Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. Rolex starts today. As we used to say at the big group dinner, “Here’s to absent friends.” Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event.

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Stepping Stone Farm is at the Citrus Cup horse show at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida.

I said I wasn’t going. [The Red Queen Rides, and Drives, Again]

Yet, there was always the lingering thought that it would be really, really fun.

As it turns out, the trip was so popular that the bus filled with Performance division riders. No Academy from our barn. So, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Plus, my foot. Have not tested it with a stirrup, much less in the saddle seat stirrup position that puts extra pressure on the outside edge of the foot. Right where the break is.

Can’t ride. No horse to ride if I could. Guess I reeeeeally wasn’t supposed to go to Ocala.

Unlike last month, I don’t have any cute stories about showing in Florida. [More Scheduling Shenanigans]

In fact, I don’t think I have ever ridden in Florida. Never so much as sat on a horse. Which is weird, given the amount of time I spent there. My grandparents retired there when I was seven, so I went down a lot, for many years.

I had a chance to attend a few of the big shows, either spectating or covering for magazines. Mostly, I hung with the grandparents. We didn’t do much tourist. When they were young enough, I was too young. When I was old enough, they were too old. So, mainly it was family visits.

WEC is now tied with the St. Louis National Charity Horse Show for places I would like to show.

First on the list is still the Kentucky Horse Park. [7 Ways To Dodge Nostalgia, Dream Rides]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “One if by land. Two if by D.C.” NorthEnd: Old North projections, Balsam, 04/17/2025. More projections, Silence Dogood: About.

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Now that I have been cleared to walk, I’m starting to do some ground work with one horse while the other horse lunges. [Shuffleboard at the Retirement Home]

I’m talking about close-in work, not long lining, not lunging. I’ve made efforts in this direction before. It never seems to stick. First off, I want to watch how the horse on the lunge is doing. How is he moving? How is his mood? Do we need to make any feed adjustments, and so on. Second, I don’t have a clear picture of where I am going with this. Despite many books on the subject and many suggestions, I feel that I go out to the ring and kinda moosh around. Of course, there is the in-hand work of the Spanish Riding School, but that’s aiming a bit high.

We’ll see how long it stays in the repertoire.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Earth Day & Dark Sky Week.

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tldr: update from doctor’s appointment, horse at end.

Rare sighting of my foot in town. Shown here in brace number three.

Why so much foot?

Because.

Tuesday has become foot day.

I mislike when blogs drop a story.

The blog has become my external memory.

Previously

Rodney tripped and landed on my right foot during a morning walk back in March. No dramatic swelling nor ghastly hurting. Finally got foot xrayed. Fracture of fifth metatarsal. Kind of squicky to know there was a pointy bit in there. Referral to ortho doc. No one in huge hurry to get me seen, which I assumed was a good sign.

Before Doc

I saw 4 options.

One. Nothing changes. In which case, trip was pointless.

Two. Taller boot to immobilize ankle. NBD. Had one before. [I’m Bored Already]

Three. Crutches and non-weight-bearing. Not happy about that.

Four. Surgery to realign foot bone. Super not happy about the possibility.

It was a long week & a half. I kept telling myself that if it had been really bad, Urgent Care would have sent me to the ER. I kinda believed myself.

After Doc

Door number one, but info turned out to be helpful.

No change to x-ray. Bone has not moved since last week. No one has said, but our theory is that the bone hasn’t shifted since the day it got stomped, which is good news.

Bone will heal around break & make a bony lump.

Come back in 6 weeks for another progress check.

Entire thing likely to take 12 weeks, which is the beginning of June.

Move as comfortable.

Boot that I was wearing was the type they recommend.

The sharp pain I feel from a bad step is the ligament objecting not the bone moving.

Takeaway is that I can’t – insert reasonable caveats – hurt it. Pain is pain, rather than further damage.

Knowing that I am not causing setbacks is a huge mental relief.

Horses

Still walking in the morning. Adding laps as foot permits. Downside is that as little as two or three laps, 0.4 or 0.6 of a mile, makes me cross and cranky for the rest of the day. Growing bone is tiring. Apparently.

[Foot post archives]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Easter Monday at the zoo. A tradition that began with folks who had to work on Easter. Smithsonian National Zoo: Easter Monday.

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Rodney has little white spots on his coat. I was this many years old when I learned these are called Birdcatcher spots. Equine Ink: The Mystery of Birdcatcher Spots: Fleeting Markings with a Storied Past.

[Photo was not loading last night. Will update once my system starts talking to me again, in something other than error messages.]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Sesame Street. “The Museum of Modern Cookie is an art museum that specializes in showcasing the most famous works of cookie art in the world from such artists as Leonardo da Crunchy, Vincent van Dough and Edvard Munch … Among the museum’s staff are … the Cookie Patrol (a trio of guard penguins) and Grover as an in-house art supplier.” Muppet Wiki: The Museum of Modern Cookie.

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Festival cookies!

Created in Egypt. Originally pagan.

Christians came along, Easter cookies!

Moslems came along. Eid al-Fitr cookies!

Bottom line, people like cookies.

“Kahk … is a small circular shortbread biscuit that originated in Egypt and is eaten across the Arab world, primarily to celebrate Eid al-Fitr.” Wiki: Kahk

“Kahk remained popular after Egypt’s conversion to Christianity, and was commonly served on special occasions, particularly during Easter.” Wiki: Kahk > History

Cookies & tablecloth from Taste of Egypt.

Current online class, UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East.

Update: Phone camera

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. In local news, School House Rock: Shot Heard Round the World.

