Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. Beyond Ships: INSIDE VIEW: KEEPING ON GOOD TERMS WITH THE ENVIRONMENT, A conversation with Environmental Compliance Officer Ariadna Mayoral of QUEEN MARY 2, by Richard H. Wagner.

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Friend Carol takes us on a tour of horses found during a recent voyage aboard the Queen Mary 2. Welcome Carol.

Trans-Atlantic Champion, The story of Papyrus.

No looking back. Cunard agents helped emigrants plan their trip and book their passage.

Two from the Verandah Restaurant

Comparing the size of Cunard ships to various buildings.

“Aurora Borealis,” verre églomisé glass mural, 5.5 feet high x 10 feet wide, one of four large scale works commissioned by Cunard for luxury cruise ship Queen Mary 2. Designs by Christianson Lee Studios are gilded and engraved on the reverse side of glass in gold leaf.” CLS: Verre Eglomisé Cunard QM2 Wall Murals D12

“These are from the hallway between the Grand Lobby and the Britannia Restaurant on Deck 2. There are six, with each representing a continent, with horses on Europe and America; I know Africa has a zebra, not a horse, but figured I’d include it anyway.” Carol.

“They have walkways on the lower decks with images describing what happened with Cunard’s ships during various wars, which is where I found the one with the Lusitania. The next two are more images near a stairway, and the last is in an elevator.” Carol.

Vicarious travel for the win!

Links

Cunard: Queen Mary 2 Luxury Cruise Ship

“RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is a British transatlantic ocean liner. She has served as the flagship of Cunard Line since succeeding Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2004. As of 2024, Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner in service.” Wiki: Queen Mary 2

“The category does not include ferries or other vessels engaged in short-sea trading, nor dedicated cruise ships where the voyage itself, and not transportation, is the primary purpose of the trip.” Wiki: Ocean liner

Beyond Ships Art: The Art of Queen Mary 2

“Another favorite pastime was horse racing … The way it worked was that dice were rolled for each ‘horse,’ and they advanced across the room.” Luxury Liner Row: RMS Queen Mary Race Horse

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Ex Urbe: Tools for Thinking About Censorship, Ada Palmer, January 21, 2024.

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We were able to get out for our daily walks most days of the cold weather by going out in the middle of the day. Everyone was home because weekend, MKL holiday, or ice storm. [The Cold Is Coming, Cold Snap, Phase II]

Mornings were right out.

We learned a few things.

For a morning walk, 28oF is okay; 25oF is too cold.

For a mid-day walk, better to be in the sun with a slightly colder thermometer. Technically, the warmest part of the day was around 3 pm, but that put our path in the shade. Going out just before/after the noon hour was brisk but sunny.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Bham Wiki: Hoover Country Club.

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Awards Banquet
American Saddlebred Horse Association of Alabama
Hoover Country Club
Birmingham AL USA
20 January 2024

Me
Academy Driving – 1st of 1
Academy Showmanship – 3rd of 3
Academy Equitation – 3rd of 3

Stepping Stone Farm
High Point Academy Rider, Adult (not me, person in Walk Trot)
High Point Performance Rider, Junior
High Point Performance Barn

“”Am I looking for two local shows in order to scramble onto the bottom of the points ladder of the Adult Academy division so that I have somewhere amusing to go in the depths of January?” [Lesson Thoughts, August 2023]

“The plan was to ride in three shows … If I had come up with this plan earlier, I could have done a smaller fun show rather than one of the big shows.” [The Red Queen Returns, Show Report, Alabama Charity Championship Horse Show 2023]

Did I go to Alabama Charity as a third show to qualify for year-end in driving? Absolutely. Shows usually have only one driving class. I needed three classes; therefore I needed three shows. What if there hadn’t been a year-end carrot? I would have talked myself out of going. The labor and expense is not insignificant, even with someone else taking care of the horse. I’m glad I went. So, I’m glad the lovely, fluffy, year-end carrot was there to lure me in.

Academy Driving was the first division announced, so they didn’t have the slide show going. [A Last Look Back at 2023, Driving photo from here]

Photos of me by Coach Courtney. Why do I have such a goofy expression? Same as last year. I’m starting to think of this as my banquet face. [Dinner and Ribbons, ASHAA Banquet for the 2022 Show Year]

Will I do this again in 2024 for the 2025 banquet? That is not the plan. Twice is enough. Time to move on. Grow. Try new things. Sounds good, doesn’t it? I fully admit that I may weaken when the summer shows come around.

By “this” I mean doing the minimum number of shows with an eye toward year-end awards and the banquet. I’m open to grand & marvelous adventures that end up garnering year-end awards. I have no idea what such adventures would look like. But I digress.

