Virtual Brush Box

Awareness of the outside world. Times Square Arts: Midnight Moment.

~~~

Will spend the year as a suncatcher in my kitchen window.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. CNN: Follow the New Year around the world, Sottile and Trammel 2023.

~~~

Hand walk with both horses each morning.

Been doing since March 2023. That year, the Virtual Tevis started just when Milton had come off stall rest. Daily mileage was the only way we where going to make it. We got our hundred miles in 100 days. Then we kept going.

Gets the humans out of the house and into the fresh air, enjoying the company and the countryside.

Gets the humans and the horses moving. Both species evolved to walk more than we do.

A time for the team to be together.

Walks for the win.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Who uses gender neutral bathrooms? “Let me be very clear—inclusive policy benefits all of us. Fathers with daughters, mothers with sons, folks with disabilities, those traveling with elderly loved ones, and LGBTQ+ folks—single stall, all gender bathrooms create a space that meets folks where they’re at.” X: @JusticeHorn_ April 4, 2024. I used a single-stall, family bathroom when traveling with a puppy. [Spotted in Boston]

~~~

Recapped other horses. [Other Barns of 2024]

Recapped walks. [Final Fitness Friday for 2024]

Recapped photography [Photos of 2024]

That leaves the home team to recap.

Let’s not shall we?

For those who have not been keeping score. I haven’t ridden Rodney since September. I haven’t ridden Milton since 2019. Milton has yet to use his new cart. [Home Team Update, In Which Inertia Figures Far Too Strongly Rodney riding & Milton driving, Milton Is Getting A Break Milton riding with me, maybe a hack here or there but essential nada]

So where are they right now?

They are sound, healthy, happy, and have forever homes.

They are beautiful to look at and entertaining.

Keeping up with their needs keeps us engaged.

Their situation also frustrates me to the point of despair.

So, I’m gonna look forward, not back.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. ARTnews: The Art World’s Year in Review. Short summary & multiple articles on the art industry.

~~~

Process Notes

Inspired by Pantone(R) Color of the Year Mocha Mousse, which I have not reproduced. First, they don’t give a hex number, Second, hex numbers from other sites & color sampling couldn’t get it to look right. Three, they may have some level of corporate possessiveness over that exact shade.

However, I learned a bit about brown in general.

“it is mainly a darker shade of orange.” Wiki: Brown.

“In the RGB color model used to project colors onto television screens and computer monitors, brown combines red and green.” Wiki: Brown.

Wishing you a colorful year,

Onwards!
Katherine

🎄 🖊️ 🎥

Writer: Hello Muse.

Muse: Hello. What now?

Writer. Only 262 days until Christmas. Time to think about next year.

Muse: Really?

Writer: Actually, it’s not a bad idea. We can look around. What have we done? What can we do next? Imagine trying to think about Christmas movies in August. At least now it’s on our minds, for good or ill.

Muse: Fair enough. Can you do a sequel from what you’ve done?

Writer: We could do the expat Christmas in different country. Let me see which country they finally used as a location. I know they changed several times. I’ll just look it up on IMDB. [Creating A New Classic]

Muse: Focus.

Writer: Right. It doesn’t matter which country. They would probably change it anyway. They have lots to chose from. Did you know that the UN recognizes 193 member states (number UN: About Us, list UN: Member States)? But that number is disputed. (World Atlas: How Many Countries Are There In The World?)

Muse: Focus.

Writer. Right. Again. The point is, it would still be the same fish-out-of-water plot, just with different spices.

Muse: It started well, that sentence.

Writer: Talk about distracting me.

Muse: My bad. Back to work.

Writer: Speaking of country, we can’t do sequel to a Country Boy. The point of HEA is ever after. [Country Boy in The City]

Muse What about now?

Writer: You mean New Years? I did that. I guess I could revist. [A Marketing Proposal for New Holiday Movies]

Muse: No I mean right now. Not Christmas, Not New Year’s Eve. Holiday but not holiday. What Chaz Hutton calls Nothing Time (Illustration, Bluesky:@chazhutton.bsky.social‬ Dec 27, 2024, & Instagram: instachaaz, Dec 27, 2024. Original post? “Welcome to the nothing time.” X: @chazhutton, Dec 25, 2019.) Or what Forsyth calls, “that weird week before New Year when nobody really knows what day it is and half the people don’t go to work and the other half do, but don’t seem to get much done there.” A Christmas Cornucopia: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Yuletide Traditions, Mark Forsyth (Viking 2016).

Writer: Technically it is currently the 12 days of Christmas. Not that anyone follows that these days. [Graphic Boolean Operators II]

Muse: Yes. Yes, the 12 days are historically from Christmas to Epiphany. Traditions evolve. Get over it. Move on. Although to be fair, I should tell you how Forsyth finishes that quote, ” … Christmas, as we’ve seen, used to be a twelve-day holiday, and it’s heading back that way.” A Christmas Cornucopia

Writer: Well, in that case.

Muse: Don’t get any ideas.

Writer: Very funny, coming from you.

Muse: You know what I mean. Look forward.

