Virtual Brush Box

Broke wrist. Did to self. No horses involved. More details when two-handed typing is back online.

Onwards!
Katherine

Horses of the outside world. USHJA: USHJA Wheeler Museum, Through the Lens: The Art of Hunter/Jumper Photography

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(photos pending)

Goldy
Hunt Seat Lesson
Rosewood Stables
9 November 2025

We ended up in the front ring because the course in the back ring was being set up for a show the next weekend. Oops. Both rings were being set. Cue circus. People. Trucks. Jumps going hither and yon. Worked out great for me. Coach Deana had to spend time with other rider on a green horse, who was threatening to have a big day (horse did great). Goldy and I were able to wander about at will.

Mounting Block

I had a bit of a moment. As we walked down to the ring, people were hanging sponsor banners along the property fenceline. Goldy stood at the mounting block with ears on alert. Do you know what that would have meant from my two? Goldy, per usual was chill. Noticed everything. Didn’t do anything.

Walk

I walked for a long time. It was such a joy to wander about while sitting quietly on a horse. I would have been happy to walk for the entire lesson. Pay $XX to walk? Sure.

Eventually, we chose to move on to the next gait.

Trot

When I pulled myself together, Goldy trotted boldly. I even managed some rein contact. As soon as I got tired, I fell out of position, and Goldy walked.

As I said yesterday. my hands are ignorant, as in uneducated. Last week Goldy walked as soon as I picked up the reins. [Learning My Aids]

Canter

Way better than last week. Happy kid on a happy pony. Still on long rein.

Crossrails

One tiny, tiny crossrail, taken each way at trot. I’m told Goldy has jumper mode. This was not that. I’m not sure he even hopped over it. He may have walked. Grandma mode. Bless him.

Progress Meter
Mounting block. 0%. May always be a thing.
Walk. 100%. Totally comfortable
Trot. 80%. Fell out of gait from time to time.
Canter. 50%. Big improvement from last week.
Jump. 0%. Trotting at crossrails not an issue. [Lesson and Thoughts Thereon, side note]

Back in the stone age, Previous Horse and I showed in a ring in the grassy area. Trailer was parked right about where Goldy’s right ear is in the photo.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. If you pick the State & Federal option at halfstaff.org American Flag Half Staff Email Reminder, you have 56 choices. The first 50 are obvious. Can you name the other 6? Answers below.

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Boogie
Driving lesson
Stepping Stone Farm
October 2025

I have a tendency to fling the reins and say go horsie. I get by with leg aids and weight. It works, up to a point. Real conversation happens when you have an educated, sympathetic contact through the reins. So I’m told.

Flinging the reins is a particularly nonuseful habit in driving, when reins are all ya got. Along with voice commands and a tap with a driving whip. It works at Stepping Stone due to nice driving horses and simple tasks. Optimist could probably do an Academy driving class by himself.

Anyway.

Drove Boogie. He was a star. He tolerated my clunky hands figuring out how to hold the reins with contact. Hey, look I have steering!

I go on about him. He really is a nice horse. I made sure to give him a good rubdown after. I may be only moderately effective as a rider/driver, but I speak excellent horse when my feet are on the ground.

Photo above. As mention before, one has to take the ears photo before sitting in the cart. Otherwise the view has lots of anatomy. [Days With Diego]

Previous post. Me saying go horsie. Optimist doing his thing. [Summer Showing, July 2025]

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

56 State Notification choices at halfstaff.org: 50 states. American Samoa. District of Columbia. Guam. Northern Mariana Islands. Puerto Rico. U.S. Virgin Islands.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. World War I. “An armistice … went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” US Dept of Veterans Affairs: History of Veterans Day.

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When Milton was finished with work, his driver would say, “Find your header.” This means come to me, get a cookie, and unhitch.

This past spring was wet. The ground before the run-in shed got chopped up, as happens with high-traffic areas. To start our daily walk, we had to get all four sets of feet through the mud. Instead of trying to lead them through the mess, we let them pick their own way. I would stand out in the pasture, other barn minion would send them out with the command “Find your header.”

