Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. NBA: When Nikola Jokic visits Philly, his love for horses and hoops collide, Whenever the Nuggets play the 76ers on the road, Nikola Jokic gets to talk more about horses and less about hoops. Powell 2024.

~~~

Alabama Winter Tournament 2024-2025
Masters Pleasure, series championship ribbon & charcuterie board
Academy Driving, series championship ribbon & personalized necklace

Showed in half of two shows, two classes each. Optimus & Diego for riding. Diego for driving. Three solo classes. Had company in the ring for the first riding class.

All The Thanks

To Optimus, & Diego for being stars, and to their families, for sharing their wonderful horses.

To Stepping Stone Farm, as usual.

To the AWTA, for running our winter show season.

Props to the barn that requested a separate driving class for first year drivers. Not us, but we benefited. We were able to enter two people with one horse and cart. No need to haul a second cart. I often do this. With the logistics this year, I would not have been able to. Maybe my class would have happened anyway. Sure was easy this way. [A Wordless Story, Show Photos, Winter Tournament 2018-19 #3, photo of me unloading cart from truck]

Big props to Coach Courtney for the Masters classes. This was her instigation. I figured I’d just be driving. Partly happy for additional ribbons and bling, of course. Mostly because the Masters class with Optimus at the first show was the most fun I’ve had in the ring in a while. I love horse showing. This is known. I never mind being in the ring. What never? Well, hardly ever. But I digress. The point is that class was a hoot from start to finish.

Outfit of the Day

Or not.

No photos of clothing because I wore the same outfit as earlier in the year. I added the festive plastic clogs due to my foot squashing adventure a few days before. Follow me for more fashion tips. [Annual Outfit of the Day, Playing Footsie]

Show Posts

Last year’s banquet [Celebrating The Series, AWTA 2023-2024 Banquet].

Show #1, [The Winter Blues You Want, Show Report AWTA 2024-2025 #1]. Non-show morning activity, [The Bad and The Good, Life with Dogs]

[Getting Ready For Showing]

[Getting Ready For Not Showing]

Show #2, [Winter Blues On Repeat, Show Report AWTA 2024-2025 #2, Weekend Warrior Part 2]. Non-show morning activity [Sauntering on the Streets, Logistics]

Show #3, sat out. Didn’t feel the magic of a two-hour drive (each way) for two solo classes. I went last year, but did more classes.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Small candle. Uninstalled Igram, a family member to FB. This one was hard. The algorithm did occasionally turn up something I was interested in. However, I have noticed a influx of sad pet videos and red posts. [Truck Mileage]

~~~

This is NOT what is happening now. This is a repost from 2018. What is happening now is me whining about this fact. [I am not back. This is not a post.]

I was reading about taking a horse out on trails with a cart, Collection of Madcap Escapades: Trail Driving. Yes, the same blog I mentioned last time. [Lesson Attempt]

Horse envy.

Gee, that sounds like fun.

I wish we could do that.

Wait!

We did that.

It was fun.

A good time was had by all.

Milton was a star.

“By the end of the first day, he was trotting along the ring road. By the end of the second day, he was happily weaving in and out of a stand of trees as an ersatz marathon obstacle.” [I am not back]

And then he backslid.

He backslid into a heap. [ibid, in exhausting detail]

He never rebounded.

In our last driving session, in 2024, the goal was a short, quiet trot in his own pasture. This goal was not met. [Delay Of Game]

I don’t get this horse. I really don’t. I can’t ride every horse. Far from it. But I can usually grok them. This one, no.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Small candle. Uninstalled Kindle. Bring on the codex. I realize there are alternatives in the ebook world. I may explore them at some point. For now, a headfirst dive into my TBR pile.

~~~

Stomp!

That was the sound of Rodney’s hoof and my foot attempting to occupy the same space.

I usually pride myself on keeping my feet out from under. Back in the misty blog past, there is a post wherein I brag on this very thing with Sam. He tried to step on my foot. I told him this was not my first rodeo. [no link, my search fu failed]

In this case, there was no time. Rodney tripped, flung a hoof out to the side, met my foot.

Fortunately, both Rodney & I acted fast. As soon as I felt weight, I made an abundance of noise. Equally quickly, Rodney leapt to the side to get away from the noise, taking his foot-squashing device with him.

Sore for a few days. Had to watch how I stepped. Didn’t even get a decent, story-worthy bruise out of it.

Cute Coda

This was at the beginning of a walk. (On Wednesday, the post where I said there was no drama. Ha!) While my medical advisor tried to ascertain what had happened amid my cloud of swearing, the horses gathered round. Milton is a group horse. He loves team meetings. Clearly something was wrong with the team and he was concerned.

Milton was kind of adorable, and this is me saying it.

Rodney? He just bummed for cookies. Contrite? He couldn’t spell it if you spotted him the all the letters in the correct order.

Onwards!
Katherine

Blog note. I try to keep the first half of the week (Monday to Thursday) for horses, and Mondays as horsekeeping. However, I wanted to use these photos and didn’t have anything riveting for today. Enjoy.

