We had a warm sunny day in Tulsa last week so I went for a walk at Lafortune Park.
I found this shadow at the public swimming pool. A shadow of a tree up against a cool midcentury modern style brick screen.
I love chain link fence shadows.
And some tree trunk tree shadows at the baseball field.
I like this also. The rough edged shadow from the wall right near the smooth lines of the concrete walkway edge.
So that was my photowalk on a nice sunny day. I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday.
The other day I was outside with the dogs and I noticed this squirrel frozen in place on a branch.
I think it was worried about these crows who were on a wire in the green space behind our backyard. I had never thought of crows being a threat to squirrels, but what I read on the interwebs is that they sometimes will attack young squirrels but are hesitant about taking on grown squirrels because apparently grown squirrels will fight back.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.
Me and a friend continue to hike on Turkey Mountain and other places. This is a moon gate leading into The Sanctuary section of Turkey Mountain. I go right through it, my friend goes around it. I don’t know why.
Turkey mountain has maybe nine lakes on it, plus two or three more in The Sanctuary. Anywhere else they would be called ponds. Three interesting things about the lakes (at least they are interesting to me) is, first, that the Wildlife Department stocks the lakes for fishing. Second there is a big colony of beavers on the mountain and they move as a group from lake to lake cleaning out all the fish in each pond. I think that is hilarious. Third, the beavers move up and down the Arkansas River and migrate to and from Turkey Mountain via Mooser Creek which is the northern border of Turkey Mountain. They know this because the wildlife has tagged a bunch of beavers so they can track their movements. I have a feeling that beavers are going to outlive humans.
This is a pipeline for one of my former employers running through Turkey Mountain. Last year another former employer of mine laid a pipeline adjacent to this one but they drilled the little swale you see instead of putting in a span like the one above. Drilling pipelines across tough spots has been all the rage for years. Contractors can now drill across the Mississippi River for large pipelines and hit the other side a mile away within a few feet of their target. They also do it in culturally sensitive areas like ruins and such. They can stand off a few hundred yards and drill way underneath the ruins instead of having to go around. The problem with going around is that you often run into more ruins.
The tree house in The Sanctuary. If you look close you can see a couple of swinging porch benches underneath. A nice place to wait out a rainstorm.
Anyway on this hike, it was almost exactly five miles. That’s my sweetspot.
Switching gears to the backyard. Sunrise!
Mid-day from my front yard looking east.
And a late sunset, looking west.
Later that night, the Full Snow Moon. I love full moons on a clear night.
And a shot from the neighborhood green belt.
I’ve continued working on jigsaw puzzles on my ipad. I love beach scenes.
And a windmill jigsaw puzzle. The windmill is cool and I love the house. except not many windows upstairs. I like the lightning rods though. Random thought, I am sure that windmills get hit with lightning. Do they burn down?
I am linking with Skywatch Friday
It has been very cold here in Tulsa after our snow. Sadie has finally adapted. She loves to go outside and run around in the snow.
It exhausts her though. So she falls asleep in my lap while I’m watching tv at night.
Snow doesn’t phase our little Pom Kodi at all. We put him on a diet and it seems to be working so now he’s wanting to play fetch with me and Sadie, and he and Sadie chase each other around the house. He’s livened up quite a bit.
I’ve been trying to keep the birds fed using suet balls and other high energy foods. This cardinal wasn’t complaining.
I think this is a Carolina Wren that came by for a bite.
We get dark eyed juncos both on the feeder and on the ground.
There is something special about juncos.
And the opposite for the quiet juncos at the bluejays. Squawk, squawk, they say whenever they visit,.
A through the window photo.
And we get lots of doves. This one is all puffed up against the cold.
We had a bunch of hawks one afternoon. Noisy and boistrous.
Lots of squirrels.
That’s it for this week.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out, lots of great photographers who love all sorts of animals.
A couple weeks ago I ventured out to Tulsa’s Gilcrease Museum for a public meeting they were having to get public input on their garden spaces. The museum building is above. It is completed but they have not finished all their displays and I think they are still working on offgassing all the fumes from the concrete’s dewatering, carpet glue, paint, varnish and other chemicals. Things that can be okay levels for humans can be deadly to art. They are opening it in 2027. So now they are working designing the gardens to go in the immediate vicinity of the museum.
The meeting was not held in the museum, it is in an adjacent museum housing all their historical archives. (Among there documents is an original of the Declaration of Independence. They have it on display on July 4th sometimes, and I got to view one year. Big thrill.)
They had a consulting Landscape Architect talk about gardens and their plans for it. I thought it was all very interesting. And he had a model of what they were talking about. I think it will all be very nice. They just need funding. He didn’t say a figure but hey, if you have a Gazillion Dollars you don’t know what to do with give them a call. I’m sure they’ll take it. The Director of the Museum told everyone, “There are no small donations.” Yeah, well, he hasn’t seen mine yet.
