Virtual Brush Box

Clothing of the outside world. This Victorian LIfe: The Case of the Small Shoes —a.k.a. Survival Bias: No, people were NOT “just smaller then.” 2017. Hat tip to Flights of Foundry. [The Water Obstacle]

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Ovation Footzees Boot Socks. Found at Carousel Tack Shop. I can never resist a decorative sock.

At the moment, no shows on the schedule. I live in hope. Now my socks can be rays of horse show hope as well.

Onwards!
Katherine

Words of the outside world. Merriam-Webster: Is it ‘St. Patty’s Day’ or ‘St. Paddy’s Day’?.

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At the morning pasture walk, both horses now walk at liberty. Halters on. No leadropes. Of course, this means they have the ability to vote no. We have gotten good at predicting when that is likely to happen.

Milton, is motivated by food. No surprise. One morning the horses got a pre-walk snack. When we started the walk, Milton still had a bite left. There was still. hay. to be. eaten. Milton never let it go. On the first lap, he walked to the far corner, turned around, and marched right back to the barn. No flair, just purpose. Rodney and I did a second lap while Milton was fetched. Third lap Milton attempted – came close – to blowing past the barn-side cookie stop.

Usually Milton chugs along and Rodney is the one who brings the drama. Before you credit Milton with too much of an angelic nature, when I was injured, Milton was the one who put his hind feet in the air and said, We don’t have to listen to you. That’s Milton’s MO. He’s flawless. Then the lid blows off the kettle.

“No one seeing Milton that day would believe until that moment, we HAD an easy horse.” [I am not back. This is not a post., Milton The Driving Horse]

Sigh.

Anyway.

Rodney on the other hoof, reacts to weather. A common pattern around here is to be too warm for blankets at dinner and then have the temps drop over night. It is cold by morning.

“Rodney would very much like someone come out in the middle of the night to dress him suitably.” [Rodney Lives With His Life Choices]

In the morning, they get sweatshirts for the walk. [New Equipment]

Rodney starts off walking calmly. By about the third lap, he starts trotting ahead, or hopping, or flinging his feet. If he’s going to run home, it’s usually around then. His latest trick is to take a hard left (or right, depending on direction of travel) up the hill and swing around to the barn, bypassing near side stopping/cookie point. He is still cold from the night? He is starting to thaw? No idea.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Past but worth noting. Grindr: Grindr Disables Location Features in Olympic Village for Milano Cortina 2026 to Protect Athlete Safety and Privacy, Restrictions on browsing and distance, plus privacy tools for all Olympic athletes, Balance, February 2, 2026. “And simply appearing on Grindr tells the world something about a person’s identity that, in more than 60 countries, remains a criminal offense.”

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An interesting consequence of injury is finding out the role that body part plays in your life, mainly when it doesn’t.

Since I was cleared to put weight on my arm, I have resumed horse care. Among the tasks was picking out feet.

No problem.

Swipe the blade of the hoofpick along the sole of the foot. Dirt falls out. Good to go.

Then, last week, the horses came in with muddy hooves. When it rains heavily, you get mud. Obvious. What isn’t obvious is that the first day of rain, hooves are relatively easy to clean. The mud is wet and gloopy and everything falls right out. After a few days, the ground starts to dry and the mud packs into the shoe.

Anyway.

Pedology (soil science) aside. I picked up a hoof and saw a dense wad of mud. Stuck hoofpick into the groove next to the frog … and … nope.

Turns out, in the normal course of things, cleaning a hoof involves a sweep of the arm from the elbow, as if one is clearing a table.

To jam the hoofpick under the mud, I had to dig in and twist. Also, there is a flick of the wrist at end to fling the mud away. Ow.

I did one foot, then turned the task over to other barn minion. Push? Yes. Twist? Sure. Push and twist? Not gonna happen.

I did not know that the human wrist plays an important role in equine hoof care. I know now.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Bonnie Hunter is a quilting blogger, among other quilt activities. I mentioned her blog back in December of 2019. Since I do not sew, my favorites were her travel posts. Looks like she has resumed leading quilt tours. Quiltville: Winter Wonderland! Morocco 2026, after the cat veterinary update. YouTube, Bonnie K. Hunter: Textile Museum in Switzerland! 🇨🇭 2025. Quiltville: Willkommen in Nürnberg! 2019. Her site is arranged more for the active quilter than for the armchair traveler, so activate your search-fu. Many of the travel updates appeared on her Instagram & Facebook. [Quilty Logo]

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Log Cabin Hot Dog
Nine Patch Hamburger
Flying Geese Chips & Salsa
Crazy Quilt Salad

Inspiration. Quilt contest. “The 2026 theme is Food! The quilt must be about food in some recognizable way and include an interpretation of a traditional block pattern of your choosing.” National Quilt Museum: New Quilts from an Old Favorite. Winners on exhibit in Paducah. Does not appear to have a virtual component.

As with previous quilt posts, this was an exercise in design. No intention to sew.

Onwards!
Katherine

Stories of the outside world. Atlas Obscura: Celebrate Pi Day With These Mathematical Tales, White, March 8, 2024.

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🎨🎨🎨

Shopkeeper: When people walk in the door, I want them to see a big damn explosion of color. I want oranges and purples and spots and stripes. I want vibrant and exciting and joyful and (pauses) distracting. I want them thinking about color not about prices.

Painter: How cynical of you.