Writer: A movie set at this time would certainly fit nicely in the broadcast/streaming schedule.

Muse: And therefore?

Writer. And therefore, we have a setting and timeframe. So, what are people doing? Returning gifts. Year end stuff. Working. Recapping. Hey, you know what I think?

Muse: Here we go.

Writer: This is the wrong week to be doing recaps. They don’t make sense in December. What if something eventful happens on the 30th? [To Recap Or Not To Recap,]

Muse: Yes, yes. Recaps of the year should wait until the the year is over. That’s not how it works, regardless of the dictates of logic. Once you get an idea, you hang onto it, don’t you? Move on.

Writer: Okay, okay. This is me, moving on. What do we have for main character options? People who had a bad Christmas, or bad holiday of your choice. It could have a redeeming arc. Or.

Muse: I’m listening.

Writer: Ya know. Hmm.

Muse: Now I’m concerned.

Writer: We could use the 12 days.

Muse: This is me giving you the sideeye.

Writer: Hear me out. It’s pretty common for a person to have two sides to the family, perhaps inlaws. They do Christmas over here, then they go have a second Christmas over there. So we amp it up. Spread it out over the twelve days. Different parts of the family. They go visit cousins who just had a baby and can’t travel. They travel around the country, or around the world if we want to go global. The message would be all about Keeping The Christmas Spirit Going. You don’t get more Christmasy than that.

Muse: Did you just find a reason to have the 12 Days of Christmas after Christmas?

Writer: (smiles winningly)

🎄 🖊️ 🎥

Awareness of the outside world. No links to worldwide photos of the year. These tend to be dramatic photos of horrible news events. Worthy, but sobering, particularly when taken all at once. Do not look through the top 100 photos of the 20th century unless you are feeling strong.

~~~

Big Camera

Slideshow, swipe or click arrows to view

[Wind, Chair, Passage, Strange, Vulcanis, Creek, Bridge, Road Closed Tracing The Lee Branch, Lee Branch Greystone, Not Finding Inspiration, Lee Branch Emerges, Cool Water, Reflection, Leaf, Dock, Trail]

Stats. 17 photos. Two per month January thru April. May 3. June 1, July 0, Aug 2, Sep 2. Oct 1. Well-lit, stationary, inanimate objects. Not as an artistic statement. More for ease of use.

Go somewhere. Do something. Check.

Process notes. I’ll do a slide show! As with most things, took longer than it sounded in my head. Find photo. Load. Adjust. Repeat. Adjust gallery. Check order. Check order again. Switch to slide show. Still it was interesting, for me, to see what I took and when.

Instagram

Account – @virtual_brush_box

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Virtual Brush Box/Rodney's Saga (@virtual_brush_box)

This year – Posted one photo that was not on the blog. All other Instagram photos were new post notifications.

Restart – Since December of last year. Two non-blog photo posts. That’s it. “I keep thinking it would be fun to have an active Instagram account. Then I tell myself a daily blog is enough.” Still true. [Back on Social Media]

Local copy. Same photo, resized & watermark added. Instagram photo is close-up of sticker with shirt fabric as background.

Onwards!
Katherine

Awareness of the outside world. Fix The News: 86 Stories of Progress from 2024, Not everything that happened this year was terrible. Hervey, Rose, Koren, & Boyd. Dec 19, 2024.

~~~

Hunter Barn

One lesson. Fussy horse gave me flashbacks. Other lesson choice was an off-track Thoroughbred. Been there, done that, have one in the backyard.

[Checking Out A Possible New Lesson Barn] March

[Lesson Plan, Or Not] April

[Well, That Lesson Did Not Go The Way I Hoped It Would, Other Horses] April

Update. Additional thoughts while waiting for hunter lesson, comes before Lesson Plan, Or Not. [Other Barns] April

Western Barn

[First Western Lesson] September

One lesson. Since the western saddle was not the miracle fix for Rodney, did not pursue. [Interim Report On The Western Project]

Saddle Seat Barn

Coach Courtney was right, medals are fun. [Horse Show Pageantry]

Back in 2013, I said, “Saddleseat has been a slender bridge over the abyss of despair that is my riding career.” Overly dramatic, but also true. Stepping Stone Farm has provided me with horses to ride & drive, people to talk to, and a place to go. And shows. Let us not forget shows.

Not listing lesson posts. Saddle seat lessoning in 2024 was intermittent in frequency and in quality. Moving on.

Shows of 2024

Winter Tournament

[Staying With The Series, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #2]

[Finishing The Series, Show Report AWTA 2023-2024 #3]

[Celebrating The Series, AWTA 2023-2024 Banquet]

Regular Season

[Achievement Unlocked, ASHAA Banquet for the 2023 Show Year]

[Hey Kids, Let’s Put On A Show, ASHAA Fun Show]

[A & B & Me, Show Report, Alabama State Games]

[Summer Showing, Show Report]

[Soloing In A Crowd, Show Report, ASHAA Summer Fun Show #4]

Winter Tournament

[The Winter Blues You Want, Show Report AWTA 2024-2025 #1]

Onwards!
Katherine