Virtual Brush Box

Images, Blogging About Blogging

Awareness of the outside world. Jim C. Hines: Thoughts on Blood Donation and Bodily Autonomy. May 2022.

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On Friday posts, I usually talk about my fitness efforts, such as they are. It’s difficult to generate content – particularly fitness content – with one’s foot in the air. [Bored]

So I restarted my Instagram account, virtual_brush_box.

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First photo.

Caption: Art in the ER

Second Caption: Reopening account while I am on stall rest.

Unembedded copy of photo, in case Instagram decides to take their toys and go home.

Props

Got the idea when the main character in a book posted to Instagram, “Anything that matched the brand she was trying to build for herself.” Since my ‘brand’ is random shit, dunno why this spoke to me, but it did. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care, by Ashley Herring Blake (Berkley 2022, Kindle)

Yes, I am a straight person who reads gay romance novels, either M/M or F/F. I find them restful. It is a similar situation to saddle seat versus hunter/jumper. I have few opinions on the conduct of gay relationships. I have many opinions on M/F relations. Have you ever noticed an incident written as cute in a novel that would qualify as sexual harassment in real life? But I digress.

Past

This was my Instagram page from November 2018 to now. Actually, it was more complicated than that. Instagram shut this account down. I started another one. And so on. [Contact]

Anyway.

This was the one I reopened.

Future

One photo so far. I’ll see what else turns up. At the other end of the scale, I’ll see if I can keep Instagram limited to an occasional, interesting side project.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Did civic stuff at county courthouse & city hall this week. Saw more masks than I was expecting. Only a few, but enough that I didn’t feel like a lone weirdo.

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I’m riding, but only at the walk. [Easing On Down The Road]

We went over to Falcon Hill Farm for ring acclimatization. Taking exercises at tortoise pace is never the wrong move with this horse.

Walked courses made up of poles, low crossrails, and tiny verticals.

Rodney: Shouldn’t we be trotting by now?
Me: No, dude. We’re being chill today.
Rodney: Huh.

I worked on keeping myself exactly with his balance over the “jump”.

No media because walk poles.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Alabama New Center: Alabama Power’s infrastructure suffered historic damage during the April 2011 storms and tornadoes. Massey, April 23, 2021. Outstanding photos by Meg McKinney, as always. It’s a 10-year retrospective article. Lead photo & some of the others are by Meg. Hover over photo to see labels.

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Over on social media, dressage rider Lauren Sprieser talked about the different go buttons.

“There’s two ways to tell a horse to “go” – the slow, deep aids, and the quick, shallow aids. The slow, deep aids are things like the squeezing calf, the driving seat, or the lifting spur, and they encourage a horse to take longer steps – things like passage, or like medium or extended gaits. The quick, shallow aids are things like a touch with the stick, a quick use of the leg, or a quick touch of the spur, and they encourage a horse to take quicker steps – like in piaffe, pirouettes, or just generally going forward within a gait.⁣”

Lauren Sprieser (@laurensprieser) • Instagram, Lauren Sprieser Facebook, March 16, 2022

First of all. Really? I had no idea.

Second. I occurs to me that saddle seat is always asking the horse to take higher, quicker steps. Therefore, riding would be all about the ‘quick, shallow aids.’ Which would be consist with the riding style. Lower leg off. Tap to use. Lower leg off. No reason to have a steady contact with the lower leg if you don’t need a ‘squeezing calf.’

I have not gotten out of the shallow end of the pool in either discipline, as evidenced by my first comment above. Any guidance from folks who ride high-level saddle seat or dressage, or better yet, both?

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Jan. 6 Hearings. Is anyone on either side going to change their minds?

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Total. 61.5 miles, 35 rides, 27 hours 3 minutes, pace 26:23 min/mile.

This week. 4.5 miles, 4 rides, 1 hour 57 minutes, pace – walk.

To go. 38.5 miles in 33 days.

Notes

Ring work
Milton, 5.5 miles
Rodney, 1 mile.

Estimated by time. Not logged. Keeping track in case we need the mileage. [VT Announced]

[Easing On Down The Road, Week 9, Virtual Tevis 2022]
[VT archives]

Update. Why I didn’t think we’d make progress. [I’m Bored Already]

Because the condition of my extremities is not at the forefront of everyone’s mind, the commenter most graciously excepted.

Onwards!
Katherine

Riding

Awareness of the outside world. Phys.org: Fantastic giant tortoise,’ believed extinct, confirmed alive in the Galápagos. Fuller-Wright, June 9, 2022.

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New ear bonnets.

Taking some convincing. Rodney thinks a fancy hat means he’s going into the show ring. No dude, it’s just bug protection. Milton had a tick in his ear a while back. He thinks his ear still hurts. Doesn’t want us to touch it. Unless he forgets. Then we can do whatever we want with his ear.

Sigh. Nothing is easy with these two.

Will work on getting modelling pics.

Onwards!
Katherine

Images

Art from the outside world. Twitter, Amanda, @Pandamoanimum, The final dance in Dirty Dancing, but they’re dancing to The Muppet Show theme tune. May 17, 2022

The final dance in Dirty Dancing, but they’re dancing to The Muppet Show theme tune. pic.twitter.com/ldfjmm5JoQ

— Amanda (@Pandamoanimum) May 17, 2022

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Wishing you a happy summer season.

Admin

As with last time, using what I have on hand as a creative starting point, Field Notes: Signs of Spring, SPRING 2022 QUARTERLY EDITION. Not a review. No discounts or affiliation with company other than as a customer. [A Plethora of Purple]

Is there a theory here? Why yes, thank you for asking. I was trying to come up with a plan for graphics on Sundays. I considered another art subscription box, even though the rational part of me knew it wouldn’t work any better than last time. [SketchBox Fail]

Finally dawned on me to use my iPenBox and Field Notes subscriptions. They’re coming in the house anyway, might as well see what I can do with them. [Pens Notebooks]

Took me a while to come up with the idea, that’s why this product is Spring and I went with Summer. Plus the sun is easier to draw than flowers.

I have a surplus of Signs of Spring notebooks. May I send you one? [Free To Good Home]

Links

Guardian: Yellow: The History of a Colour by Michel Pastoureau review, Smith 2019

Draplin Design Co.

[Yellow Associations]

Onwards!
Katherine