Shopkeeper: Okay, if that is too on the nose, think of it as putting my customers in a good mood.

Painter: (gets to work)

Shopkeeper: Any chance you could make it, um, persuasive.

Painter: No.

Shopkeeper: What if …

Painter: Not gonna happen.

Shopkeeper: How about …

Painter I don’t do that.

Shopkeeper: But …

Painter: It’s both immoral and illegal.

(Minor stand-off. Painter looks stubborn. Shopkeeper looks unconvinced.)

Painter: if that’s not enough reason, it’s also impractical. More and more people these day are carrying magic detection charms. What happens to your store when people find out that you are using magic to influence customers? Your reputation would be destroyed. Social media would tear you apart. I could show you some educational examples. The risk is not worth the reward.

Painter: (starts laying out lines for the mural.)

Painter: Also, fyi, I use chalk-based paints. It is resistant to magical tampering. For example, if someone tried to lay an attraction charm over the top of it.

Shopkeeper: I would never!

Painter: Of course not. And now you know no one else can do it behind your back.

🎨🎨🎨

Afterword

Format. ~225 words. In the spirit of the 200-word pieces I did for the November Writing Challenge in 2025. [Fiction]

Inspiration. On Bluesky, author John Scalzi was asked about editing a short story anthology, “I’ve always wanted to do an anthology called BIG DAMN EXPLOSIONS where the only requirement for the stories is that they must have a big damn explosion in them. I think we could get an interesting range of stories with that.” Bluesky: @Scalzi.com 26 Feb 2026.

Onwards!
Katherine

Photos of the extremely outside world. NASA: Hubble Space Telescope, Images

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Lunar Eclipse, 3 March 2026. A chalk-one-up-for-experience photo shoot.

Attempt one, nearing totality. From pasture.

Note. Night mode did not help. Way too much light. Changed shape of light area. Photo not shown.

Attempt 2, totality. Moon was setting behind the trees in the pasture. Drove around for clear view. So faint we would not have seen it if we hadn’t known.

Reason moon was washing out. This was taken at same time & 180o from totality photo.

Technical Details

Phone camera.

Why did I try to photograph an eclipse with a phone camera? Because this previous moon photo came out so well, I figured the eclipse one would work out better than it did. I probably need a deeper understanding of photographic lighting and astronomy. [Moon Zoom]

Info & Links

Difference between new moon & lunar eclipse.
New moon: SUN – MOON – EARTH
Lunar eclipse:- SUN – EARTH – MOON

For a better view, timeanddate: LIVE Stream: Total Lunar Eclipse March 2–3, 2026

Note to self, B&H: Tips for Photographing a Lunar Eclipse, Vorenkamp 2025.

Last year, scroll down for the assist. I had forgotten. 😂 [Lunar Eclipse 2025]

Onwards!
Katherine

Horses of the outside world. Trailer noise. Something I hadn’t ever thought about. Time & Miles: We Don’t Deserve Horses.

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Continuing to post about my latest outing. [The Ride, AHJA Kick Off Show 2026]

The nerves were terrible. The time before the show was stressful. I was a hot mess. Some of the lessons generated worse nerves than a show.

I wanted it so very, very badly. Still do.

I’ve been yapping about jumping for years. I bought two horses with the intention of jumping both of them. What if I couldn’t do it anymore?

I had arranged an almost perfect re-introductory situation. A local show, low classes, and a wonderful horse. What is if wasn’t enough? If I couldn’t do it with Goldy, what chance did I have with any other horse?

Coach Deana was very helpful. She told me the same thing she told her littles. If you go in the ring and get overfaced, then don’t do it.

I could do that. The only action I had to perform was to enter the ring. Everything after was optional. I could take it one fence at a time. Trot at a low fence on a nice horse. Then look for the next one. If it was too much, stop. I could do that. Expensive ROI, but I could do it.

Two other things helped beforehand.

One. The week before the show, my illustrious groom pointed out that we already had the data we were looking for. We wanted to find out if jumping was still on the agenda. It is. The show was extra at that point.

As a side note, he also pointed out that my riding had become so much more relaxed than it had been just a few weeks earlier. The change was hard to feel from the inside.

Two. The day before the show, we went over to school. That’s when I found out that they had set the jumps low, probably because it was the first show of the year. It was a height Goldy & I had been doing regularly. I got this.

On the morning of the show, I wasn’t sure what would happen in the ring. Would we go too slow and lurch over the jumps? Would we be nice and steady? Would Goldy get in touch with his inner Grand Prix horse and zoom off? If he did zoom off, would I rise to the occasion or fold like a cheap tent? As it was, we came up with a fourth option of my being enthusiastic but ineffective, at least to start. One never knows, do one?

So now what?

I do not plan to campaign with Goldy at .65m this year. Once was proof of concept. Lessons, yes. Shows are more time and money that I care to put into beginner jumping classes. Unless I am on my own horse. Which leads to …

ISO New Horse. Wish us luck.

Also, full disclosure, there was a sense of letdown afterwards. All that work for that? All that stress and tension in order to jump around a course of fences that I could jump over with my own two feet? It reminds me of rehabbing my broken wrist. Lots and lots of work to get back to where I used to be.

OTOH, it took me days to recover. I was far more tired than I had anticipated. It was a big deal on some level, whether I want it to be or not.

Yes, my head is an echo chamber of anxiety and overthinking. This is not news.

One more post, once the pro photos are ready.

Onwards!
Katherine