Something Completely Different

Ask and ye shall receive.

On Friday, Joan said. “What an impossible jigsaw puzzle that would make!” [Warm-up Ring]. Voila!

Warm Up Ring puzzle icon

Click here: Foto Friday Jigsaw
Courtesy of Jigsaw Planet

I chose the mid-range (150 pieces), classic puzzle shape, no rotation. To customize the puzzle, hover over the photo on the Jigsaw Planet page, hover over the arrow in the corner, then click Play As. You can choose number of pieces, shape, and rotation. I test drove it with 24 pieces. The black & white border is the only thing that makes the puzzle possible.

If you click on the ghost icon in the lower left corner of the puzzle screen, the completed image is projected as a background. My grandmother would NOT have approved. We were not allowed to look at the cover image beyond choosing the puzzle.

Props to Equine Ink for using Jigsaw Planet in the post Make your own digital jigsaw puzzle of your horse. Everything I was finding was way too complicated. Then, I Googled “digital jigsaw puzzle wordpress.com”. The post came up as the 7th link. My search algorithm must have a default to include “horse”.

Life in the Country

Molt
Molt

Next to my front door. Had to go horizontal to catch the full spread of the antennae. Didn’t want to intrude, so I left. When I came back, the white was gone. Fell? Eaten?

“A grasshopper molts, shedding its outer layer (exoskeleton) and leaving a hollow shell (exuviae) behind.” Encyclopædia Britannica – exoskeleton: grasshopper molting The Amateur Entomologists’ Society says this would be a cricket, due to the length of the antennae, AES – Grasshoppers and Crickets (Order: Orthoptera). The EB entry on crickets didn’t explain molting as well.

~~~

Empty Nest
Empty Nest

Bag hanging in an unused corner of the barn. Residents left the day before.

Departure Day
Departure Day

Ad Critique II

If I insist on being snarky [Ad Critique], then it behooves me to point out when an equine ad is done well.

Page 55 Vanity Fair, June 2015
Page 55
Vanity Fair, June 2015

Nice looking horse. Clean, well-fitted tack. No gaping flaws in horse management. Simon Baker is actor, so I assume the photo was staged specifically for this advertisement. It is not a case of, as so well-stated by ridexc, “an art director (who) has five minutes to select something that sorta says elegant and swanky.” [ibid].

Good on you, Longines.

Vanity Fair cov

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch: Nada

Monday’s head cold [Delay] kicked my ass. My brilliant medical advisor came home with Sudafed for pressure and pain. Sweet relief. I could move.

On the other hand, I over-react to drugs in amusing ways. Percocet has made me paranoid. Pain-killers have made me hysterical. A half-dose of Sudafed left me without the will to do … to do … anything. I bailed on my riding lesson. I scheduled the show posts then staggered back to bed. I spent most of last week sitting in dark rooms, playing video games, and listening to Terry Pratchett audio books. This would have been a delightful vacation in the garden of sloth, except for that still, small voice:

What are you DOING? You have WORK. The house is a dump. The DISHES are taking over the sink. How about the horses? You remember horses? Okay, Rodney is on the slow plan. However, you have a NICE horse who is ready NOW. Get your sorry self out to the barn. Do SOMETHING. Do I have to remind you that life is SHORT? Do you realize how much of a HASH you are making out of the opportunities so generously piled in front of you?

I would never talk to another person the way I talk to myself.

Driving Around in Circles

Stepping Stone Farm's Academy Driving Show Team MSSP 2015 Sandra Hall Photography
Stepping Stone Farm’s Academy Driving Show Team
MSSP 2015
Sandra Hall Photography

I prefer interesting editorial shots to pretty presentation pictures. I wish the official photographers took more of them. When given the opportunity to show off, I tend to get fired up. I’ve had several moments of equine exuberance in victory passes that would have made great images.

A more standard shot, wherein I kept my act together for the v.p:

Alvin Ailey MSSP 2015 Sandra Hall Photography
Alvin Ailey
MSSP 2015
Sandra Hall Photography

(A web image is an authorized, low-rez version from the photographer of a purchased photo. Not one that I took off the website.)

Update: [Show Report]