The shadows getting long on Thanksgiving Day afternoon in my MIL’s backyard.
Thanksgiving Shadows
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Lizzie the Cat
I didn’t have any new critter pics this week and was about to check out the archives when Lizzie the cat jumped up on the coffee table and said what about me? So I took her photo. So she is my Saturday Critter this week since it is Caturday, right?
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
Shadows on the Trail
Saturday I took a short walk on a bicycle path to look for a geocache.
Across this funky enclosed bridge across Mooser Creek.
Next to this tree bunch casting some cool afternoon shadows.
The cache is somewhere in the rocks to the left of the tree. Ididn’t find the cache. It’s about the third time I’ve looked. Everybody else is finding it pretty easily. Oh well, I had a nice walk.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2.
Saturday’s Critters – at Home
Here’s our one year old pomeranian, Kodi. He was kind of shaggy so he went to the groomer today and he got all trimmed up and got a special Thanksgiving tie to boot. He tore it off very quickly but we got a photo of him.
Here he is in the back yard. He loves picking up acorns and bringing them inside to trade for a treat.
And a black and white cat who shows up when it is dark.
And sometimes in broad daylight.
And a first sighting for this light colored cat.
And of course squirrels. We are inundated with them.
And I’m linking this week with Saturday’s Critters
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.
Tulsa’s 2023 Veterans Day Parade
Last Friday I went downtown to see the 2023 Tulsa Veterans Day Parade. I see whenever I can. Tulsa has one of the largest such parades in the country.
This year, son Logan joined me. The first time I have ever watched the parade with anybody!
A World War II vintage DC-3 Transport aircraft started flying over downtown Tulsa well before the parade and kept flying circles throughout.
A Tulsa Police Department motorcycle squad opened the parade.
Their were High School marching bands representing their schools.
TPD had some of the officers who are veterans in the parade with one of their armored vehicles.
Some veterans organizations showed up.
Including the Veterans Administration.
Logan liked all the military vehicles that were in the parade.
Several Junior ROTC squads showed up and marched.
Miss Oklahoma showed up with a big smile. I googled her and her name is Sunny Day. What a name,!! I think it fits here. When I lived in Dallas years ago I knew somebody named Happy Holidays.
And more military vehicles. This looks foreign to me but still cool.
My former coworkers from the company I retired from showed up in force.
And it still wasn’t over. I didn’t stay long enough this time but after the parade is over, veterans from all over town show up and march. Some in full uniform some with just a cap. Lots of young people and lots of elderly folks showing their pride.
I’ve missed the parade a few times over the years but I’ll keep going for as long as I can.
I’m linking with My Corner of the World
Shadow Shot Sunday – Low Autumn Skies
This is a backyard shot showing my neighbor’s fence to the east casting a shadow on my fence with the green space to the north. You get a bonus shot of our dog Kodi at the lower left hand corner.
And here is another fence shadow shot in our greenspace showing a fence shadow from a private residence.
And from my last bike ride. A shadow of my bike during a rest and photographing break. I only do photography when I go by mself. I do too much slow wibble wobbling to suit most people. My problem is that I see stuff I have never seen before and I have to check it out. I have been running, walking, bicycling up and down the Tulsa Riverparks trails for over thirty years and I always see lots of new stuff. Often it is old stuff that I see in a new way! Does that make sense?
I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2
Saturday’s Critters – Seen on a Bike Ride
I went on a bike ride the other day on Tulsa’s Riverparks Trails during a very unseasonably warm day.
I saw two groups of white pelicans on the river. They were both all hunkered down. I hope that they will get going to where they need to be for the winter.
The canadian geese are here all year long in Tulsa. Many of them still migrate south but I guess the others have figured out what some of politicians haven’t, that global warming is a thing.
And I saw a few great blue herons. They are everywhere. Back in the day when I still worked I was out in the natural gas fields of western Oklahoma and I stopped on a dirt road to make a cell phone call and suddenly noticed in the field next to where I parked there were a bunch of great blue herons. Not in a pond or water, just standing there in a field. I took a pic but it is long gone. Well before the days I knew about storing and tagging and all that other stuff.
I found a bunch of seagulls clear across the river.
I stopped and took a photo of the foliage on Turkey Mountain across the river. I never get tired of seeing it.
Nearby was this plaque commemorating the first Oklahoma Game Ranger killed in the line of duty. He was game ranger murdered in the line of duty in Oklahoma. On Turkey Mountain investigating a poaching case. I don’t think it was ever solved.
Back in the day, Turkey Mountain had a bootleggers, lawmen, oil field hands, ranchers, railroad men, and farmers. I have personally found “shake and bake” meth labs. It has a shady past. So does Tulsa for that matter. Machine gun Kelly, Pretty Boy Floyd, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker. They all have Tulsa ties. Read more about Tulsa’s shady past here.
Oops I digressed. I am continually fascinated by the dichotomy of Tulsa. On the east bank are big companies, operas, ballet companies, symphonies, wonderful museums and on the gritty west side, like Turkey Mountain, refineries, oilfield manufacturing, factories is where the money was made to pay for all the nice stuff. That is where the outlaws hung out.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.
Oops one more thing,
Excuse my appearance, I’m retired so I get kind of scruffy. That is me, (of course) and Lizzy early in the morning. I read the paper and drink coffee in the morning and she reads over my shoulder. I keep telling her that is rude but she won’t stop.
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.