Virtual Brush Box

Photos of the outside world. DIY Photography: These Winning Dog Photography Awards Photos Will Have Your Tail Wagging All Day, Baker 2025. Hat tip to G.

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Zone 8b
2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
October 2025

Process Notes

I took this because the green and red leaves looked unusual together. The image on my phone screen was quiet but lovely. Crisp colors. Nice contrast with the gray asphalt of the gutter. It grew on me as an image.

To make it a post from a photo, I transfer an image to my desktop to resize, watermark, and add a border. On my desktop screen, this one came out flat and dull. A bunch of leaves. So what.

I asked my IT guy about tuning the photo in post-production to make it look more like my phone. On his computer, the image came up halfway between the two in tonal quality, but with totally different colors, particularly among the brown leaves.

Apparently, the three computers have three different formulas for rendering an image. My phone has probably been optimized for social media. The original is très Instagramable.

When it’s a photo of the ears of horse, the main idea is that I am taking the photo from the saddle. It doesn’t really matter if each of us sees a slightly different shade of chestnut. [Finding Out]

With an art photo, the color and the contrast is kinda the whole point. From what I’ve read, this is a major discussion point in digital graphic design. How to gauge what colors will be seen by the end user.

So, I have no idea which image you will get. I hope it is passable.

Onwards!
Katherine

Horses of the outside world. “”Since early in January 2024, Lisa Curry Mair has been creating a “daily horse”. … to see all of the “dailys” please go to this link.” LCM: Calendar. Link goes to LCM Daily Horses on Flikr. “Fait Accompli” by Lisa Curry Mair is the cover of the USDF 2026 Member Guide. 2025 USDF Arts Contest: Meet the Winners!.

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Hunt Seat

Goldy
Hunt Seat Lesson
Rosewood Stables
2 November 2025
Note the water feature on right [Checking Out Another Hunter Barn]

Goldy continued to evaluate his rider. [New Ears For October]

Me: Trot.
Goldy: Meh.
Me: Trot.
Goldy: Meh.
Me: Trot.
Goldy: (trots)
Me: Good boy.
Goldy: No. You finally asked me to trot without flinging your upper body forward. Good girl.

He was not wrong,

Trot a line of double poles. First time through Goldy slowed down to be sure grandma was going to be okay. Seriously. His last owner was a grandmother and Goldy was bought specifically to take care of her. Second time thru the line, we trotted blithely & boldly down the line.

Cantering. It’s been a while since I’ve ridden a big canter. ASBs are all about short & bouncy. Even with zoomies, Razzy has a pony stride. When Goldy took off at the calmest, mildest canter, I had to do some deep breathing exercises on the fly. Partly, it was a nice, forward canter. Partly, I was waiting for it to go wahooni-shaped. (Gives hard side-eye to home team). One of the advisory committee suggested that I get up in a two-point and let Goldy flow along.

Me: (assumes two-point)
Gold: Oh, pony ride mode. Cool.

He reminds me of Alvin. ‘I’ll give you what you can handle.’ [You Can’t Handle The Trot]

Saddle Seat

Stopped by barn. Ended up not having a lesson. Considering taking a saddle seat break until I get my hunt seat back under control.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. I got misgendered again. Waiting in a line, other person says, This gentleman can go first. Per usual, he got flustered as soon as I spoke. He explained that it was because I was wearing a winter hat. Dude (he was definitely male presenting), you’re just making it worse. Women don’t want to stay warm? I should only wear pink? How about I ask this knitter for a Portland frog hat? That would go over well in rural Alabama. Sigh. Sometimes misgendering bothers me; sometimes it doesn’t. [Hello Sir & Hello Sir, Again]

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Not as much progress as last week. [Breaking Slowly Out Of The Gate, Horse Shopping]

This week is incidents we have encountered along the way.

🐴🐴🐴

Having our online message taken as a front for a kill pen.

Spa for ridiculously over-pampered pasture potatoes? Sure. Kill pen? I think not.

One reason cited was our desire to do “a little of everything” with New Horse. This was thought to be vague.

It’s not vague. It’s accurate. We really do want to do a little of everything.

Things Milton has done. Hunters, dressage, crossrrails, pleasure driving, derby (attempted), clinics both riding and driving, trail rides, Academy.

Things Rodney has done. Hunters, jumpers, two-phase, cross-country schooling, clinics, trail rides, barrels, obstacles, bareback, driving (very briefly, not successfully), western.

Things we hope to do with New Horse. Riding & driving. Hunters, jumpers, eventing, dressage (if I have to), side saddle, pleasure driving, derbies, CDE, breed shows (if applicable), saddleless & bridleless à la Foxfield ( I’ve done it before & would do again, on the right horse, maybe), and so on.

We’re not saying New Horse has to excel in all these areas. Just be willing to give them a try. [The Whatever Horse]

🐴🐴🐴

A horse who is reactive to loud people.

