Virtual Brush Box

Internet issues. Have some cats.

Sebastien with ribbons

Blondie with saddle

Stepping Stone Farm

[Cat Pictures Please, Observer Effect]

[Cat Pause]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Kevin Drum: Is the world really all that scary? January 13, 2024. A) No. B) there’s always something to get your knickers in a twist about.

~~~

We have been taking the horses for walks in the morning just about every day since April of last year. We’ve developed some habits.

Habit one. Toss the leadrope over the neck. Let the horse amble along on his own. Doing this depends where we are in the walk. The first lap often has a few stops while we all process the arrival of a new day. Also depends on the marching order. The following horse will follow. These days, the lead horse will often go on his own as well. And so on.

Habit two. Stop at a particular turn on each lap for cookies. This started as a reward for going solo. Now it is a tradition. Rodney often gets to the corner first, on his own, and has to wait for the rest of us to catch up. Cookies happen once the everyone is present. There is no point in getting there early. Rodney has not gotten this message. Fine. You do you. We’ll be along shortly.

So, last Friday. Early on. Rodney was marching down to the cookie corner. The rest of us were coming along behind. Rodney got halfway down the short side of the pasture, hung a hard right, and headed back to the barn.

From a distance, I reminded him about cookies.

He stopped.

He considered.

… cookies … barn … cookies …

Nope, I’m outta here.

The three of us – me, Greg, Milton – looked at each other. Storms were forecast for later. The sky was Wagnerian.

You know, maybe he’s got a point.

Maybe it’s time to call this game.

Took Milton’s halter off and we all headed home.

On Sunday, we were back to status quo cookie.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama A&M is the school that opened the Macy’s Parade last year. [Fall Foliage]

~~~

Alabama Winter Tournament Association, #2
Agribition Center
Alabama A&M
Huntsville, AL USA
Saturday 13 January 2024

All with Optimus.

2. Advanced Horsemanship WTC Adult –5th of 8
3. Advanced Equitation WTC Adult (Pattern) – 4th of 4
8. Pleasure Horse/Pony WTC Adult – 6th of 7
14. Masters Pleasure 50+ – 1st of 2
26. Academy Driving – 1st of 1

Thank you to the Gray Family for the Outstanding Optimus.

Now that I’ve started the series, may as continue. Still get to show in five classes. Still want to make progress. [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]

Blow By Blow

Riding ribbons. Add another blue from the driving class.

First Class

Couldn’t get my position as snappy as it has been in my lessons. Did better with my plan to concentrate on being clean. Got both leads and kept the canters, despite Optimus having opinions on the length of the second canter. He wasn’t wrong. We did go around a bit. We also did an extra trot. Meant the judge was having trouble deciding and wanted another look. 5th of 8 is a good placing in that company.

Second Class – Pattern

Less clean. I made an interdisciplinary error. Got flummoxed asking for the canter away from the the rail (saddle seat). Then, asked for the canter with my inside rein (hunter/jumper/evening/dressage). Instead I should have employed an interdisciplinary fusion, i.e. canter anywhere (h/j/e/d), from the outside rein (saddle seat). I used to do this with Sam all the time.

Optimus, being a good dude, gave me exactly what I asked for, the wrong lead. Took me halfway down the long side with Coach Courtney yelling, “No. No. No. No. No …” for me to look down and think, ‘Hey, that’s wrong.’

After my brilliant display of counter canter in the rail work, a good pattern couldn’t save me. And I had a good pattern. Didn’t quite hit it out of the park, a few spots I could done better, but I did hit it deep into the outfield. I am the pattern queen.

Third Class

I don’t care what the judge thought. We smoked it. I blew into the ring first. We had big trots. I made passes. Ah well, everyone else improved as well. 6th of 7.

Fourth Class – Masters

Schedule is such that I get my game in gear right in time for the smallest class. 1st of 2.

Fifth Class – Driving

Even if it’s a solo class, you still make the effort. More big trots. A little bit of speed in the corners. I channeled what I learned from Alvin. We weren’t there yet, no drift, but I tried.

