Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. USA Facts: Why does daylight saving time exist? Lesson below started at 5 pm and was losing light at the end. By the time this is posted, 4 pm lessons will lose light at the end. Survey of the Internet says permanent DST unlikely. What about permanent Standard Time? I’m good with either as long as we can stop swapping. Animals agree. They do not like feed times moving about.

~~~

Goldy
Golden Evening Light
Rosewood Stables
21 October 2026

This week, I was the second one to ride, which is just as weird as being the first one to ride. At an ASB show, when I’m sharing a horse I usually go first, since the Academy section starts off with the Adult classes. [Goldy Sparkles, first to ride]

We still went for a walk to start. While Goldy didn’t need to loosen up after his lesson, I still did and I thought a stroll might be a nice break for him.

Still getting help from running through the checklist from a previous lesson: heels, weight, shoulder hands. [Goldy Sparkles]

Now I have to start watching for overcorrection. For example, shifting my weight to the center without pulling up my leg and losing the stirrup on that side. Generally this happens with the left stirrup as we head left. Heading to the right, my weight is already to the outside.

My wonderful groom reminded me that Goldy responds to motivation with my post rhythm. Anything involving rhythm is a dubious proposition with me, but more bounce in my bounce seems to translate to more bounce in the horse.

Flubbed by canter transitions. Wonder groom said I was leaning forward. As soon as I sat up/straightened up of course Goldy was flawless. Getting better contact at the canter.

While the evening was pretty, it also meant the light was fading by the end of our lesson. We didn’t end up jumping much nor very high. Goldy saw no reason to find it exciting.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. A black woman is governor of a Deep South state. My bingo card has melted.

~~~

{Busy this week. Leaving you with a bunch of horsekeeping posts.}

Today’s stunningly obvious conclusion. People think differently.

Horse dinners in our house involve assembling meals with a range of scoop sizes from a variety of bags.

I do breakfast. Other Horse Minion does dinner. The ingredients are the same. The amounts differ between the two meals.

Recently, OHM was at work late. He walked me through preparing horse buckets for dinner.

It was weird.

My system. I go bag by bag. A scoop each of this. A scoop of that. A cup of that. Move to the other.

OHM’s system. He goes by scoop size. A scoop from this bag. A scoop from that bag. A scoop from the other bag. A cup from this bag. A cup from that bag. A cup from the other bag.

It felt viscerally wrong to be serving Outlast in the middle rather than towards the end.

People are weird.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Vote.

~~~

{Busy this week. Leaving you with a bunch of horsekeeping posts.}

Problem

The middle section of the outer casing of the leadrope tore, leaving a strip of fabric and a multitude of strands.

Repair

Step one. Divide strands into two groups.

Step two. In a closed loop, make a braid with two groups of strands and one strip of fabric.

How to keep the braid from unraveling as soon as you let go? Option a. Tie two of the three elements together. Or, option b …

Step three. When the braid is tight, bring the end of the leadrope through the middle of the braid. This reverses the bottom half.

Result

Useable leadrope.

Cool.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Gender is everywhere. On the ESPN telesport Slippery Stairs, men wear black bodysuits covered with colored t-shirts while women wear colored bodysuits. Adjustment is possible. In a recent broadcast, one entry on the girls race opted for the masculine bodysuit & t-shirt outfit.

~~~

Busy this week. Leaving you with a bunch of horsekeeping posts.

Remember when I said it wasn’t winter woollies?

“Day Four, Thursday … Put a cooler on to warm up his muscles … Other Barn Minion claims the cooler is therapeutic. It does not count as the first blanket of the winter.” [Milton’s Interesting Leg]

That didn’t last long.

Day Four was Thursday 8 October.

Ten days later, Sunday 18 October, Rodney got a cooler for morning walk. On Monday, the 19th, they both got one.

We are in that part of the year when it is too warm for blanket at dinner and then chilly in the morning. This year, we have the added wrinkle of getting outright hot during the day. Welcome to warm evenings, chilly morning, and hot days.

Right now, it’s just light blankets for a brief period. However, it’s a sign that heavy blankets all day are on the horizon.