The ground eventually dried up.

At one point, we tried leading them from the beginning. Normal procedure, right? Put a leadrope on to a horse. Go for a walk. Instead, both horses stopped at the header spot and said, I get a cookie here. We said, Today we are just walking.

You can see it coming right?

We eventually had to give them each a treat. They knew they were due a cookie and would not let us forget it.

Now we start each walk with finding your header.

Previous Posts

[Wordless Wednesday, Find Your Header] photo
[Shadow of a Header] photo
[When Milton Adores Me] with other header links

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Wishing warm thoughts to those of us experiencing the out-of-season weather. AccuWeather.com: Arctic air advances, ushering in coldest air of the season for some. Cold air will expand across the eastern half of the nation into early week, AccuWeather forecasters warn, ending the growing season in the South. Glenny 2025.

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Rodney has a weird divot and bump on his hindquarters.

If you stand facing the south end of a north-bound horse you can see/feel two hard lumps next to the tail, These are the tuber ischii (I think, the internet is more interest in leg anatomy than butt bones.) Just below this on the right side Rodney has a fairly serious divot and below that a swelling.

A kick? Kinda high for a foot to reach. If it did reach, the insult would be an an angle by the time the offending foot got up that far.

A slip and muscle pull? Maybe, but the divot part is weird.

Shenanigans? This has my vote. Reminiscent of the last one. [In Which Rodney Takes Over The Top Spot On The Injured Reserve List]

For an old man he can cavort with the best of them. Small canter circles, four off the floor, spins, and so on. They egg each other on demo-ing how wild and tough they are. At a distance. It’s all bluster.

Whatever the cause, it was definitely bothering him. We did not need to trot him to know this. Rodney has a specific kind of spookiness that he gets when he’s hurting.

A few days of bute and he’s feeling better. It’s still there and going away slowly, but doesn’t seem to bother him anymore. The divot is gradually getting shallower and the bump is getting squashier. As with last time, the swelling did not migrate down Rodney’s leg. We did get to watch that fun event on Milton. [When Zoomies Go Wrong]

Due to Rodney’s sensitive tum, we are careful with bute but we’ve loosened up on this a bit. Enough to give him a round of pain killers as needed.

The injury contributed to the first blanketing of the season on Wednesday night. That has nothing to do with severe weather. We blanket early and often.

No media. I did not take a picture of the ass end of my horse. You’re welcome.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. The X-Rite Color Challenge and Hue Test. Hat tip to Musings at Minkiewicz Studios: Color Conniptions: Learning How To See Color Accurately.

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Montevallo AL USA
October 2020 (best guess)

I assume the photo on the right is the Starry Night hydrant. Have not been able to identify the other two. The red sign in background of Starry Night is for sister cities Echizen, Japan, and  Montevallo AL USA.

The City of Montevallo: Pendleton Hydrant Trail, official list with artist info & locations

Bham Now: Have you seen Montevallo’s colorful Pendleton Hydrant Parade yet? Swain 2021, photos

The City of Montevallo: Sister City Commission

Previous Hydrant Art Post [Shopping, image]

How The Sausage Is Made

Had a last minute change of plans for today’s post. Dug these out of the vault. Hence the date.

Onwards!
Katherine

Fiction of the outside world. Reactor: Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy, by Wells. July 10, 2025. No spoilers in the story but the backstory would make more sense if you have read the Murderbot series.

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1 Day One, 207 words reported, adjusted

She floated thru the airlock into the main body of the rocket. Not a lot of space was wasted on these long haul vehicles. No fancy waiting rooms for the tourists. No helpful attendant waiting~ to help disoriented travels. If you were on one of these ships you were expected to know how to handle yourself in micro gravity, and expect to get right to work.

That was fine with her. She deliberately signed up for commercial freight trips to avoid dealing with the public. Technology may change; people didn’t. To quote a classic movie, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals.”

