Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. Mend In Public Day.

🏙️🏙️🏙️

Years ago, I was chatting with a friend. He was waxing nostalgic about childhood. You know, he said, when you had rules, but they didn’t really count. Like clean your room or take out the trash.

No, I thought, I grew up in a city. The rules mattered. Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t cross on a red light. Don’t go into the park at night.

This wasn’t parental paranoia. This was New York City in the ’70s, when Times Square was still a hive of scum and villainy, minus the spaceport.

🏙️🏙️🏙️

Current online class, UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East. On hiatus for the moment, hence generalized city instead of Cairo or Istanbul.

Onwards!
Katherine

Photos of the outside world. Business Insider: Photos show the most powerful moments from Pope Francis’ funeral proceedings, Lakritz, Apr 24, 2025. AP PHOTOS: The death of a pope begins a centuries-old ritual to elect his successor, April 23, 2025.

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Continuing to explore the menus in GIMP. [Pushing Buttons]

Filters > Distorts > Ripple

Colors > Threshold

Tools > Paint Tools > Gradient.

I have no idea.

Tools > Transform > Unified Transform

A way to rotate, skew, resize, etc, all at once.

Colors > Exposure (Black level)

Colors >Saturation, 1.5

Clicked on twice. Pushed slider 1/2 way second time. Not sure what that that means. Recording as notes for later.

Original photo. Looks washed out in comparison. Repost [Bean Can]

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

Onwards!
Katherine

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