The Trail Goes Ever On, Photography

Awareness of the outside world. WCNC: Mules are being used to carry supplies into western North Carolina. Brierton, October 1, 2024. Bandwidth limitations prevented me from watching the related video. I assume the mules are on there somewhere.

~~~

Trailhead
Dunnavant Valley Greenway
Shelby County Alabama USA
October 2024

Would like to walk this some day, but need a walking partner. The city kid in me is reflexively concerned about stranger danger. Honestly, I should be more concerned about going splat. Either way, buddy system.

Technical Details

DV Trailhead, f/10, 1/100 sec., 18.0 mm, ISO 800. Manual mode & auto-focus. Post production: resized, border, & watermark. No cropping.

Border colors. Gray for project, yellow for Nikon. [Photo Safari The First], [Quarry, Photography, Things]

Added note. While shooting, I was convinced that vertical orientation would be the way to go. Tall trees framing the the path. Even looked good on the back-of-camera previews. Nope. Horizontal for the win. However, this time I took plenty of both.

Onwards!
Katherine

No Lessons Lately

Awareness of the outside world. Vox: What to do — and what to avoid — to help those affected by Hurricane Helene, Volpe, Oct 1, 2024. Bottom line. Don’t go. Don’t send stuff. Give money, carefully.

~~~

Content warning for whining and ennui.

No lessons lately. I lost enthusiasm.

I had a lesson fail. [In Which I Try To Corral The Frogs]

The same week, I wasn’t able to set up another western lesson. [First Western Lesson]

It was all too much.

I got tired of scrabbling for scraps.

Maybe if I get organized and get lucky, I can take my own horse on a quiet walk in his own pasture.

Maybe if I get organized and get lucky, I can have a lesson on a beginner horse.

It’s unbalanced. Too much investment of energy for the size of the return.

I understand that I am complaining about the color of the coasters in a luxury condo. But d*mm*t, I am really want those coasters.

I’ll get over myself eventually.

Onwards!
Katherine

Western Saddle Observations

Awareness of the outside world. WDAA.

~~~

I have now sat on the western saddle four times. I’ve noticed a few things. [Western Ride]

Stirrups. I still dislike that the stirrups don’t sit perpendicular on the sole of my foot. [First Western Lesson]

Seat. So much leather. I can neither feel nor talk to the horse. OTOH, given a horse with back issues this might be a feature rather than a bug.

Girth. Comes with a buckle on each end. However, the girth attaches with the buckle on one side and with a tie strap on the other. The frame of the buckle is used to attached the strap on that side. The prong of the buckle has nowhere to go. It just kinda sticks out. My inner Pony Clubber is deeply perturbed by this.

Wait, what? [The Mystery Project Is … drumroll …]

Onwards!
Katherine

Second Walk Considerations, Morning Walk Stories

Awareness of the outside world. Mobile phone PSA. After my phone had a mandatory upgrade, I found my battery not lasting as long. I went thru the settings found all manner of automatic contacts with the mothership. For My Convenience. Rooted them out & turned them off. Voila, better battery life. I had done this already. The PSA is to do it again after an upgrade.

~~~

I used to take walks in the afternoon or evening. [Places and Parks, August Walks II]

I stopped when we started doing a mile with the horses first thing in the morning. I am considering reinstituting evening walks. In addition to, not instead of. Morning walks will continue.

Con, The Physical

Walking I got covered. I do a mile in the morning. I can pop out a leisurely 5K stroll whenever I want. I do not need to walk more.

From a fitness standpoint, I would be better served by putting my time and energy into swimming, rowing, biking, doing tai chi, stretching. Just about anything other than more walking.

Then there is the idea of enlarging my carbon footprint by driving somewhere in order to walk. A ridiculous plan when I have a perfectly suitable space in the pasture.

However

Morning walks are not afternoon walks, for reasons in addition to the obvious.

Pro, The Mental

Evening walks clear my brain. I am not a morning person. In the morning, the brain is mostly vacant.

Morning walks take place in the pasture. No more discovering new places to walk. It was amazing how many new places I could find to fit in a mile. I miss that.

Evening walks are solo. Morning walks are in company. We are thinking about the horses. How are they this morning? How are they moving? How is their attitude? And so on. Back when Mathilda & I did this every day, I could walk along thinking my own thoughts. I can do that with Milton. Not so much with Rodney. Definitely not when the full team is together. [My Two Horses]

Result

Nothing yet. Still pondering.

Onwards!
Katherine

Bring Out The Blankets

Awareness of the outside world. ASPR: Order Your 4 Free At-⁠home COVID-⁠19 Tests.

~~~

Blankets in the general sense of horse coverings.

First blanketing of the season. Rodney donned a sweatshirt to warm up before a ride on Sunday. [New Equipment]

Above 70 degrees.

Sunny.

Healthy, unclipped horse with a good start on his winter coat.

Shrug.

He likes to be warm. [I’m Cold, You Need A Blanket]

Onwards!
Katherine

Why I Write, Personal Narrative Class #1

I write to get paid.

I wrote as a kid because all kids do, don’t they?

I wrote professionally because someone was willing to give me a job in the face of a complete lack of experience. They liked my enthusiasm.

2008 happened.

I still write.

I write for one of the last standing print venues. I look around at the digital world and don’t feel like learning a new methodology.

I write my blog to keep from going bat shit crazy.

Afterword

An exercise from the first class. [What Is Personal Narrative, Thoughts Before A Class]

We were given five minutes to answer the question Why do you write? I elected to leave the text as is. I could have added to it and tweaked it, but what came off the top of my head pretty much covered what I have to say. The bat shit crazy motivation, I have mentioned previously, below.

Listening to what other folks came up with, I realized that I don’t write. Not in the creative, story-telling sense. I record. I ask people questions and then organize the information. Perhaps this is why fiction is such a befuddlement to me.

[I’m Baaaaaack] 2013

[Bright-Eyed, Bushy-Tailed, & Back to Blogging] 2018

[State of the Blog: A Marketing Haiku] 2019

More about writing, [My Origin Story] 2014

Onwards!
Katherine