Canadian Smoke: Day 2

There was heavy smoke in the air all day yesterday - you could even smell it. 

This is downtown Lafayette looking into the town center which you can barely see. There are no clouds so the sky should be blue. At least you can see the sun! (Photo by Dave Bankert.)

We sit out and enjoy our patio a lot during the summer and early fall,

but with skies greyed by smoke and drifting particulates, we aren't risking it right now. 

The air quality today is still very poor but it is improving.

Our air quality index has dropped a bit and while we are still in the bracket for Unhealthy, yesterday we were at the top of that bracket at Very Unhealthy and just under the line for Hazardous. 

Who'd have thought that wildfires in another country could affect us so badly? I have never experienced anything like this.

It's going to be another indoor day.

Canadian Smoke

I'll be spending the day inside today - a quick run to the mailbox will be it. Smoke and particulates from the Canadian fires has reached Indiana.

Yesterday afternoon it was so bad that it appeared as though fog had settled in, but it wasn't fog, it was smoke. After only a few minutes outside, my head was hurting and my chest felt tight and wheezy. 

The smoke has been around for a week or so, making for pretty and unusual sunsets like this one, but yesterday was like nothing I've ever experienced. There were warnings to stay inside, cautions to be prepared for sudden blind spots while driving, and to stay home if at all possible.

It was scary and I quickly went back inside where I could breathe more easily.

I feel for those who work outdoors and the animals who live outside and can't get away from this.  This is awful.

Variations: Smoke Running Mares

Ever since I got my first Running Mare (the early glossy dapple grey) I have been in love with her. Her belly droops like a broodmare's does and you just KNOW she is a good mother simply by looking at her sweet face. I loved her before I was a mama and got my own "drooping belly;" I think I love her even more now that I know what it takes to carry a child and give birth!

(True story: when introduced to the head of a community college's Director of Equine Studies, she looked at me in astonishment upon learning that I had six kids and blurted out, "You would be a good broodmare!" I took that as the compliment I knew she meant it to be!)

I'm going to compare my two smoke Running Mares, but before doing so, I did some research, paging through Nancy Young's book, Breyer Molds and Models, 1950-1997, looking at photos online of various Running Mares, and pulling out examples from my own collection to look at. The mold has undergone three documented changes - more on that later.

 I have two smoke Running Mares, a lighter one and a darker one. I have seen this piece in a smoke so light that it actually looks grey, but in my opinion, these two look like unglossed charcoals. (Aside from the hooves which are pink or white on charcoal models.)

The lighter one (on the left) is from my sister's carpet herd and has some nice shading on her shoulders. Leslie got the model in the mid sixties and it was in her possession until a few years ago when she passed it on to me. The darker one has been in my collection since 2017 when I found it in an antique shop. Its shadings are more subtle, but present and pretty.

 Oops! I switched their order when I moved them - the darker one is now on the left. You can see the shadings on their shoulders as well as the yellowing on the dark one.

 Correct order again - light on the left, and dark on the right. Both have light pink muzzles...

 ... and pink ears, although the pink on the lighter one is so faint it barely shows up in the photos.

The hoof bottoms are unremarkable, although the darker Running Mare does have drain board markings on her near front leg and hind off leg.Their socks are comparable.

The darker one has the early Breyer mold stamp as well as the paint "belly button" that some early models have. (Woodgrains often have this marking.)

Carpet herd gal has the Breyer mold mark and no belly button.

Nancy Young documents four mold versions of the Running Mare's right eye: early normal-eye, flat-eyeball, swollen-eye, and repaired normal-eye. (Young, pp. 243-244, 340.) These two girls are the first version. 

And, after looking at photos of her, I suspect my darker gal may just be starting to bloat.

 In the above photo, her head looks wider to me than the other model.

Looking at the two of them head on, you can also see it.

As I compare the rest of their bodies, I do not see the bloating, and it's possible that I am wrong (I hope so), but it is definitely something I am going to keep an eye on.

Now, regarding question about smoke being another version of charcoal, I am going to say that I believe it is. I have no documentation other than conversations with other hobbyists over many years of collecting and visual comparisons of other charcoal and smoke models, but as I look at these two gals, it seems to me that all they need is a layer of gloss to be an early charcoal.

When they are placed next to my matte Family Arabian Mare, the color is nearly the same (with the exception of the hoof color.) But I do think that smoke was a charcoal that became its own color, if that makes sense.

At this point in time and as far as I know, no one has any definitive research or proof that lends credence to that claim. Now that I am retired, I may see what I can dig up - I have files going back to the 1960s and there are some people in the hobby just as interested in minutia like this that I can talk to. 

If I find anything further, I'll be sure to post it here.