Category Archives: Skywatch Friday

A Late Autumn Hike

I went on a late afternoon hike recently at Turkey Mountain. They are putting a new sign up. Kind of cool in that it is also a topographic map of the park. I think maybe they are going to make it into a planter of some sort.

I took the Lo Chi trail which goes downhill to the Arkansas River. It passes this beaver pond on the way down.

And the trail goes under this flyover for one of the downhill bicycle runs. I guess this is technically a table top because you don’t have to catch air. But you can if you want. A real flyover would be a gap. Talking to the bikers they have their own language. Many older people like me would “roll over” this rather than try and jump.

And I found this baby backhoe that the contractors use to build trails. I’ve lost track on the new trails. This looks like they are building a new trail already.

Lo Chi doesn’t get as much use as some of the other new trails. I only saw one other person on my two miles outing.

And the sun started setting. I was on the east side of the ridge so it immediately got a little cooler.

We still have some pretty good fall color on the mountain.

And some more color. I walked a short segment of the RiverParks bicycle trail as part of my route.

Only two miles but hey I had a good time.

Back at the parking lot, these two women had set up their apparatus on one of the pavilions and were having a lot of fun twirling around. I don’t know what you call this but it looks challenging.

Pretty darn athletic is what I thought. They would climb up to the top of the pole and invert with the their legs holding them up. I couldn’t do that in a million years. Got to have a strong core for just start plus not get dizzy twirling round and round upside down.

Changing course, one morning in our back yard.

Found this giant Santa Claus inflatable in a nearby neighborhood.

And we are slowly getting our house decorated for Christmas.

And after a long hiatus I started doing jigsaw puzzles again on my ipad. I love doing them even though they take a lot of time. A great advantage is that you can’t lose any pieces and I use the option to orient the pieces in the right direction. Plus the texture of cardboard gives me the heebie jeebies and so I avoid that as well. And! there is no table with the puzzle on it when you are not working on it.

And today (December 7) is Pearl Harbor Day. Let’s not forget the heroes that day.

And, I am linking with Skywatch Friday!

Skywatch Friday – Black Friday Edition

We had the full Beaver Moon recently on a very cold clear night. I always love the full moon.

We still have some fall color to go with our blue skies.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. Did you go shopping on Black Friday. I went on a hike in a secludeed area of Turkey Mountain here in Tulsa.

Saw some great sights, took a lot of photographs.

Got on some rugged legacy trails and then on some of the newer twisty turny trails.

I encountered four other people on my hike with is four more than what I usually see in this part of the park. I only went about two miles. but it was great.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Thanksgiving 2023

Thanksgiving 2023 is complicated.

We are always thankful for our many blessings.

But sometimes their are distractions such as health and wellness that intrude.

But you know, just look around, there is lots to be thankful about. I am loving the fall colors in northeast Oklahoma.

And of course we have our sometimes spectacular skies to be thankful for. Especially those skies that don’t have funnel clouds in them!

From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!! a couple days early, but what they hey.

Linking with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Here and There

Took this photo on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness while doing a little citizen science project.

Every two weeks I go set nine traps for native pollinators. Three each of green, white, and red and then later go collect the bugs and put them in sealed tubes. I doing it for a professor at the University of Oklahoma. It’s all fine and good except my wife is not happy about frozen bugs in our freezer. At the end of next month I send all my data and the bugs to the professor.

A scene on my hike bike to the parking lot. I’ve been experimenting with RAW photography on my cell phone. I use an app called Halide to do it. RAW format photos are lots bigger than jpg files and thus contain lots of information. The visuals of the photos are kind of flat and dull but you can edit them with many phone based apps such as snapseed. I use the phone based photoshop and lightroom. I think it can really add a lot of dimensions to the photo under the right circumstances. I like how the above photo turned out.

As you may know if you have been following me for a while I am impatient with the purist ethic of photography to use no filters or processing. I respect if that is what you want to do, that’s great. Me, I love monkeying around with photos. Many of photos are unprocessed though, I would guess maybe half to two thirds.

Here is an unedited photo of some evening color from my front porch. I love it when my fellow skywatchers take photos from their property.

And here is an unedited photo from my back porch one morning.

And another from the greenbelt in our subdivision.

And yet another from the elementary school where I am a volunteer reading tutor.

That’s it for this week. I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday Update

On a whim I stopped one day at this park while running errands. It has good fall color scenes in the past and today did not disappoint.

We got some clouds the other day at sunset and the wind dropped so I launched my drone in backyard to see what I could see.

Last week I attended a “Berm Clinic” on Turkey Mountain. They had an old pro trail builder to teach us how to repair berms and lips on downhill bicycle runs. I don’t ride mountain bikes but I wanted to learn a little bit about this so I could help out on the trail days. We also learned about fixing lips which is what bicyclists use to catch air. The lips need to be sharp edged to get the best results.

I stole this photo from somebody else’s facebook site. There is me in the foreground working on repairing a berm. It was a fun and interesting two hours.

And I have been on a couple hikes on Turkey Mountain the past few weeks. I have so many pics of fall colors.

And I ran in a trail race last sunday that started from the YMCA on the northwest side of Turkey Mountain. When I saw I ran it I mean that I walked it.

Got more photos during the race.

At the end I ate a couple of pancakes at the finish line.

And drank an adult malted beverage. All before 11 am on Sunday morning. I don’t know a better way to start the morning.

And more drive by fall color.

And some more while walking our dog on our neighborhood. I’m never afraid to post sky photos with all sorts of wires in the air. I got the software to eliminate them but rarely do.

