Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. “The program is great for seniors or dogs that have suffered injuries.” AKC: AKC Agility Preferred Class, Leigh, 2015. From now on, all of my senior activities will be referred to as Preferred.

~~~

There was a time when ….

Dogs had a 24/7 dog door to a fenced yard.

Cats could go out a window to take up their barn cat duties.

Horses ate twice a day out of buckets on the fenceline & from hay piles in the field.

These days …

Jasmine needs help to get around.

Rose’s bathroom missions have become explorations of the front yard, which means a jacket & shoes rather than watching from the door.

One of our senior cats has joined the geriatric set. He spends most of his day sleeping in a dog cage. By choice, the door is open. On nice days, I will put him out in the small dog pen. He likes basking in the sun.

One horse needs privacy to eat.

The other horse needs lunch.

Suddenly our low maintenance household isn’t.

We can’t blame age. Rodney is the eldest, at 25. He’s hale and hearty. He needs to go in the stall for meals because this roommate is a hay shark who will eat steal all the food.

Nor can we blame the senior dogs. It’s a multi-species adventure.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. The Plaid Horse: $10,000 Equestrian Voices Creative Writing Contest. 2024 Theme: A trainer who has made a significant impact on your life.

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Photo by Pam Cofield

Alabama Winter Tournament 2023-2024

Advanced Horsemanship WTC Adult – Series 3rd of 6/7
Advanced Equitation WTC Adult (Pattern) – Series Reserve Champion of 4
Pleasure Horse/Pony WTC Adult – Series Reserve Champion of 3 of 7
Masters Pleasure – Series Champion of 2
Academy Driving – Series Champion of 1
Barn High Point Adult for Stepping Stone Farm
& SSF won High Point Barn.

All with Optimus. Thank you, once again, to the Gray Family for the outstanding Optimus.

The Horsemanship class had 6 places for 7 riders because I tied for third. With Reagan! As in World Cup Gold medalist & Adult Equitation Triple Crown Winner Reagan. Granted she got those points in two shows and it took me three. I’ll take it! [Road to the World Cup, Show Report, Guest Post]

Thoughts

I always like when championship ribbons use the tri-color theme for all of the ribbons. If you can’t tell from the photo, the third place is yellow, white, & pink.

I got cold all over again looking at the slide show.

Prizes, for my reference. Horsemanship Masters, monogrammed garment bag. Academy Driving, monogrammed tote bag. High Point, engraved plate.

Update, 2026. Horsemanship? What was I thinking? Has to be the Masters Pleasure division. Also edited Adult Pleasure result above. Writing “of 3 of 7” may have meant something, may have been a typo. Reasoning has been lost to the mists of time.

More Thanks

Another well-deserved round of thanks.

To Optimus, for being a ride & drive wonder.

To the Gray family, for sharing their horse.

To Miss Courtney & Mr. James, for excellence in coaching, particularly given the logistics involved in driving classes.

To the AWTA, the shows, and folks who organized same, for helping winter to pass more enjoyably.

More Thoughts

I owe it all to Milton.

If the first show hadn’t been at SSF, if the family driver hadn’t had a wild hair to show, if Milton hadn’t decide he’d rather not, I would not have done Winter Tournament this year.

Coda

Squeeeee. I age. My inner 12 year old does not.

Show posts

[Finishing The Series, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #3]
[Staying With The Series, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #2]
[Academy Represent! Playing With The Big Kids, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #1]
[Show Prep Part Two, The Rider Who Did Show, AWTA 2013-2024 #1]
[Show Prep Part One, The Horse Who Didn’t Show, AWTA 2013-2024 #1]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Someone needed to do it. I doubt I could have. Your Local Epidemiologist: Why did we lose trust during the pandemic? Jetelina, Mar 14, 2024.

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All treats – horse, dog, people – go in the right-hand pocket – jackets, pants, every article of clothing I own – so that other things – phone, pen, notebook – can go in the left pocket and not get covered with crumbs.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Novis Textura: Reweaving The Urban Fabric, a public art installation in Calgary.

~~~

Onwards!
Katherine

Watcher On The Beach

Many: You want to take what form?

One: A crab.

Many: You think the best way to spy on humans is a spider of the sea?

One: 10.

Many: What?

One: 10 legs. A spider has 8 legs. A crab has 10 legs.

Many: At least that is getting closer to a decent number of appendages. Still doesn’t answer our question. Why?

One: As a crab, I will be on the beach. Humans will be as close to naked as socially acceptable. I can examine physiology without the interference of clothing.

Many: Hmm.

One: During the day I can track movement dynamics. At night, I can listen to them talk when they look out at the ocean and wax philosophical.

Many: Humans will be on vacation. They will not be performing their social functions. How will you gather that data?

One: The humans being on vacation is part of the plan. They delude themselves into thinking they will get work done. So, they bring along laptops and folders and management directives. Then they dump everything in a corner and never look at it. I’ll be able to crawl all over everything.

Many: What if they see you?

One: No problem. A mouse in your office is cause for alarm. A crab in your beach rental is a cute story.

Many: Don’t people eat crabs?

One: At restaurants. Besides, crabs can scuttle pretty fast.

Many: What name will this form carry?

One: Buster.

Many: The movie star?

One: No, the Muppet.

~~ fin ~~~

100 word bio

For the requited bio, I introduced myself as “a mostly retired journalist who is sidling, crab-wise, into fiction.”

~~~

Afterword

Submitted, not accepted, for issue 1 of Crab Tales Magazine. Requirements were crabs and a element of the fantastic, in 250 words or less. CTM: Submissions. Watcher comes in at 249 words.

While doing research for this, I found The Crab Museum, Europe’s first and only museum dedicated to the world of the decapod & Hermit Crab fiction, “Hermit-crab stories are stories made from found verbal structures such as a shopping list or board game rules or FAQs or even a penalty charge notice.” Medium: Hermit-Crab Fictions: Fresh Stories from Borrowed Forms, Brotzel 2020.

Thought on technique. Outside observers is a handy narrative device. In reality, if one goes by human history, first contact does not go well for one of the parties.

Hat tip to L. We shall dine on the proceeds! No proceeds, but lunch is on me anyway.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. BBG: Seed Exchange. Local, but there is probably one near you.

~~~

“Alba Vulcanis”
Vulcan On Parade
by Melissa Shultz-Jones
Birmingham Botanical Gardens
March 2024

Technical Details

BBG Vulcan, f/8, 1/100 sec., 35.0 mm, ISO 400. Manual mode & auto-focus. Post production. Resized, border, & watermark.

Border colors, gray for project, yellow for Nikon. [Photo Safari The First], [Quarry, Photography, Things]

I tried in two sessions but could not find an interesting angle. Some subjects speak to you; some don’t. Instead, here he is in his natural habitat.

Links

Bham Wiki: Vulcans On Parade

Bham Now: Vulcans On Parade

Previous Vulcan posts [Gallery, Views of Vulcan]

Artist? Right name, right place, art looks right, can’t find reference to statue on the site, Melissa Shultz-Jones.

Onwards!
Katherine