She was also fine with getting right to work. Not only was it her job, it was her life. Errors in spaceflight could kill everyone on board. Checking and double checking was a matter of habit. They checked each other’s work as a matter of course. There was no place for egos. Well, not there. Catch one mistake and suddenly double checks became your new favorite thing.

Much like air pilots of old, the people making the decisions were the ones who had to live the decision

So she floated through calmly. Time to go. Time to get to work.

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2 Sunday Dinner, 203 words

Sunday dinners were always boring.

Food dropped on Mondays. Therefore, Sunday was all about eating whatever was leftover from the rest of the week. She tried to spread the boring bits out but invariable was left with crackers or oatmeal or some other bland carbs by Sunday night. There were always enough calories but sometimes Sunday was simply feeding the machine.

Breakfasts & lunch were always the same. A combination of proteins and vitamins in bar form. She thought of it as People Chow. Dinner was where she had some variety and some actual food.

Monday dinner was all about perishables. Fruits. Soup. Whatever wouldn’t last. That didn’t always mean a feast. There are only so many bananas one can confront with equanimity.

Tuesday thru Thursday were about the same. She would dole out the food in even batches for the week. She usually saved something to celebrate with on Friday night, and maybe Saturday dinner, if there was enough to chose from. Days has no meaning – other than Monday – but old habits died hard. Party a bit on what used to be the weekend.

~~~

Desert island? Prisoner? Voluntary human exhibit in a zoo? Reality TV? I have no idea.

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3 Autumn Glow, 262 reported

Autumn Glow!

What kind of name is Autumn Glow?

How in the world does one craft an ice cream flavor that could suitably be called Autumn Glow?

Alas, such was her task.

Chocolate and orange? That might not be bad if she went for a chocolate covered orange peel. The citrus bite to offset the sweetness of the chocolate. Maybe with sugar crystals for crunch. The taste had promise.

But the colors.

The colors would never fly. The ice cream would look fine when frozen. All swirly and autumnal. As soon as it started melting? You were looking at a gooey beige pool of baby spit. It would be even worse if she added cherry for red streaks of leaves. Then the melted version would look like it came out of the other end of, a very sick baby.

Wasn’t that a lovely thought when considering food items.

All her professional life revolved around extravagantly flowered ice creams, she mostly ate vanilla. When trying a new brand, she wanted to taste the underlying ice cream. No one knew better than she what could be hidden by funky flavors.

On the rare occasions when she had ice cream for pleaseure, she had Baskin-Robbins® Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. There were better mint ice creams. There were better chocolates. There were more boutique ice cream maker. To her the architypical ice cream was Mint Chocolate Chip in a pointy cone.

Which just goes to show that taste is an elusive beastie.

~~~

BR: The Story Behind Baskin-Robbins’ Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

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4 Harvest Moon, 221 words

Is your last name is Moon, why in the name of all that is sane and sacred would you name your child Harvest? Her parents said it was to given her a connection to the earth. Rose would have done. Or Daisy. Even Pansy. They also said they didn’t want to have a name with any inherent gender expectation. Chris did not occur to them?

Her school mates had a field day with it, of course. What was surprising was how badly her teachers handled it. One year, she was sent to the principals office. The principal did not believe her and an threatened to call her parents. ‘Oh please,” she thought, ‘Bring my parents in. Can I be here to watch when my mother tells the story of my conception? If your lucky, Dad will bring his drum.’ Harvest loved her parents, but they could be a lot for a muggle.

Now that she was an adult, she thought about legally changing it. But her mother really loved the name. The only time she could bear the song, Shine On, Harvest Moon was when her mother sang it. Plus, she had grow used to it. To her, the name Harvest was simply two syllables that meant ‘Hey you.”

For new situations, she made a point of bringing her birth certificate.

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5 Blind Date, 208 words

“A duck blind?! You went on a date in a duck blind?”

“It was fun. We both brought our long lens and took pictures of ducks. I’m using one of the photos as my screensaver.

“But what did you talk about.”