So, I’ve been pretty busy the past week. How about you?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – Finally Home

I’m done with posting about my travels for now. So these are some sights since I’ve stayed home .

The full, or almost full moon, in late September.

Old rock church in midtown Tulsa. The sanctuary is now abandoned but it is connected to a more modern sanctuary that got taken over by a church from the suburbs. It’s all confusing to me but I love to see buildings including church buildings preserved and repurposed.

This is the nearby sanctuary. Not very new, I’m guessing mid 50’s Mid Century Modern.

I’ve been flying my drone as well especially when we get weather. My little lightweight drone gets blown away by winds so I have to be careful.

I had to be really careful for this shot. A front was moving through so I didn’t get very high at all.

I encountered a glider at a monarch butterfly event. I guess you call these things sail planes now.

Another “weather” shot in our neighborhood green space in September.

So that’s it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Pensacola Pier Skywatch

After our visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, we drove to the Pensacola pier for lunch and sightseeing.

Beautiful skies, almost too beautiful. We were eating outside and the restaurant asked us to move inside. There were two storms headed toward us.

Both of them missed us but I took photos of the resulting skies. I’m not afraid of rain, I am really afraid of lightning though so I was careful. Hear it fear, see it flee it is my motto.

Nothing like a good storm coming through for energy and clean air.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Beach Vacation Skywatch – Volume II

More skywatch photos from our trip to Orange Beach, Alabama in September

We had great skies almost every day. I loved the mix of clouds and sunshine.

Some of the sights were spectacular

Like lots of condos in the area, the front faced the beach and the back faced the highway. Even those views were not bad.

Went on a bike ride at the Gulf State Park nearby. They had great views as well.

The lakes there are alligator habitat. People were still letting their dogs swim out there.

We went for dinner at nearby Perdido Key, Florida. Our restaurant had great views of the sunset. Everybody was up on their feet with the cell phones just happily snapping away. Me2, I was snapping away with all of them.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Beach Vacation Skywatch – Volume I

The three of us took a late vacation this year. I’m ashamed to say that all the traveling I did by myself was part of that (but I’m not sorry that I did it.) Son is taking college classes but they are online so yep, he can attend school anywhere we have wifi.

So this was the SuperMoon on August 31. Also a blue moon since it was the second full moon of August. I took this the night before we left on vacation. Technically though I am retired I am on a permanent vacation.

We had some decent skies on our drive from Tulsa to the Alabama Gulf Coast. My wife was driving when I took this photo. I used to take photos of her driving but she has gotten pretty good with her backhand so I don’t do those so much any longer.

I love this two story dock at a rest stop in Arkansas. Too bad the dock is closed.

So we spent the night in Jackson, Mississippi on the way down there. No photos there. So we had a short drive to Orange Beach. We stopped at Buc ees on the way to the beach. Oops never again!! It is like a giant gas station paired with a giant Bass Pro with the worst of both. Lines to get in, lines to get out. It looked like a good place to get covid to me. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. But our condo was nice when got there.

The Gulf of Mexico right at our feet. Going so late in the season meant a lot less people and the temps were very mild and the humidity low. Sign me up!!

Evening sunset was nice.

Here’s Heather out in the water. I love the feel of the ocean, sand, and wind in my face.

And a hand holding romantic shadow selfie. Look how skinny we are.

And then the almost full waning moon that night.

More to come next week.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Rio Grande Nature Center State Park

During some free time that I had in September attending my 50th high school reunion in Albuquerque I made my way down to the Rio Grande River bosque to visit the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park. A bosque is the woodlands and land adjacent to riparian streams and rivers. I’ve only heard the term used in New Mexico. Bosque’s are rich in wildlife and plants and after being neglected for years are now being preserved and restored.

I lived in Albuquerque from 1971 until I graduated from college in 1977. The whole time I lived there I never visited the bosque. Part of the reason is geography. I lived in the northeast heights where it seemed most other so called Anglos lived. The north and south valley of the Rio Grande river was considered kind of rough territory to visit. It all seems kind of ridiculous to me now and I feel bad about missing a great opportunity.

I went to do some hiking a little bit of geocaching and mainly just explore and see what was there. There were several serious bird watchers in the park. You know, they have binoculars, notebooks, and cameras with big lens and they have infinite patience staying in one place for a long time before moving on. Hey I admire them but I am not temperamentally suited for such things. I like moving.

I found me a tiny little nanocache. There were others out there but they were off trail quite a ways and there all sorts of signs asking people to stay on the trails. I didn’t want to be “that guy.”

One could tell that they had used fire or other vegetation clearing method to open up the woods.

These big metal things are Jack Jetties or Kellen Jetties. The Corps of Engineers placed tens of thousands of these things all up and down the river. They are meant to stabilize the banks and keep the river in its channel. They, along with some dams, worked too well. The river never flooded into its floodplain rejuvenating the soil and drowning out invasive species. The Corps has removed many of the jetties and that has heled the bosque revive.

A big bird watching area is this pond right by the visitor center. They had a large hummingbird feeder that rotated over the pond and I’ve never seen so many hummingbirds. I couldn’t get a good angle on the hummingbirds but you can see the Sandia Mountains off far away. You can see them from all parts of town.

My walk took me right by the Rio Grande River a couple times. Here the river is on the far side of this “beach.”

And here, the river is right by the bank.

So I walked and moseyed about three miles and enjoyed myself very much. The park integrates with an extensive walking/biking trail that goes along the river for miles and connects several attractions. I would sure like to return and explore the area some more.

YogisDen.us

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