I am happy to report that the fledgling remained safe through the night. It had disappeared sometime in the evening and I was worried that a cat had gotten it. Bella had been inside, so I knew it wasn’t her. But this morning, I heard the familiar cheeps outside and went to look. I found it up in the red maple tree outside my office, which is why I heard it so clearly. There were two male robins and possibly one female (she was too quick and wasn’t facing me, so I could quite tell if it was actually a robin or not) that landed in my yard today while the fledgling was up in the tree. I know there were two males because I saw both of them at that same time. So, I figured the fledgling was well taken care of.

When I went to look a bit later, it was gone and I haven’t heard it all day so I’m really hoping it achieved full flight.

I did, however, catch a squirrel in my garden. I couldn’t quite be sure, but I suspect it was the one I call the “teen mom.” This squirrel got confused by the fence I have up at the end, but I think it ended up going under it. I call the squirrel the “teen mom” because when I first saw her, she was so tiny that I thought she was a baby. I’d taken Merlin out and he spotted her. She ran up the tree and cowered on a branch. I was telling Merlin to be nice to the baby squirrel and not scare it, when I noticed that the little squirrel above me was definitely nursing it’s own young ones.

I finished this week ahead on my page goal. I’m tempted to put those pages as float pages for another time when I might not make it to my goal (like I do with my painting). Another option I’ve been considering is just an arrow on the board, up for “hit goal last week,” and down arrow for “didn’t hit goal last week.” I might try both for this upcoming week just to see what I think, especially knowing it’ll be different.

I’m starting to get a little nervous about next week. Here it is. I’m starting a new job with the firm that my previous firm merged with. So, it’ll be some people I already know and some I don’t. I will get to work remotely which I think will be really good for me. It’s going to tighten up my schedule and I’ll have to be really focused once again. But I’m used to having my days to myself, so it’s going to be different. A good different. Plus, I like working in solitude, so it will be good. I can stay focused. I’m glad I had a year off to relax and get my mind back in order. So I’m going to walk back toward this very slowly. My goal is to keep up my daily blogging habit and my Patreon. (Hint: if you want to see more work from me, please support me on Patreon or buy my books and tell all your friends – thank you to those of you who already do. Otherwise I have to sell my time elsewhere. Way of the world, that is.) I will stick to my page count goal, and I will add in narration and painting. I hope I’ve come up with a solid plan to do it all. I’ve done it before and with fewer free hours than I have now. But as I’ve learned over this last year, the most important thing for me is consistency. Hopefully those systems are now in place and won’t take too much massaging for me to continue.

Tomorrow is lining up to be a busy day. I have a few more things to finish up before I get pushed out of the next. I’m almost there though.

Here’s to flying!