“If dirt wasn’t hitting me in the face, we weren’t going fast enough. Between the inside lines and the speed, we got some Tokyo Drift going in the corners. Alvin was loving it.” [Show Report: Team Awesome, Pro-Am 2016]

Going Solo

Went to show without emotional support husband. First time in many years. A) I was on a kind horse. I could believe that I was probably going to be okay. B) I was in open classes against performance riders. I was so outclassed that there was no pressure. C) Getting the horses fed by 6:30 and then leaving them and the dogs alone all day was sub-optimal. Everyone would have been fine, but given the other factors, staying home was reasonable.

This is the second time we have bailed on going somewhere together. The house really is set up for someone to be here all day. [Of Mares & Warmbloods]

Going Double

Showed in a double bridle. Not to the point of actually using it. Still at the Do Not Annoy The Horse phase. Getting better at this. At one point, horse rolled his eyes at me, I was able to send my hands forward and readjust.

The point of Winter Tournament is a place to try new things. The point of a school horse is forbearance with a rider’s learning curve.

Helmet Watch

Spotted more helmets in the adult classes: a second rider in my first class and one in the five-gaited class.

Media Note

Photos are the ones I sent home as updates. I meant to ask someone to take a picture of me with Optimus, but well, horse show.

Weather Note

When the series started, I grandly announced that I wasn’t going to show if it was cold. I was wrong. It was 28oF when I woke up. Amazing what you can tolerate when you are motivated.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. My outside world is going to be limited to a small, but intensely watched area for the next few days.

~~~

Screenshot of local weather for this week. Taken 11 Jan, c/o ABC 33/40.

One night at 16oF, two at 17oF. One day that never gets above freezing. Every winter, we have a week like this. This one has a bonus of starting off with precipitation to put a nice coat of ice on everything.

Blankets. Hot water. Resist the urge to shovel hay at them. Rodney would be okay with free choice. Milton would stuff himself. Keep the hot water going even after the temps go up. The water coming out of the ground can be chilly. We want nothing that would discourage drinking.

For reference. This is way cold for this area. We get often get below freezing at night, but only just. Perhaps 30oF for a few hours. 16oF is half of what we used to or what the buildings are designed to accommodate.

It’s hard not to be anxious about any weather extreme.

Note. This was written & scheduled on Thursday due to storms on Friday and scheduling ahead for the weekend. As of Sunday, the projected low for Wednesday morning is down to 13oF. Strangely, not during the wee smalls. It will be coldest around sunrise & after.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. Dragon Museum. Tennessee Crossroads: Dragon Dreams. I saw this before it closed. Was as amazing as it looks in the video, if not more.

~~~

DragonCat, A Chonky Dragon
by Tamara Vardomskaya
Drawn with Procreate
Printed and framed by Four Corners Gallery

Artist statement

“Fantasy art is full of dragons so gracile their internal organs cannot possibly fit inside. The world needs more dragons who are chonks, roumbs, and absolute units, inspired by Belgian draft horses, Sue the T. Rex who was robust even among T. Rexes, and the horse sculptures of Fernando Botero.”

My dragon shares genetic material with the Botero Sitting Cat in Singapore. The Great Cat: Fernando Botero

If you would like a Chonky Dragon of your own, contact Tamara Vardomskaya at tvardo @ gmail .com, website vardomskaya.com. The artist would be happy to discuss poses, expressions, and color choices for your personal chonkster.

Update. Part II [The Art of Framing, DragonCat Gets New Home]

Onwards!
Katherine

To: RAsolo@email.com
Subject: You’ll Never Believe What Happened

Dear Riley:

I had the weirdest experience at work today.

We were working with that horrible photographer. You know the one I mean. That is to say, he’s a good photographer. His pictures are amazing. But he’s such a pain to work with. He’s the one who sent me out to buy four different colors of green bulbs until I found the “right” green. Who does that? Green is green, right?

Anyway.

