With the cold and my bum knee I have not had too many adventures yet.
I got up the morning of January 9 and this is what the sky was like. I didn’t use a filter. It was amazing.
And then this is what the snow brought. I actually liked it. We had enough to where it made everything pretty but it melted fast enough to not be a problem.
And on January 11 I captured the Wolf Moon a little early. You can tell by the fuzzy lower left corner that it was still waxing. I think January 13 was the night of the actual full moon.
I worked another jigsaw puzzle. I did the google images on this photo and I got no hits so it must be AI or some other made-up thing. This wasn’t too hard. I did the edge pieces simultaneously the edges of the two sky sections A great way to spend the evening. My favorite parts were the mesa to the left and the galvanized roof to the right.
Icing my knee
Be thinking of me. Tomorrow my wife and I are visiting my surgeon to find out about scheduling a knee replacement. I’m kind of dreading it but things are continuing to hurt more and more so something has to give.
I have a flag that I keep in the hall closet and try and fly it on all the National Holidays and several select days such as election days and such. So on Veterans Day in the US back in November I put it up. I thought it made for a nice shadow.
Big news for me this week is that I bought an internet connected, solar powered, birdcam and got it installed in the backyard.
It is pretty easy to install and set up. Given the time of year I haven’t had too many customers yet. A couple of squirrels, a Carolina Wren, and female Northern Cardinal. I’ve had more squirrels but I throw snowballs at them if I see them.
They come in short videos about ten seconds long. I used an iphone app to stitch them together and then uploaded to youtube. It is only 12 seconds long.
Lizzy allowed me to take her portrait. She is the sweetest cat we’ve ever had.
And then she winked at me. I don’t know what is up with that.
I filled up all the feeders and this blue jay helped himself to a peanut.
The squirrels helped themselves to another feeder with sunflower seeds in it.
I got Kodi patrolling the perimeter.
And three dove on the ground.
After it snowed Kodi spent some time out in it. He seemed to like it.
One day back in early December I was a little early picking son up from work. So I ventured over to nearby Woodward Park and took some photos.
It’s a small park but it is loaded with trees, ponds, and other interesting things to explore.
Still lots of Fall Color back then and they had a pond that made for some good reflections.
The sun was low, so much the better for the light.
Plus it was still warm in the late afternoon.
And I was shooting RAW using the Halide App for my iphone. Shooting RAW eats up memory and the plain photos are awful to look at but you can run it through Lightroom or Snapseed and since to get them looking better.
So i had me a ball taking photos for about 15 minute before I had to go fetch the kid.
I ran one photo through my DynamicAutoPainter Program.
And this is a jigsaw puzzle that I recently completed of the Canyonlands area of the Southwest USA. I didn’t take the photo so I don’t own the copyright but I am sure somebody does. It was a lot easier to do than I thought it was going to be. First I did all the edge pieces then I did the edge of sky vs land and then the no cloud vs clear sky andthen there were all sorts of horizontal lines to work on. It was fun.
The first day of the year is a big deal for hikers and geocachers. I went to a private park to find a first day geocache. And I got a “souvenir.”
I went looking for another geocache close by. The area it is in is a mess.
Lots of spray can graffiti. I hate it the colorful mess.
It is quite popular. I found the cache but I cannot count it.
It was way up in a tree. Do you see the black tube at the top of the photo. In year’s past I would go ahead and climb the tree. I could probably do it now but I am 69 years old and the penalty for falling could be bad. (Maybe I couldn’t climb the tree. My orthopedic doc says I need a complete new right knee. Soon, I am going to enlist my wife to come with me to go visit him and get it scheduled.) So I can’t count it as a find because to do that you have to open the container and sign the log. I’m kind of a stickler for that.
I went on a first day hike as well. I went on a one mile loop at Turkey Mountain. The trail was named by the Muskogee Creek Tribe. I am not sure what it means.
Winter is a time for either no shadows during long periods of heavily overcast days or long shadows. I love the long shadows of winter.
I went for a walk near the new Zink Dam and Williams Crossing Bridge on the Arkansas River. There was a long bridge shadow on the water. Don’t remember too many water shadows.
The playgrounds that are busy when it is warmer are empty in the winter. This looks like a fun place to play. The ground surface is ultra spongey to keep little ones from getting hurt.
I walked over the Gathering Place and checked the shadows out there as well.
I am wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year 2025!!
A squirrel getting a drink and scrutinizing the trailcam
Catching Kodi, the Pomeranian, in the back yard
I went on a hike at Ray Harral Nature Center. Most of the critters were elusive. This fat little guy watched me while I walked by as he ate his lunch.
I could hear birds but didn’t see them except for glimpses of the cardinal.
I still haven’t seen a Carolina Wren in real life. I don’t add birds to my life list unless I see them and get a photograph. I think I am up to eight birds on my list. Don’t laugh at me.
I went on a walk along the Arkansas River and saw these. I think they are seagulls.
That’s a wrap. I’m wishing everyone and their families a Happy and Healthy New Years.