After the talk I decided to take a stroll at the park adjoining the museum, Stuart Park. It was closed during construction but is now reopened. Has been for some time.
It’s a favorite of mine. It winds around a couple ponds and incorporates a bunch of sculptures that are going to be relocated on gardens adjacent to the museum.
The museum has several hundred acres and they are going to build trails for bicycling and hiking. They need funding for that as well, in case you have a second tranche of gazillion dollars that you don’t need.
The backside of the new museum from Stuart Park.
The museum has already started a bunch of work. It looked like they had mulched a considerable amount of invasive species. What was left was this sign about leaving the bees alone. You can bet that if you called Gilcrease security they would come running out the museum to save you. Probably now, call 911 instead.
Seeing the park was like seeing an old friend after several years. I loved it.
The views are wonderful.
And I love any type of wood structures. They rebuilt this and others.
I’m looking forward to 2027. They demolished the original museum in mid 2021. I loved it but it was a hodgepodge of various buildings added onto over the years and had an antiquated air conditioning system which is not good for an art museum. The vistor traffic flow was awkward and had all different levels which is not good for disabled people. They then built the new building on the same footprint as the original.
It’s going to be awesome.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday and galeria-himmelsblick
A “Moon Gate” to a trail system here in Tulsa. I think they are kind of cool. Like symbolically passing into another dimension. My hiking friend hates them and walks around them. This time I noticed afterward it made an oval shadow. If I was more on the ball I could have captured more of the oval than what I did.
And on the other side of the moongate, we got these shadows on the trail. This was the Thursday before the polar vortex and the temp was in the high 50’s.
Now it is about 7F and we have a few inches of snow. What a difference a day or two makes!
Stay warm folks!!
I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday
My hiking friend and I went on a five mile hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain on Thursday. The weather was almost shirtsleeve warm. We saw this great blue heron fishing in one of the ponds. All I had was my cell phone so sorry about the graininess.
After almost a year together our two dogs, Kodi the Pom, and Sadie the Terrier have almost started playing together. I guess if this were human kids it would be called adjacent play. They seem to enjoy each other’s company now.
Kodi hides under this table when my wife is gone. He always has such a tragic expression.
Lizzie checking on the goings on out in front of the house.
This fiberglass penguin has its own geocache.
Winter Storm Fern came to northeast Oklahoma last night. This was the scene this morning. Not too bad. Not even an inch of snow. We are supposed to get more later on today and tonight.
And the backyard. Kodi the Pom got up this morning and went outside and did his business. He loves snow. Sadie is having a hard time. She wouldn’t do her business last night so she needed out at 3 am. I took her out and she peed and ran back into the house. She was in a world of hurt this morning. She needed to poop bad but wouldn’t go outside and wouldn’t go on a pad in the house. Finally I carried her out and plopped her in the middle of the yard and she saw a squirrel and she ran after it, completely forgetting about the snow, and then did her business. She felt so much better, she was running around the yard. (Sorry if this is TMI.)
We have a steady stream of visitors to the efeeder. Here is a short 12 second video of a male and female cardinal and a dark eyed junco taking advantage of the suet and seeds that I put out for them.
That’s it for now. We are staying home today and maybe tomorrow depending on road conditions. If you are in the winter storm, please stay safe.
I am linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Lots of great bloggers post there, check them out.
Son Logan drives me around these days. So I get to take photos while he is driving like this sunset in the neighborhood.
Here is a skywatch photo from my front porch
And from the backyard
Another from the front porch looking west toward the sunset
And a skywatch photo from my driveway looking east.
While walking the dog in our neighborhood greenbelt
A sunrise looking east
And a jigsaw puzzle. These look like the Teton mountains in Wyoming.
And the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Along with a peacock.
And a jigsaw puzzle of a cool little cabin in the woods.
And a beautiful lifeguard shack on the ocean at sunset. Ignore the US flag flying in a funny manner.
Over 200 million Americans are going to get hit with a polar vortex in the next day or so. For Oklahoma it is going to be the worst since the 2011 winter storm. Here is an action shot of me shoveling snow in that storm.
And here is an action shot of our Maine Coon Chrissy during the storm. She loved the fireplace. I don’t know how she didn’t spontaneously combust.
I picked her up and took her outside after all the snow fell. You can tell that she was not a happy kitty. I’m glad I had my heavy canvas coat and leather gloves or may not have survived this photoshoot.
I’m linking to Skywatch Friday
To my fellow Americans in the path of the oncoming storm. Stay warm and safe!!
Early morning shadow hiking with a friend.
The day after a rain when the usual trails are closed so I hike on more sustainable surfaces.
And a shadow selfie on the trail.
I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday.