Our prima donna artiste decides he wants the backdrop moved two inches. Two inches. We had to pick everything up, move it, then rearrange all of the props, redrape the drapes, and on, and on. For two inches!

I mean c’mon, it’s a pair of sandals. Millions of people are going to see your photo … for the 10 seconds it takes them to turn the page. Maybe a few foot fetishists will cut it out and put it on their wall. Not really the market I would be aiming for.

So, there I was, waiting and zoning out.

Suddenly everything was shapes. Everywhere I looked were circles and triangles and lopsided hexagons. The tabletop. I knew it was square. It’s a tabletop. But it was also a parallelogram because of the angle I was looking at it.

And shadows. Everything had shadows. Yeah, I know everything has a shadow. But who really looks at them? Suddenly they were everywhere.

I snapped out of it in a few minutes. Maybe some of the catering food was bad.

Stay chill,

Christina

~~~

To: RAsolo@email.com
Subject: You’ll Never Believe What Happened, Again

It happened, again. At work, again.

I was in a meeting with that woman from accounting. The one who dresses like a fashion icon for a job in an cubicle. If she’s trying to impress people, she ought to just pin dollar bills to her shirt.

Anyway, she was yapping on, and suddenly the coffee service in the middle of the table reminded me of a still life class I haven’t thought of since college. The shape of the cups were a reverse of the shape of the urn. There was asymmetrical balance. The sugar packets were a focal point. I can’t believe I remembered all of those terms.

I shook my head. Looked at the drapes. I started to wonder how they were woven. Was the color goldenrod or mustard?

I snapped out of it after a few minutes, again.

Good thing.

I mean really, who looks at the world that way?

Stay chill,

Christina

Afterword

Written as a response to “The Shoddy Lands” by C.S. Lewis.

I post this as a huge fan of Lewis’ writing and thought. I stopped rereading the Narnia series when I realized I was no longer seeing the words. My eyes were simply sliding over the paragraphs as my brain replayed what happened next. Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce, & The Screwtape Letters have influenced my approach to religion.

But this one? Nope.

~~~

Added 2 Feb

Shoddy is in the Eye of the Beholder by Katherine Schaefer, A Google drive doc.

I admit to a bit of text envy. The author presents an complete story. Something I am still struggling with. Generating words? Sure. Producing plot? No so much.

In the case of my story above, I can see the ending. Clearly the main character needs to have an epiphany and a change of heart. I couldn’t see a way to approach it that didn’t come out as, ‘The spirits have done it all in one night!’

But I digress.

Now that I’m done making all about me, go over & read the other one. Author did an awesome job.

~~~

Update. 4 Feb. Title changed. “Fragment” added to be a more accurate description. Came up with this while drafting the post for 25 Feb. Adding to this post & 27 Jan are one of the few instances where I have gone back to make a change. Usually, I try not to adjust backwards. That way lies madness.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. In honor of MLK weekend. Lawyers, Guns, & Money: How Many “White” Inventions Came from Black People?, Loomis, July 10, 2023.

~~~

Flag
Shelby County Arts Council
Columbiana AL USA
January 2024

Technical Details

Flag. f/14.0, 1/100 sec., 75.0 mm, ISO 100. 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 Forgot]

Was a bit optimistic here. The flag photos looked good in the previews but less so writ large. I don’t have the lens for low light AND zoom AND speed. I need to remember this and remember to work with my camera, not blithely carry on as if I have a five-figure lens that will handle anything I throw at it. Know your equipment. “It’s a nice lens. It does what it is designed for.” [Tennessee Travels, Photography]

Flapping flag has to be the archetypal visual for wind. Other options on the day were tinsel from an outdoor, decorated tree and water from the fountain. Mediocre results. I couldn’t seem to put the movement in the right place relative to the rest of the image. I am not used to taking photos of things that move, unless horses.

Previous SCAC post. Shows fountain. The storm drain cover in the meta photo is to the left of the fountain, on the grass behind the benches. Flag poles are out of frame. [Places and Parks, August Walks II, fourth walk]

Onwards!
Katherine