I hope that everyone had a great New Year’s. 2024 was a year of blessings and also trials and tribulation for us and we got through it. Back when I started blogging, there was a friend of mine who also started and quit because she said people only put the positive parts of their life online so it was dishonest. So I guess I am dishonest. Sorry about that and I don’t feel bad about it all. I’m a blessed man, what can I say. I have this irritating trait that no matter what the situation, I think things will be okay. I couple that with a sense of realism about what okay looks like.
I have always loved New Year’s. It’s like a fresh start every year. We didn’t do much, stayed home, had a nice dinner, watched some television.
In late December after weeks of monotonous gray skies I saw that things were shaping up for maybe a good sunset so I got my drone in the air and captured a bunch of images. I put them in a video and here it is. It is only twenty seconds long so do not panic!
New Year’s Day morning I went with Heather to a class she is starting at a nearby YMCA. It is cardio drumming and twenty people showed up to take it. Not bad for a brand new class. She is already teaching it weekly at another YMCA here in town and monthly at our “home gym.” It is lots of fun, you have drumsticks and you drum on an exercise ball in time to music. She leads the different moves. It is lots of fun, she loves upbeat music and so do her students. She also teaches Zumba at two different gyms, and a couple water classes, aquazumba and aquastrength. I take both of those classes. She stays pretty busy. She has been teaching for years and is very good at “reading the room” providing alternative moves for those who need them.
Afterwards, I took off and found a geocache and hiked a short distance. If you are a geocacher, New Year’s Day is an important day to find one and if you are a hiker you should go on a First Day’s Hike. So I did both. Yeah me, hah!
And then we went home and had our New Year’s Day meal featuring chicken quarters and baby back ribs that I smoked on the day before New Year’s Eve. That red stuff on the meat is a very spicy rub use. It brings the heat.
Meanwhile, I did another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. Great way to stay busy while we watch our streaming shows. The one I am working on now is a Canyonlands scene with lots of tan colored desert and skies. Very challenging.
Again, I wish everyone a Happy, Heathy, and Prosperous 2025!
This view of Christmas lights on our house is from ten years ago. I am impressed with my energy and ambition from back then and lack of respect for gravity. I put up old school bulbs and “icicle lights” on our gutters and the roof peaks. Those are old school bulbs so one could only put string together strands of three or so. I’m a chemical engineer, not electrical, so the strand limitation made for some strange geometry with extension wires and such. These days with the led’s, you can put as many strings as you want in series. And now, I don’t get up on ladders, period. Me and gravity are not friends, never were really. So if I can’t reach it from the ground I don’t worry about it.
I’m really bad about diverging. Sorry, I like the intricate shadows that the lights along with the tree shadows on this photo. December 2024 was a lousy month for shadows with all the overcast skies we’ve had so I reached deep back into my archives.
I continue to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year.
In early December I was on Tulsa’s RiverParks trails working on an art themed Geocaching Adventure Lab. I posted about it earlier and saved the critter themed art for this post.
Wolves are always a good subject.
I’m thinking this is a great blue heron. These murals were not part of the cache project but they are also beautiful and animal themed.
I believe this also is a great blue heron.
And this sculpture. I see lots of great blue herons while out on the trail. They are beautiful animals but they make the most awful squawk as a vocalization.
And right near the sculpture is a real life great blue heron.
And an American White Pelican. I see them sporadically. They are kind of touchy about people. I’ve learned I’ve had to sneak up on them.
Geese are everywhere, all year long on the RiverParks, and the whole town for that matter.
So yep, I completed the cache and got the coordinates for a nearby physical cache, and found it, so yep a good time.
If you want more information about geocaching check geocaching.com.
Hey you know life goes up and down and so does Christmas. This year was a restrained Christmas in our family. My sister came to visit for a few days beforehand and that was definitely a boost. Other factors came in that kind of restrained things. So we had a quiet Christmas. The sun didn’t shine and it was kind of misty rainy so above is my Christmas Skywatch photo. I’ll take it. Not much of a sky but I love the tree. And yes that is a filter I used on my phone. About four of them in fact.
And this is a shot from our driveway a few days beforehand. I kind of liked it. A wag on instagram said that the chemtrails ruined the photo. Get this folks, chemtrails are not real. There, that is my Christmas message to the world.
Another day, same driveway, looking the other way. I used distressedfx on this.
And this is a jigsaw puzzle that I did on my ipad.
Another jigsaw puzzle.
About this time of year, if you are on social media, you get all sorts of hits about apps that will do a yearly recap for you. So I bit on one, I did a couple of 2024 rehashes, one was about my life in general and another about 2024 skies. I saved the resulting videos and then cancelled my seven day free membership. I then inputted the videos to youtube and so above is my 2024 skywatch rehash. It only lasts 30 seconds and then starts over so don’t do what I did and watch it over and over until I realized what I was doing.
I watched a couple of NFL football games including a miserable Baltimore – Houston game that ended 31-2. Tell you what though, Beyonce performed the halftime show. And what a show it was! Came in on a horse and just killed the performance. She should do the Superbowl halftime show. And I am not even a Beyonce fan!
I hope that everyone of you who celebrate Christmas had a good one.