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Cairo IRL, Things I Would Do

The Greatest Hits. Pyramids, a cruise on the Nile, and so on. The really, really big tourist attractions are attractions for a reason.

The Cairo sites, the Citadel, famous mosques, and so on.

Take the Cairo of Naguib Mahfouz Walking Tour. Would be cool to see places that I read about.

Visit Diwan book store. Book by one of the founders, Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller, Nadia Wassef (Farrar 2021). Bought book? Are you kidding, of course I bought it. It is dwelling at the top of my TBR pile. Have not started. Needed to switch subjects for class. Will read.

Visit a nilometer. “An ancient instrument used to measure the waters of the Nile so Egyptian farmers would know whether to expect famine or flood.” Atlas Obscura: Nilometer, Netsky

Overnight in the desert. At an oasis. With a guide. Carrying lots of water. Experience true dark. Feel the extent of the desert. Stare at stars.

Hang with the horse folks. Find out about the horse culture in the area. Who rides? What disciplines? Shows? How is the horsekeeping? And so on. Maybe take a lesson or go on a ride? Because I have such a good record of hopping on strange horses. (Ha!)

US State Dept: Egypt Travel Advisory – Level 3: Reconsider Travel. dated October 15, 2024, cited April 18, 2025.

Cairo Virtual

Pyramids. When I searched on virtual pyramids, anything of interest was swamped by tour guide sites wanting to sell me things. As I understand it, this is pretty much on point for visiting the pyramids IRL.

Watch. The walking tour dude lists six more Cairo walks on his channel, YouTube: Luio Lui. [Taking A Break On A Porch]

Walk. “The Giza Pyramids Virtual Challenge will take you 46mi (75km) through the city of Cairo right to the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.” Conquer Challenge: Giza Pyramids Would sign up if I still did virtual medals. Screenshots are fun. [5Ks]

Watch. Rick Steves Cairo. Video of TV show. Blog posts. Video rewatch with commentary. The show is well-shot & hits the high notes, including the mosque mentioned in Palace Walk. More below.

Read. Cairo: The City Victorious by Max Rodenbeck (Knopf 1999). Finished. Excellent, although the date makes the contents more history and less current events.

Fiction. Finding books set in & around the pyramids was easy peasy, even across a variety of genres. Cairo itself, less so.

Coming soon. AUC Press: Virtual Book Talk: “Visualizing Egypt” with Paulina Banas, April 29, 2025. Free.

Coming soon-ish, Road Scholar. Online Lecture: King Tut’s Secrets — Uncovering New Clues Through Technology, Monday, Sept. 22, 2025. Free. Reminds me of the Arthurian discovery, BBC: Lost manuscript. [Your Name In Hieroglyphics]

Nota bene. Virtual Cairo is travel advisory level 0. An advantage of virtual over IRL.

Confession

I had dismissed Rick Steves. I saw him as a squeaky little elf who says nice things about places he visits. I was wrong. Or, I was right, but he is more than that as well. I was impressed with the Cairo coverage. In the video, he gently mentions politics. In the blog, he is even more direct. Without ever being less than kind.

He was honest about his safety & those of his listeners/readers. In Cairo, he chose to stay in a fancy hotel, for the fancy security and as a respite from the intensity of the city.

“I sleep at in an international-class hotel. It comes with first-class security. I hope the future will be more relaxed, but for now, I splurge for the peace of mind.” Steves: Egypt’s Cairo > Script

“While I like to think I’m a rugged traveler, to be honest, I’m able to thoroughly enjoy Cairo only because I have the refuge of a towering international-class hotel.” Steves: Party Poolside Back at the Hotel

“I often call Europe ‘the wading pool of world exploration.’ A city like Cairo isn’t the wading pool. It’s the deep end — and someone turned on the jets. If you can swim, the water’s great. But if you’re not quite ready to dive in, follow me here on my blog for some armchair Egyptian adventures.” Steves: Egypt — Something Different for a Change.

He referred to his high-end hotel as “rich-world.” As in, “If you want rich-world comfort, you’ll pay rich-world prices.” I love that phrasing. It is more accurate, less colonial, and less pejorative than First/Third world. Steves: Egypt’s Cairo > Script

I will be watching more Rick Steves videos.

No links to the company. No deals. Simply excited about this & wanted to tell you.

Coda

Current online class, UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East.

Onwards!
Katherine

Architecture of the outside world. Arch Daily: Cairo Architecture City Guide, Fakharany 2023. Photos of 24 buildings with an excellent Cairo old & new photo as the header.

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Rooftop detail
Concord Center
Birmingham AL USA
April 2025

The reason for the pyramids? Building owner says church. Architect says courthouse.

“The glass pyramids at the top of the building reflect the nearby Cathedral’s spires.” BL Harbert: The Concord Center. Cathedral visible on left in the photo below.

“These 37-foot tall towers play homage to similar structures that sat atop the original courthouse.” Williams Blackstock Architects: Concord Center.

Technical Details

Big camera. Check. Went somewhere, did something. Check.

As with food photography last week, architectural photography is a thing. I almost took a class in it. [Bean Can, Food Photography & Architectural Photography Linkfest]

One challenge is sight lines. Big buildings tend to herd together with other big buildings.

Another challenge is busy streets. I make point of standing near something solid, such as a light pole or a building, in order to be out of the way, and to make sure I don’t tip over into traffic.

Definitely need a dedicated wide angle lens, rather than one end of a zoom.

Access. Had I been doing this professionally, I would have inquired about access, either their roof or neighboring roofs, or both.

Speaking of sight lines, People where good about either waiting for me or ducking down, which was nice of them.

Current online class, UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East.

Onwards!
Katherine