Do they need coolers for their walk? No. They seem to enjoy them.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. W Magazine: The Textile Artists Bringing Fiber Art Into the Future, Finkel, 2025. How do you weigh in on the use of machines in weaving? Props to the magazine for the extended credit tagline.

~~~

As I said when introducing this shawl, I like to keep the drape the same. “I try to wear the shawls in the same orientation each time so that wear patterns are consistent … I made an indicator by tying two tassels together.” [Useful Art for Everyday, New Shawl, 3rd photo]

Unfortunately, the clever little knot proved too hard to find. However carefully I put the shawl down, I seem to pick it up upside down. Cue looking at each corner for the label or the tassel. Now I can hold it up and locate the bottom left corner.

Made a similar marker for the other shawl. [Introducting Shawlene, Handmade, Wearable Art]

Sidenote. I did not remain enamored of the name. Remain enamored of both shawls.

Contact the artist, Imperfect Patience: Contact. Artist’s statement on previous post. [Handmade, Wearable Art]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Remember: foods vary in nutritional value, but they hold no moral value.” YLE: Halloween candy: A smart guide for parents, Jetelina & Maisano, Oct 29, 2025. [Spooky Season]

~~~

I don’t remember so much Satanic panic surrounding Halloween.

Local churches advertise Trunk or Treat. I think this is car-to-car trick or treating in a parking lot. Notice the name difference. I’ve gone on about the misinterpretation of Halloween before. [Halloween Rant]

My point here is that I don’t remember this much noise when I was trick-or-treating as a kid in the 1970s. It was a small holiday. Candy. Costumes. Pumpkins. Orange UNICEF boxes. Done. Moving on.

Perhaps it is personal. When I was trick or treating, I lived in a city. There was one girl in our class who always had the Halloween party. We would trick to treat up and down the floors of the apartment building she lived in. Looking back, people must have been expecting us. They would have a light on or perhaps decorations out, the adults would know which doors to stop at, and the residents would be ready with candy and pennies. Now I live in the Southern US. Religion may or may not be the same as elsewhere, but the delivery style is louder. They may have been making these noises all along. I just wasn’t around to hear them.

Perhaps it is practical. How would you trick to treat in a rural area? Drive from house to house? Gathering at a central location makes sense logistically. Around here, churches are centers of the communities. Are they gathering at a church to shelter from Satanic influences? Or are they gathering there because it is where they are in community? Not just churches. My local library is having a trick or treat gathering. I donated notebooks with spooky covers.

Perhaps it is perception. In the 70s, mass media was radio and network television. Unless it was on Bugs Bunny or an episode of M*A*S*H, kid me would not have been exposed to it. If a local church was having a satanic panic, the reach would have been flyers posted around the neighborhood. Now, media is 24/7, comes at us from many angles, and from all over. We know far more about what people elsewhere are up to.

Some events are clearly historical moments. [Witness to History, Where Were You When?]

What about other moments? Beyond the obvious events, how do you know if you are witness historical change or seeing something that was always there but you had not noticed?

What is history? What is you?

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Christmas lights spotted. Already? Seriously? A business with three freestanding trees – red, green, & yellow – made from strings of lights. Elsewhere a house with lights that could be seen as Halloween lights.

~~~

In the past, I have railed against portrait mode and expressed a desire to rip it out of my phone camera. I remember the feeling. I’d take a bunch of photos only to realize that the camera had swapped to portrait and none of what I had was usable. [Bean Can]

Either the camera is not doing this as much or I am more aware of the issue and more likely to check the settings. (Crosses fingers.)

I’m also starting to find uses for portrait mode.

Food

Repost. “The camera inadvertently switched to portrait, as it had done in the past, much to my annoyance. However, this time it worked out.” [Grub Gets a Glamour Shot]

Feet

Repost [My Breyerfest Weekend]

For this, I deliberately chose portrait mode to blur the background. Since I was taking a photo of a model this didn’t feel like an artistic choice as much as standard operating procedure for model photography.

The feet of the model make it look as if the background was added. No. It was right there. The light was just weird. More accurately, the choices the camera made to capture the light led to a weird result.

Yes, I’m still using my phone camera on full auto. Would I learn more about photography with a SLR camera on manual? Also yes. I’ve softened to a possible maybe on the idea of going back to a big camera. But I digress.

Fencing

Repost [Ribbonsss]

Again, I deliberately shot in portrait mode. The intention was to get a photo that concentrated on the ribbons in specific, rather than a photo about the show in general.

The alternate photo is a valid choice. I thought about using it or its kin. So, I made a deliberate creative choice to take and use the first one.

Portrait Mode. From I hate this, to this can be useful.

Onwards!
Katherine