Virtual Brush Box

Photography of the outside world. Alaska.org: Alaska Photography: What’s Different. (a travel sales site)

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Pawprints in the Snow

Footprints in the Snow

Winter Storm Cora
Alabama USA
January 2025

Technical Details

Phone camera.

Truck for reference.

Snow fell overnight. Light & fluffy at 4 am (dog went out to use the facilities, I gave thanks that the people did not have to use an outhouse). By the time pix taken, freezing rain had started. Snow had sunk down & started turning into slush.

Onwards!
Katherine

Equines of the fictional world. “The mules became accustomed to shipboard life, placidly converting oats into a hygiene problem.” Guardian by Joe Haldeman, p 39, chapter We are “derailed.” (Ace 2002, read as ebook)

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No new horse yet, but I decided it was time to take steps. Or at least look around to see if any steps presented themselves.

Had a long chat with Coach Courtney about possible hunter/jumper/eventing horses, Saddlebreds, and Standardbreds. Activity, if not progress.

Brought up a few questions.

What do I want? It depends. It’s about the individual rather than any given breed, age, size, color, experience level, whatnot. This does not translate well to online want ads nor telephone calls with trainers.

Budget? It depends. How old? What has horse done? How compatible are we? What can horse do tomorrow? What is our potential for the future? Show me a unicorn, my budget goes up. Again, this does not translate well to discussions with sellers.

Given my riding lately, will I be able to get on a new horse for a trial ride? I don’t know.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. “Wash your damn hands.” Vox: Why everyone has a gnarly stomach bug right now, explained in one chart, Landman MD, Jan 8, 2025.

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Milton & I watch Rodney work.

Chin scratchies.

Behind The Scenes

The photo set-up.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Falling! Our World in Data: Cancer death rates in children under 5 years old.

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Snow on Friday. This was the path to the barn late Saturday morning. Small patches of snow lingered into Monday. Very unusual post-snow behavior for this area.

We only missed one day of walking.

Thursday morning. 22o or 25o, depending which weather app you consulted. A new low temperature record for us. Prior to this, 25o had been our cut off. It wasn’t too bad. There is no bad weather, only bad clothing. [Walking During The Recent Weather 2024]

Friday. Off. Snow day. Several inches of snow had fallen in the dark smalls. By dawn, it had turned to freezing rain. Hard pass.

Saturday, midday. 41 & sunny. Hard ground covered by standing water, mud, & slush. Beautiful day, lousy footing.

Sunday, midday. Standard muddy, winter day.

Monday morning. Resume status quo ante.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Scientific American: Why a Warming Climate Can Bring Bigger Snowstorms, It may sound counterintuitive, but a warming climate can actually lead to bigger snowstorms. Rawlins 2022. Originally appeared in The Conversation.

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The horses were, um, expressive. Yeah, let’s call it expressive. No idea what they were expressing.

I spent the day in town last Wednesday. Although I haven’t been feeding lunch for a while, my desk diary has not be overwhelmed with appointments. I’m still around here most days. [Rethinking Lunch]

After the day away, we got home while it was still light. Went to check on the horses. Had Rodney. Called for the other horse. Milton came flying down the path screaming with abandonment.

Tried to take them for a walk to make up for the one we missed in the morning because we had to leave early. Made three out of five laps.

They were jumpy. Normal. They often find it weird when walks occur other than first thing in the morning.

Third lap. I let them walk by themselves for the back half of the lap. Standard procedure. They had done so for laps one & two. They know that cookies await. [Version 2.0]

They decided to make haste down to the cookie dispensary. Not unusual. Cavorting happens. Canter. Hop. Hip check.

Rodney kept going. He made a big circle, turned, and thundered back to the barn. Serious racehorse style running.

Milton watched, standing by on high alert. Finally bailed on cookies and followed.

I don’t know what Rodney thought was going to happen at the barn. Anyone likely to dole out hay snacks had just been left in the pasture.

Clearly, they are used to having me around during the day.

Onwards!
Katherine

Art of the outside world. J. Harris: The Air Bear Project.

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Birmingham Museum of Art uses these freestanding foldables to separate the dining area from the corridor spaces. Brown is paper. White is textile. They are gorgeous.

Molo: paper softwall

Molo: textile softwall

MoMA: Paper Softwall, Stephanie Forsythe, Todd MacAllen, 2003

Props to the museum employee who saw me looking & came over to explain.

Onwards!
Katherine

❄️ 🏴󠁵󠁳󠁡󠁫󠁿 ❄️

Friend: So, how did you two meet?

Main Character, exchanges look with partner: Funny story. We met in Alaska.

Friend: Alaska? I don’t see you as the outdoors type.

Main Character: I’m not. So much not. In fact that’s why they sent me. They had been having trouble with employees going up and not coming back.

Friend: But you came back.

Main Character: As fast as possible. I have nothing against Alaska. I can see, theoretically, why someone might like it. Someone who isn’t me.

Love Interest: Wasn’t either or us. That’s sort of why we met.

Main Character, resumes story: We were both up there on temporary assignment. It was a huge project. We might never have met if they hadn’t insisted on a team building retreat. The resort offered all manner of winter wonderland activities: snow machining, dog sledding, hiking in the snow. It was hideous.

Love Interest: We were the only two who stayed inside the entire time.

Main Character: Yup. Stayed inside, sat in front of the fire, and bitched about Alaska.

Love Interest: It was a bonding moment.

Main Character: After that, we often got together for meals. We were both working insane hours in order to get done and go home. We often ate at weird times. It’s hard to find someone willing to eat dinner after midnight, or breakfast at 4 am.

Love Interest: And someone willing to bitch about AK.

Main Character: And that. Eventually one of us decided …

Love Interest: Had to have been you. You are a nicer person than I am.

Main Character: Whoever it was, we agreed that we should be making more of an effort. We decided to look for the good parts. We did the tourist things. We took a North Lights flight, with an ex-employee as a matter of fact. We had a great time. And then came home.

Friend: Which one of you moved?

Main Character: That’s the funny part, neither one of us. I live up by the river. This lovely person lives downtown. It measures out at 3.7 miles. We have been just over a 5K away from each other for years.

Friend: So you had to go to Alaska to meet someone who lives across town?

Main Character: Yup.

❄️ 🏴󠁵󠁳󠁡󠁫󠁿 ❄️

Afterword

Inspiration. I signed up for a course in Alaskan history, UChicago Graham School, Alaska: Indigenous, Russian, American. In looking around for books to read beforehand, I found many, many memoirs about people who had moved North. So I posited a main character who did NOT want to live in a snowy wonderland, thank you very much. [North To Alaska]

Does she – or he – come back or stay in Alaska? A reader suggested that the main character does the rom-com thing AND comes home, with someone else who was there temporarily. Et voila.

Onwards!
Katherine