Virtual Brush Box

I

Trade at the crossroads
Wood huts to steel heights
Crowds, crime, and culture
Nightlife and night shift
Bourgeoisie birthplace

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II

Walled intersection
Cart wheels and car honks
Taxes, trade, tourism
Street signs and stop lights
Opportunity

Afterword

Inspiration. The hieroglyph for city. Above, from Artefacts of Writing: ‘Niwt’: the hieroglyph for ‘city’, with extended explication of the image. Second image from same site, with other heirglyphs. Also, “O49 Area with crossroads … as organized by Sir Alan H. Gardiner in his Egyptian Grammar.” Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Gardiner’s Sign List of Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

Suggestions for specifics from Forbes: What Defines A Great City?, O’Sullivan 2024 & Forbes: How To Quantify A Successful City, Beyer 2015. Prepandemic, so specifics have aged out, but the “collection of indices” is still relevant.

This started as a haiku, but let’s be serious, my attempts at haiku are more about clever word choice than about creating a poetic moment. So, I decided to leaned into it. These are the geometric equivalent of poetry.

Archives [Haiku, Senryu, & Haiku-like Objects]

Update. To be read as separate efforts. Numbers, divider, & second photo and attribution added to clarify.

Onwards!
Katherine

Photos of the outside world. Pretty pictures to peruse. Mobile Phone Awards: 14th Annual MPA Winners & Honorable Mentions.

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Dandelion in the Driveway.
1 April 2025

Found at the bottom of my driveway as I headed off to run errands.

Technical Details

Phone Camera

Onwards!
Katherine

Horses in the outside world. Would you ride your horse through a Tractor Supply store? Seriously. A Collection of Madcap Escapades: Double Trouble. I have mentioned this blog before, in relation to driving. [Driving, Lesson]

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Roeckl® Lona Gloves
Dressage Extensions

I recently found myself in possession of a gift certificate to Dressage Extensions. I decided to use the windfall to order something I would not normally buy. Purple gloves definitely qualify.

I don’t like riding with gloves. I stopped schooling with them as soon as I switched to jumpers with Previous Horse. However, gloves are de rigueur for saddle seat, in the ring or in a lesson.

Don’t know when my next lesson will be. When I do go back, I will be stylin’.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Last year’s IRL ride had problems. “To help riders meet this test better, you can look forward to expanded educational opportunities that will be offered after the first of the year.” The Tevis Cup: Get Ready – Here Comes 2025!, November 11, 2024.

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Virtual Tevis starts today. We did not sign up. Partly, the problems alluded to above. Mostly, us. We are not riding or driving these days (sad face, moving on), so it would have to be 100 miles of hand walking. We’ve done this before. [VT archives]

With our daily morning walk, I am going to come close to 100 miles in 100 days anyway. Last year, the Virtual Tevis was less of a challenge and more of a bookkeeping exercise. The other human in the house is still on injured reserve. He’s okay, but daily walking is out. He could only do it if we rode/drove. [Version 2.0]

Update, this decision was made (and the post drafted) before my foot injury.

Maybe some year we will get back to riding 100 miles in 100 days.

Elsewhere, folks are having fun with this. The Ohio Horsemans’ Council arranges group rides and a finish line party, allevents, Chagrin Falls: The Virtual Tevis.

The IRL Tevis Cup starts July 12th, 2025.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Comment seen on the Internet. Given everything that’s going on, do we really want to add pranks?

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The only point I’ve ever see in April 1st.

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Figured it out? Scroll down for answers.

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The Edible Book 2025

Beet, orange, onion, kiwi

Banana, orange, onion, kale

Links

UC LiBlog: And the winners are…Results of the 2024 UC Libraries International Edible Books Festival, Norris 2024

Sewanee, Jessie Ball duPont Library: Edible Books Festival > Previous Edible Books Events > Past Event Albums, 11 years of photos.

Previous Posts

[Edible Book 2024, Food Art]

[Edible Book] 2023, edible book links & discussion of April 1st.

Onwards!
Katherine

Horses of the outside world. “But it made me realize how painful eye injuries can be … . Putting yourself in another creature’s shoes helps you to imagine what they might be experiencing.” The Backyard Horse Blog: Usually, It’s The Horse With The Corneal Scratch . . . I agree. Relatedly, I think sometimes we focus on the specific injury and forget to cut the horse slack. We forget how irritable and uncooperative we can get when we are in pain. Injury affects the entire system, in us and in horses. (The search box tells me this is the fifth time I have cited this blog. Thank you!)

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If it’s spring, it must be time to cut names and tails.

The horses are not going anywhere, They don’t need fancy show trims. Manes and tails were cropped strictly as a tick prevention measure. Keeping the hair off the ground takes away the tick ladder.

Rodney’s Tail Remnants

Milton’s Tail Remnants

Milton’s Mane Remnants

Milton’s Mane Before

One doesn’t think of ticks crawling up the mane, until one thinks about horses with their heads down to graze.

Milton’s Mane After.

It’s fluffed up a bit since and doesn’t look quite so bowl cut.

Milton’s Forehead. Getting in touch with his Inner Saddlebro.

BSF, Milton likes to stick his head into all kinds of places, is really bad about getting ticks, and is even worse about letting us get them out of his ears. No touchy! No touchy!

Didn’t have the heart to cut off Rodney’s Fabio mane. He’s not the tick magnet that Milton is, at least not on his head and neck. Plus he’s better about letting us near his ears. We’ll wait to see how the summer goes.

I did, once again, send pics to Coach Courtney. She’d be disappointed if I didn’t. 🤣

For those who are not up on the joke, Saddlebreds are kept with long, flowing manes and tails. This level of tonsorial butchery is anathema. OTOH, they do shave the forelocks. It looks very odd on a Thouroughbred.

Previous hair-cuttery [Mane and Tail Time, 2023, looks like I skipped 2024]

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. The Brothers Brick: Discover a new life, a new beginning. The intersection of LEGO bricks & trans life.

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Process Notes

In case it is not obvious, light blue is for sky and the dark blue is for the water that cities were historically built beside.

[City Letters] 2020

Onwards!
Katherine