No big adventures lately so what I have this week are Skywatch “targets of opportunity.” Sights I saw while going about my business.
First up is a driveway skywatch shot one morning. I could see the sky so I ventured out on the driveway to take the shot.
This one is from the parking lot of my brother’s assisted living facility. There were some funky looking clouds so I shot them over some neighboring woods.
I was running an errand in the late afternoon one day last week and noticed our former church had the days last light on the steeple. By the time I got over and took the shot things had dimmed. The photo is quite grainy but here it is.
Monday, January 20th was a huge day for America. An historic day that all Americans honored.
Martin Luther King Day!! Of course and many of celebrated by participating in or watching the Parade for the day in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, just north of downtown.
It was bitterly cold but that didn’t stop neither the participants nor the watchers.
Lots of civic organizations, city government, the University of Tulsa
And Oklahoma State University were represented.
My former employer, ONEOK, Inc has been a sponsor and participant for years. They had a nice float,
and a ton of marchers braving the cold. One thing that was missing that I was looking forward to was their drill team. I participated as a marcher in 2019, not in the drill team. I made a video back then of them practicing before the parade.
I think they are pretty good. They should come back!!
And here is ONEGAS, our sister company, they broke apart years ago.
And Williams Corporation, another huge employer and growing, headquartered in Houston. I expect one of these days a merger between ONEOK and Williams. When that happens they’ll probably move their headquarters to Houston. Houston is the center of the energy universe and has been that way for over a half century.
And here is our District Attorney walking with Tulsa Police officers.
And QuikTrip, a big convenience store chain headquartered in Tulsa. I got a couple of gift certificates for coffee.
They floats and marchers just kept on coming. After an hour I left. I was freezing.
Watching the Tulsa community turn out in force to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King was definitely the high point for me on Monday.
When I worked in downtown Tulsa I would walk by these windows every so often. I thought they were marvelous. I always wanted to see what they looked like from the inside but that never happened. Oh well.
The weather has been both warm and cold lately. Kodi loves laying in the sun on cold sunny days. Talk about a look of bliss on his face.
We were wondering how he would do with snow and he loves it. Doesn’t bother him a bit.
So I’m loving my camera bird feeder. The squirrels love it to so I chase them off whenever I can. This past week I had house sparrows, carolina chickadees, house finches, and both sexes of cardinals. I found a new feature on the camera that I have used. I can talk to the squirrels that at time overwhelm it. I yell at them to “Git out you dang squirrels” and the run off. It also has an alarm, I can make it go off from my phone and that really gets them away.
Them squirrels are raiders. Here is a shaky video of one of them who took the top off of a bird feeder and was just helping himself.
That’s a wrap for this week. Stay warm everyone. I’ll be watching the NFL playoffs this week.
I visited with my knee surgeon yesterday and I am on for the middle of next month. After the Superbowl though.
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.