“Actually, we didn’t talk at all. Or not much. The point is to be quiet to not scare off the ducks.”

“I would hate that.”

Laughs, “Yeah, you’d never survive that much silence.”

“I suppose you had some weird, post-modern, phone prohibition as well?

“Well, he shut off his phone. I had to keep mine on for work. I also used it to log into the Cornell site to identify birds. Otherwise, yeah, we stayed offline.”

“You had fun?”

“Yes, we did. Don’t sound so dubious. It was kind of inmate. Since we didn’t want to make any noise, you had to tap the other person to get their attention. Lots of physical contact. It was nice. Also lots of eye contact and smiling at each other.”

“Only you would have a date in a duck blind.”

“Hey, I learn something new. This is how you say ‘duck’ in sign language. (makes gesture.) This is bird. (makes different gesture.)”

“They look similar.”

“Well, they are related words.”

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6 Sick Day, 232 words

“That’s a sick day. Really gnarly, dude.”

The other person seated at the table began to laugh helplessly. “Gnarly?”

‘What, too Gen Alpha?”

“Gen Alpha? Gen X if you’re lucky. My friend, you are officially an old fart. Even your slang is old.”

“What should I have said instead? Thank you for preparing my agenda. I find the proposed schedule to be an acceptable use of my time.” Would that be better?”

“Well, at least it would sound like you.”

She tossed the sheaf of stapled papers, which utterly failed to fly straight, and landed in in the middle of the table. They both regarded the tangled heap of papers that lay on the wooden surface like a misplaced moth.

“I see we are demonstrating the couth and tact for which you are so rightly famous.”

So she stuck out her tongue.

“Okay, okay. Don’t raise your eyebrows at me. It’s a good plan. We’ve got all the bases covered. I’m meeting with all the right people. It’s just … it’s …”

“It’s a lot?”

“Yeah, it’s a lot. I’m going to have to stay calm and focused while different batches of people yell at me. Not to mention constant media coverage. I mean, I’m happy we are getting the attention to the issue. But it’s tough being the face of an entire movement.”

“You may have said it best. Gnarly, dude.”

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7 Press Release, 237 words

“Press release to empty the hopper onto the tray. Then you check for anomalies.”

“What the weirdest thing you’ve found coming through here?”

“The usual. Coins. Keys. Rings. Pocket stuff. Nothing truly weird. It wouldn’t fit. Be too big I guess a diamond engagement ring would be the most striking.”

“Did you ever find out who it belonged to?”

“Funny you should ask. A guy who used to work here claimed he could finds the owners of things. Found a woman who can in to claim the ring.”

“Do you think it was hers?”

“Meh, I don’t know. Could have been a scam. He could have given the description to an accomplice and split the profit. But that would have been a lot of work for not that much money. Those things may cost the earth, but they don’t pawn for all that much. She seemed happy enough to have it back. Anyway, go ahead and give it a try.”

Clunk.

“Do they ever think of automating this?”

“What you want to be out of a job on your first day?”

“I’ve never does this kind of work. I wonder what gets automated and what doesn’t.”

“First off, the volume would have to be a lot higher to be worth the investment in the machinery. Even so, I doubt a robot could do it. Wouldn’t pass the dishwasher test. Nothing beat the human brain for generalized aptitude.”

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Afterword

The See Jane Write November Writing Challenge, Steady Scribbler: 200 words/day, SJW: 30 Writing Prompts for November.

Word count is not my problem. I have written cover letters longer than the article I am submitting. Writing regularly is not my problem. Gestures to blog. Fiction, however, has been slower going. So, my 200 words have been/will be fiction. I deliberately chose a low bar to jump over. Surely, I can crank out 200 words?

Yes, I can. But don’t call me Shirley.

Anyway.

I was going to tidy them up. You know brush their hair, check that their shoe laces aren’t untied. But it’s Friday night and I just finished #7, so I’m flinging these at you as they came out of the keyboard. Day one had minor adjustments, mostly around adding the MiB quote.

Onwards!
Katherine