List of shows attended [Saddlebreds of 2023]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Per article, extreme temps are deadly & should be given the same attention as other weather events. CCN Sports: NFL’s policy over cold-weather games questioned after fans treated for hypothermia and frostbite at Chiefs-Dolphins game, Morse, January 20, 2024.

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[Winter Wonderland] repost

Per usual, I am writing this before the weekend. By the time it sees the light of day on Monday, we will have been through the second half of our bout of severe-for-us weather. Two nights of teens, one day of not-above-freezing. Not quite as cold as round one, and without benefit of ice. As my husband said, it will be *%#* cold, but it won’t be *%#*, *%#* cold. [The Cold Is Coming]

Meanwhile.

Water. Carrying hot water to the barn. So much water. So many buckets. We actually started before the cold, to be sure they were as hydrated as possible going in. Nervous? Nous? (Twitch. Shudder.)

Blankets. We replaced their Rambo blankets with updated versions. We figure it bought us about 10o. Rodney wants to know what took us so long.

Drips. Remembering to drip a faucet. Remember that hearing a drip is a good thing. This is house water. Barn water has been drained for the duration.

How are the horses taking it?

Shenanigans! In frozen mud!

Milton: I left this nonsense behind in Canada.

Onwards!
Katherine

Linguistics of the outside & of fictional worlds. “For my presentation at Scintillation 2018 on Linguistic Myths and Fictions in Myth and Fiction, click here: Vardomskaya Scintillation Presentation.“ Tamara Vardomskaya.

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Part I. [DragonCat, Guest Art]

Part II.

DragonCat arrived from Tamara Vardomskaya in a cloud of electrons.

He was sent over the wires to a place where he could achieve paper form, in preparation for getting a frame.

I arrived to meet the embodied DragonCat.

Lovely.

Initially, DragonCat is excited about getting a new home.

We discussed frames.

Perhaps something classic in wood?

Good in theory. In practice, it was the sort of thing one would use for Important Certificates.

Gold frame? Too flashy.

Why don’t we work on mat color.

How about green?

Nope? College and husband’s work both have green as their color. In fact, the green mat with a wooden frame is exactly how my diploma is framed. Moving on.

Yellow? Too sallow.

Double mats?

No mat at all?

At about this point, DragonCat began to lose patience.

Will you people please make up your minds!

Finally, we decided on wood painted to look like stone, giving DragonCat a lair from which to peer at the world.

Thank you to Craig Zernik and the team at Four Corners Gallery.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Adazing: Lord of the Rings Book Cover Designs, McDaniel, April 12. Some I’ve seen. Some live/have lived on my shelves. Some I didn’t even know existed.

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Back when we had only just finished copying out books by hand, I worked at a science fiction & mystery bookstore. Fantasy was subsumed under science fiction.

I got asked for recommendations. A lot.

Customer: I like X. What else should I read?

I was good at it.

If I liked X. Here, read this. And this. And this one.

If I did not like X. Internal dialogue, I dislike that. Here, I dislike this one for the same reason.

Customers were happy.

The only book that I recommended across the board was The Princess Bride. You like the kind of books I like, here read this. You like the kind of books I don’t like, here read this.

Friends were happy.

You need to read the book. Seeing the movie is not the same. I’m not going all book snob on you. The movie and the book are different beasts. The frame narrative in the book is an entire plot unto itself.

Read it. You will thank me. I’d also try to find a copy without a movie cover, to help keep the two separate as you read.

But I digress.

My biggest victory was when someone came in looking for a book, the only thing they could remember was that it had a two-headed dragon on the cover.

I had no idea.

But I had a … feeling? I wandered around the store, looking like a water dowser without the stick. I put myself in book shelving mode. The feeling was stronger over … here. This shelf. I reached out and pulled down The Prophet of Lamath by Robert Don Hughes.

The customer was impressed.

So was I.

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Cover image from Goodreads.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Birmingham’s high on Tuesday was 27 degrees, breaking the previous record in 1977 of 30.” AL.com: These 4 Alabama cities had record low high temperatures on Tuesday, Morgan, Jan. 17, 2024.

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Alabama 19o
January 2024

A coat of ice. Dangerous. Pretty.

Technical Details

Phone camera. Partly, didn’t want to drag big camera out into freezing temps. I’m sure cameras can cope. Wasn’t sure what precautions were needed. If any. Mainly, majority of my brain space taken up by arctic blast. [The Cold Is Coming]

Many more photos snapped. This was the lucky shot. Need to be a better photographer than I am in order to capture sun on ice.

Onwards!
Katherine