Suburbia’s Heaven – Finished with the mowing. I dumped my ancient gas mower a couple of years ago and got an electric mower. No more buying gasoline, or changing oil nor air filter. Just roll it out and mow.
Went to our local Neighborhood Walmart. They had a deluxe pollinator garden for a few years but I guess they are off on new tangents. This nice fence and irrigation system is going to waste. I’m surprised copper thieves hadn’t made their mark.
At a rest stop on Tulsa’s Riverparks Trails during a recent bike ride. What are those deer looking at anyway?
At the end of May we took a little trip down to southeast Oklahoma and stayed in a cabin close to the Beavers Bend State Park. A favorite place to go for us that is not too far. It was a combination getaway and birthday celebration for our son, Logan.
Driving around we came across this deer in the middle of nowhere. Deer are prevalent in the area.
I am not sure if this was the same deer or not.
We went on a hike on the Lakeview Lodge Trail at Beavers Bend State Park. We love the trail. Not many people, it is not too technical nor does it have huge elevation changes. We saw this far away deer and several of its friends. They all stayed away from us and disappeared eventually.
The woods were full of birds. We could hear them and spot small birds here and there. Thank goodness for the Merlin App to listen to the bird chatter and id them for us.
At the cabin we spotted this tree frog late one evening. Sorry about the grainy fuzziness of it. It didn’t stay long.
The State Park has its Woodland Heritage Center where they cover all sorts of things about life in the woods. The logging, the history of the area, woodland firefighting. They have this large piece with Smokey Bear. My dad was a Forest Ranger for the US Forest Service in the West. We went through the museum with him years ago and he kind of brought the exhibits to life with his knowledge, experience, and insights. He is gone now but I feel close to him every time I go through the museum. Lots of happy memories there.
And we celebrated son, Logan’s birthday while were down there. Lots of family memories down there.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check them out. Lots of animal lovers who are also good photographers.
Earlier this spring the winds were high here in Tulsa. I couldn’t fly very far without the drone warning me to bring it down immediately. So this is a barely rooftop shot of some clouds to the west moving in.
I’m happier when I can get to about 50 meters because I can get better photos.
Back in April there was a roofing crew replacing a roof nearby. They were humping it, rain was coming.
The neighborhood we live has five different communities. We live in the only non-gated community. The wealthiest neighborhood has a swan pond and we can go look at from the other side of a iron fence. Reminds me of a Dickens novel. Every once in a while we go looking at the swan pond through the fence.
And this is looking west down the street toward a sunset.
So I don’t have to drive anywhere to get Skywatch photos.
So I am so behind in my posting. This Spring we had some very wet weather, which is fine except I like to go hiking in wet weather, even when it is muddy.
The aftermath of a trail race I competed in north of Tulsa a few years. What a slog.
The problem is that the more I learn about “Leave No Trace” principles the more I learn that it is not ethical to go hiking in the mud. Even if the land managers don’t restrict it. My preferred place to hike is the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area here in Tulsa and they actually close the trails when they are muddy.
The aftermath of a trail race on Turkey Mountain a few years ago. If you finish a trail race and you have no blood and mud on you, were you even there?
The problem is that the more I learn about “Leave No Trace” principles the more I learn that it is not ethical to go hiking in the mud. Even if the land managers don’t restrict it.
And the route of a trail race a few years ago at a State Park here in Tulsa.
My preferred place to hike is the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area here in Tulsa and they actually close the trails when they are muddy. I could go to other places that don’t ban hiking but I don’t really feel right about it. The alternative is go somewhere that has hard surfaces and the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow has Ray Harral Nature Center with resilient gravel and asphalt surfaces to walk on.
Harral’s trail bridge is a landmark.
The trails are pretty good after a good rain.
I was testing out a new camera for me. A Canon EOS R100 mirrorless unit. It’s an entry level mirrorless camera. I found it so light that I got a hand strap instead of a neck strap. I like it so far. Such a change from My Nikon that I had for years and loved. But hey, as old as I am, I can learn new things. One thing that I liked is that it stays in constant communication with my iphone. In fact it gets gps information from the phone to tag the photos. Anyway, back to business.
Harral packs a lot of woods and plants into a compact place.
A lot of different things to see.
And some history. The metal roof you see was once part of a spring house. There were cold springs and in the springhouse you could store your perishables.
Another view of the springhouse. You can’t really get down because it is right on a creek and terrifically muddy all the time.
So this was my route. I’ve got a way of looping out and back where I can get almost three miles without too much duplication.
If you want to learn more about Leave No Trace, hit this LNT Link. Lots of good information there.
I am linking with Through My Lens. Go check it out, lots of great bloggers post there.
I went bicycling on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails recently and found this miniature Tulsa Driller Statue so I got a combo shadow shot of my bike and the Tulsa Driller.
I was checking out a new trail at Tulsa’s Chandler Park and they had this sign with cutout letters and leaf images and I liked the shadow it cast.
We went recently on a long weekend to Hochatown, Oklahoma, home of Beavers Bend State Park. We rented a nice cabin and it made for decent shadows in the afternoon. See the two cans of bug spray on the table. Oklahoma has lots of bugs including mosquitoes, ticks, chiggers and other nasty critters, so if you come visit in the summer, bring lots of bug spray. If you forget, we got lots for sale. As it was I got a few fire ant bites on my feet. They are really nasty and I don’t think bug spray bothers them at all.
That is about it for this week’s shadows. I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday.
A couple months ago I stopped in the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check things out.
Close to the downtown of the city I saw this large church. It was very imposing but I thought it looked a little awkward looking with that steeple that seems to need to be attached to a much larger building.
It is Prase Fellowship Church. I don’t know much about it but I liked the design on their sign showing clasped dark and light hands. I guess I am woke but I like the imagery. We need more woke stuff in my opinion.
The core downtown of Sapulpa has all sorts of trendy stores, restaurants, and a brewery. I liked this “umbrella alley” I’ll call it. I know lots of other places have similar installations but this is the first one I have seen. I love the different colors. The thing about Oklahoma is that the wind blows a lot here and the these umbrellas were dancing around pretty good. It looks like there are a few gaps where maybe a few umbrellas just flew off.
This is a mural on the city’s performance playhouse. I love murals and I think this fits.
And this is interesting. At first I thought it was a bar for surveyors or geocachers. Nope, its an outdoor event space.
Route 66 runs right through Sapulpa and there a lot of Route 66 themed stores and restaurants in town. This was on the outskirts. It is a barbecue restaurant. It wasn’t open when I was there.
So after seeing the sights I headed back home to Tulsa. I am linking to Through My Lens.
Here is out Pomeranian, Kodi with his dog toy. He is a little dog with big feelings and when he gets them hurt this is how he consoles himself.
This Kodi, with our rescue terrier, Sadie. They don’t like it when my wife is gone. Sometimes Kodi howls to express his sadness.
And this is our backyard feeder with a female cardinal and a dove sharing the space. I am getting about 500 to 600 visits a day from various birds. Literally 95% or so doves or sparrows. Hardly any squirrels any longer since I used chili or habanero pepper laced bird feed and safflower seeds intermixed with other feeds.
I fired up the drone a few days ago and launched it over my backyard up to about 40 meters and pointed west and got this. Not much color but lots of drama. I’ll take it.
