sparrows, House Finches, and Chickadees dining here.

The new Finch feeder has proved to not be the attraction that the old one is so I dumped the seed from the new one into the old feeder today. I'd have left the seed in the new feeder but it's gotten rained on a few times and I didn't want it to get moldy or spoiled. Yuk.

Today's writing work was making character wheels for some of the main characters in my next manuscript. I realized that I've described them and have no idea what color their eyes and hair is, let alone the things that make them distinctive, like the way they dress and what they like to eat and drink. Having this information all written down will prevent characters' eyes from changing color in the middle of the novel. I also spent an hour or so making Amazon Ads for the new novel. According to the guy that teaches the free Amazon Ads course I've taken a couple times, you're only supposed to advertise the first book in the series but that doesn't make sense to me. Since I haven't advertised The Seaview as the first book in a series until now, it seems smart to advertise Open For Business as a new title in the series.

Just so you don't think I've forgotten all those pictures I took the other day of Dad's roses, here's another picture of one of them. They're so beautiful and I don't really do anything to make them happy. I don't water them, I don't fertilize them, I just let them sit there and be beautiful all on their own. Happily they seem to thrive on my neglect.

And that's it for my day. I went to the birdseed store so that when I fill feeders the next time I'll have plenty of seed on hand. And I didn't even have to drive around the house to carry it in this time. Hooray!

--Barbara

Overachiever

This afternoon I went out to take pictures of the Stella d'Oro lilies that are blooming along the top of the retaining wall. One plant had two flowers, another plant had four flowers, but this one had six flowers and at least that many buds. It's the overachiever working to make the other plants look bad.

The blue star flowers are mostly all open now. I thought that they'd lean together to make a kind of puff or ball of blue stars but they're leaning away from either other so that each star has its own space.

I captured this photo of the female Oriole at the jelly dish with a female House Finch perched on the orange half watching the Oriole eat. I thought it looked like the House Finch was waiting her turn but when the Oriole flew away so did the House Finch. I guess she was hoping for an invitation to join in or something.

 

Tonight at Friday Night Knitting I got through round 12 (out of 45 rounds) on the Monterey Sea Life beanie. I tried it on again and think I'm still doing all right with my yarn tension, not pulling them too tight so that the hat won't fit.

 

Then when I was too tired to face another round on the chart I switched to the Beachy Dishcloth and knitted a few rows on that. I've discovered that I like a smaller dishcloth so I'll be turning around to the decreases in about five or six more rows. And this time I won't forget to knit the three rows even in the middle like I did last time.

Today's bird out of Ink & Wash is a Bullfinch, not a bird that's seen around here. The author of the book lives in Denmark. Denmark Europe, not Denmark, Wisconsin which is just a few miles south of here. This one doesn't have the goofy look on its face like yesterday's Blackbird did but I like it almost as much. And I forgot to page forward to see what tomorrow will bring. It'll be a surprise, but probably another bird.

This morning I buckled down and drew a Gratitude Journal page for yesterday and made sure I had time after supper today before the knitting Zoom to draw one for today. I've taken to drawing peepers in the squares on the Zoom screens. I like peepers, they're easier to draw than real people.

 

Also this morning when I was rolling out my yoga mat I saw an unfamiliar bird hopping around in the grass and realized that it was a Flicker. They're a ground feeding member of the Woodpecker family. They have a red swoop on the back of their head and a black patch on their breast. When they fly away there's a white flash at the base of their tail and that flicker of white is where they get their name. I had the devil of a time getting a halfway decent picture because the camera kept focusing on the birdfeeders and the crooks between me and it, but this one isn't too bad. At least you can kinda see the red patch on its head.

I ordered the first copy of Open For Business this morning almost as soon as I woke up. It should arrive on Sunday. I'm so excited.

 And my plan to offer each of my eBooks for free for five days last month and this month worked great. Better Than Mom's was the big "seller" with a total of 41 books downloaded. Horizon was next with 23.  Island Dreams was third with 11. The Seaview lagged far behind with 3. I know that I've taken potential customers off the board with these promotions but I'm hoping that the people who downloaded them will read them and recommend them to their friends. And maybe they'll read the one they got free and go buy another one. That's my hope anyway. We'll see how that works out.

I've plunged right into working on the third book in The Seaview Series. I had a lovely chat with cda this afternoon about what I've got so far and what I need to put in there. I know I have to add a lot more Rose and Iggy and I'm wondering if I should make scenes with them and without the four other main characters. Don't get your hopes up that this book will come quicker than the previous one, there's a lot of writing and editing to be done. I think I should spend the weekend making character wheels that I can post on the bulletin board by my desk so I don't have to remember details about all these characters. Yeah, that's what I'll do.

--Barbara

Hummingbird Sighted!

This afternoon I got my wish and spotted a female Hummingbird at the nectar feeder and I got two pictures of her. I was so excited I was afraid that my enthusiasm would chase her away but it didn't. I can't get over how tiny she is. Here's one photo. I'm saving the other one for tomorrow night.

And the female Oriole visited the jelly dish a couple times today. She was a little less skittish today. The male stopped too but he didn't stay long enough for a photo op.

I spent the morning getting Open For Business uploaded to Kindle Direct Publishing and managed to fumble through the process and got it published to both eBook and paperback. The eBook is already available but it will take a day or two for the paperback to be available. I confess that I ordered the eBook right away and I'll order the paperback as soon as I can. I want the first copy of each!

Dad's rose is blooming like mad. I took four photos and am in a quandary over which one to share tonight. Maybe the big flower with the buds and opening buds. It's got the most bang for the buck. I'll save the others for the next few nights.

The next lesson in Ink & Wash was a blackbird. I kind of like it. It was easy to paint and it looks like a bird standing on a fence. Just like it's supposed to. It follows the logical progression over the last few days--nest, eggs, bird. Makes sense to me. Next I think there's a whole string of birds to paint. I'm looking forward to it.

I've been avoiding knitting the last couple days so I sat at the table this afternoon and evening to knit four rounds on the Monterey Sea Life beanie. I also tried it on and so far it feels like I'm doing okay not pulling the yarn too tight. I'll hate it if I do all of this work and then the darned hat won't fit.

This afternoon I went to visit the doc. See, I've got these itchy lesions on my hip and bottom and I was afraid I had mites from a new pair of shoes because the first lesions showed up on my feet the first day I wore my new Skechers. The doc thinks it's a reaction to the cream the dermatologist gave me for my face so he's given me steroids but to cover all the bases I have a tube of mite cream. I had to strip the bed and wash the sheets and the shoes just in case it is mites. I don't care which it is, some random lesions from the cream or mites, I just want the itching to stop. It's been so itchy it wakes me up at night. Evidently I can't have anything normal.

--Barbara