~~~

Lunar Eclipse, 13-14 March 2025

Starting, 11:11 pm CST, 13 March 2025

Blood Moon, 2:16 am CST, 14 March 2025

Partial, 3:05 am CST, 14 March 2025

The light blurred out the shape of the partial in my photo. It was at this phase, screenshot from timeanddate: March 13–14, 2025 Total Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon)

All with phone camera. Kind of amazing. Assist to Rose for needing to pee and getting me out of bed.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. NPS: Artist-in-Residence, scroll down for list by discipline. I didn’t realize there had been so many. Who knows what will happen to the program now.

~~~

B is for book.

Toni Buckby was the inspiration and impetus behind the Unstitched Coif Project.

Process Notes

For reference, deconstruction of the interior patterns.

Bittersweet, Merriam Webster: 10 Words for Uncommon Colors

Project description [Colorwork Alphabet Introduction]

List of previous alphabets [Colorwork Alphabet A]

Onwards!
Katherine

What I Learned From Class

Ettended UChicago Graham School, Alaska: Indigenous, Russian, American.

One. Russian influence in AK. Yes, I knew about the sale. No, I did not know about the remnants of Russian in the state. BTW, Russia and the US had different calendars. On the day of the sale Alaska went from the 6th to the 18th.

Two. Are there any first contact/colonization stories that aren’t depressing?

Three. Politics has always been global. Russian became interested in getting out of Alaska after a loss in the Crimean War.

Four. I am now more likely to stop at a TV show, or pick up a book about AK, at least to check it out.

What I Found While Reading & Surfing

Odds are good, but the goods are odd. Expression. Also said about tech schools.

“The great alone” Murder on the Iditarod Trail by Sue Henry.

“Alaskans, according to a familiar saying, don’t tan—they thaw.” Death Trap by Sue Henry – among other places including on a t-shirt for sale.

“The mules became accustomed to shipboard life, placidly converting oats into a hygiene problem.” Guardian by Joe Haldeman. Parts of the book are set in Alaskan towns during the gold rush. No idea of historical accuracy but the details scan well enough. Turned up in a search for Alaskan science fiction. It is … kinda sorta. Weird book, but a good writer can get away with writing decisions that would doom a lesser writer. I both finished this & recommended it. Used as intro link. [New Year, New Energy, New Horse] Thu 16 Jan.

The Iditarod & the amount of coverage available for couch mushers.

What I Learned From Posting About Alaska

Fiction
[North To Alaska part 1] Saturday 23 November 2024
[Taking The Long Way Home part 2] Saturday 11 January
[I’m Not Going] Saturday 25 January
[You’ve Got To Go] Saturday 8 February
[When You Can’t Go, Muse and the Alaska Made For TV Movie] Saturday 22 February
[Going Virtually, Fiction] Saturday 8 March, included links & Internet finds that otherwise would be listed here.

“How do I write a story set in a place I’ve never been?” I worked that premise into the ground. I will admit, after awhile, I wanted to see if I could keep it going. [I’m Not Going]

Non-Fiction
[Wild Nature] Alternate title, In Praise of Civilization, Saturday 18 Jan
[Searching For Alaska, A Linkfest] Saturday 15 Feb

Art & Photography
[Lettering Over Alaska, Art] Sunday 2 Feb
[Alaska on The Street, Photography] Friday 21 Feb
[Step Zero, Photo Editing] Friday 28
[Totem Pets, Art] Sunday 9 March

The area for the stop sign photo turned out to be sketchier than my initial evaluation. I was fine. I was able to step into the truck and drive off. Makes me a bit more paranoid/prudent about the next time I go somewhere, which – unfortunately – is probably a good thing.

Intro Links

Alaska.org: Alaska Photography: What’s Different. (a travel sales site) [Footprints in the Snow] Friday 17 January

World Ice Art Championships. Ice Alaska Photo Gallery. [Lettering Over Alaska] Sunday 2 February

Anchorage Daily News: Murkowski introduces bill to keep Denali as the name of North America’s tallest peak [Searching For Alaska] Saturday 15 February

Alaska Magazine: 2024 Photo Contest Sponsored by Alaska Airlines [Alaska on The Street] Friday 21 February

Anchorage Daily News: Think sled-dog racing is fading? In Alaska’s mushing-crazy Kuskokwim Delta, it’s booming, [Minion, My Water Is Icky, Life With Dog] Thursday 27 February

Alaska Society of Outdoor and Nature Photographers: alaskaWILD. [Step Zero, Photo Editing] Friday 28 February

[Alaska.org: Totem Heritage Center. Also mentioned, Alaska DNR: Totem Bight State Historical Park and Alaska.org: Saxman Village Totem Park.] Sunday 9 March

Previous AK on the Blog

Imagine the effect on geopolitics if Russia still owned Alaska. Idea courtesy of listening to the audio edition of Full Circle by Michael Palin (St. Martins 1997, Audible 2012), which begins with the author looking out across the Bering Straits. Palin Travels: Full Circle [Summer Shoes] 24 June 2024

“15 states have more than one time zone: Florida, Oregon, Kentucky, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, North Dakota, Michigan, Alaska … “[Yet More Walking, State of the Now] 1 June 2023

APM: Mary Peltola becomes first Alaska Native elected to Congress, Ruskin & George, August 31, 2022.” [State of the Fitness, Ambling About] 2 Sept 2022

Alaska Airlines Safety Dance. [The Boot Barrage Begins, Rodney] 28 April 2021

Virtual 5Ks, Don’t believe I did any of them. [Will Walk For Bling] 14 May 2020

“Tim Cahill reports on the road trip to end all road trips: a journey that took him from Tierra del Fuego to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.” [Have You Read This? Travel] 9 November 2019

+ Attend a USEA event in Hawaii and in Alaska, Areas VI and VII respectively. [My Go Mighty 10] 20 November 2013

Next Up

Cities, both general and specific. UC Graham: From Istanbul to Cairo: The City in the Historical Novels of the Middle East

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Happy Pi Day” : 03.14.2024. Vizualization of Pi being Irrational by Chirag Dudhat on YouTube.

~~~

Technical Details

Tree flower, f/8.0, 1/125 sec., 140.0 mm, ISO 100.

Onwards!
Katherine