Alas. I am me.

I can be soothing, when required, for short periods. Then we get to the horse show.

Me: Let’s go! Ride ’em cowcat! Let’s do this!
Dottie or Alvin or Rocky or other campaigners: Bring it on!
Milton or Whiskey or horses of a sensitive nature. Eeeeeeek!

🐴🐴🐴

Trotter or Pacer? So far, one vote for each, both from folks who know Standardbreds.

🐴🐴🐴
We were invited to come by a barn open house. Not an ideal time to indulge in long chats about What We Are Looking For In A Horse. Everyone will be busy running about talking to friends.

Plus, it is the one weekend in November when everything is happening. Seriously. Everything that we might like to do in November is happening on that weekend. Count is now up to five events, including the open house. The rest of the month, nada.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Watching the NYC mayoral election. This one feels generational. Business as usual vs a whole new direction. Which philosophy will prevail.

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We take a walk with our horses first thing every morning. Therefore, we benefit from the time change.

I still don’t like it. I still hate the Stygian blackness at teatime.

I wish we would pick one. I would prefer the summer version, but I’ll take either so long as we stop this twice-a-year nonsense.

Animals living in the human world would appreciate if we would stop messing with mealtimes.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Watched Flintstones Christmas Carol over the weekend. Retellings fascinate me. My inner traditional curmudgeon wanted to declare it Not! Yet! Christmas! My practical side acknowledged that this particular ship has not only sailed but has fallen off the edge of the world. At least it was November.

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Added to glove stash.

This year, I will attempt to wear gloves more often. Even when I think I might not need them. My fingers have already started to crack. It’s gonna be long winter with constantly sore finger tips.

So, step one. Have multiple pairs. Usually I have one pair that I keep track of. If I have several then perhaps I will always a pair to hand, so to speak.

Also will try to be more consistent about keeping them on. I have a tendency to pull off my gloves to do just about anything. Learn to be more dexterous with gloves. If I take them off, to water for example, put them back on after. At least one pair has phone compatible tips.

Did you know you can use your nose to click on a phone screen? People laugh at you, but it works.

People gloves are horsekeeping. Horses are the main reason I have winter chores. I am not an athlete who chose riding. I am an indoor cat who likes horses enough to haul myself off the couch.

I know about lotion with night gloves. I know about super glue. Open to other tips for winter dry skin, particularly hands.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. The Alternative Limb Project. Prosthetics as wearable art.

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I’ve seen several ways to make a book, or booklet, from one piece of paper. This method was new to me.

The triangular pages within the book could be decorative elements or, if one were clever, could be mix-and-match pages that changed the image depending on which way the triangle lay.

Directions by Stephanie Wolff, as part of The Paper Year, run by Helen Heibert. Wolff credits Ken Leslie with influence on the design.

Previous Posts
[Papery Goodness, Art Discussion]
[Flexagon]

Onwards!
Katherine

Do I make changes in old posts?

No.

But also, it depends.

The underlying premise is that the post was what it was at the time. I may think I went overboard on the subtitles. Well, perhaps. But that was my theory at the time.

State of the Blog [Archives]

Things I Don’t Change

Labels. The reason for the subtitles was to warn readers that this is not a horse post, and you may wish to come back tomorrow. But then I thought people might want to know before clicking on the post. These are the things I cogitate about. So I dropped subtitles and changed to expanded main titles. Do I like how the post headings look in the past? No, but that was my premise at the time. [State of the Subtitles, State of the Blog]

Word Usage. When I started, I wrote saddle seat as one word, as with Saddlebred. In year two, an instructor pointed out that it should be parallel construction to hunt seat. “I shall use it thus moving forward. Correcting retrospectively would involve too much living in the past. That way lies madness” [RS: Posts: Saddle Seat]

Body copy. Nope. It is what it was. However, I will make additions, see below.

Things I Change

Obvious typos. I do proofread, I promise. Still, I’m amazed at how many misteaks I find when I read old posts.

Misspelled names. Took me a while to get Heathermoor correct.

Links that go the wrong place or have incorrect body copy.

Compromise Changes

Added “Art” to the end of the title of the first Mixed Media class post. On the theory that a) it was recent, b) I was still doing the rest of the classes, & c) this brought the post in line with current practice. [Painting, Mixed Media Class #1, Art]

I will make small changes on the day, if I just can’t even. For example, yesterday. I decided the store label did not belong with spooky photo. But I needed a spacer between the two photos. So I dropped the store info below the second photo and added Happy Halloween. [Spooky Season]

Updates

Updates are my solution to going back. This allows me to add to the post but preserves the original data. I’m up to three on my Nationals list. [Nationals I Have Known, List of Links]

Coda
Bloggers, what do you do about past posts?

Onwards!
Katherine