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2025 in Photographs

January 2025, on Turkey Mountain on a cold winter day at the Overlook Hub looking out over the Arkansas River and south Tulsa. I am hiking on Turkey Mountain at least once a week. I love the place.

In February I got a new right knee. Lizzie the cat immediately named herself Nurse Lizzie and stuck with me for months.

And making sure I am doing my exercises right. If nothing else she would crawl up on my knee and purr. Didn’t mind it to tell you the truth.

We got a new family member in March. Sadie we got her on St. Patrick’s Day and I named her. It fits. She is a sweet dog.

Gets along with well with everyone. It looks to me in this photo that Sadie and Heather are plotting something.

This is Heather with our pom Kodi. In addition to being my wonderful wife who took care of me during my hospital stay and recuperation. She also teaches a wide variety of fitness classes at different places and her students love her. (I would know, I take three or four classes of her classes every week). She immediately reads a room and tailors the classes to fit the needs of the students. She’s amazing actually. She teaches a wide range of people, young folks, older folks, people who are fit, people who are new to fitness. She embraces them all and they love her back.

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By the time the daffodils bloomed I was out and about taking photographs. I even helped cut new trail for the Tulsa Botanic Garden.

In May, I went to a minor league baseball game with a friend.

During my recovery I had about two or three rounds of home PT and another four rounds of regular PT, plus daily homework. The day I was able to turn the wheel over on a stationary bike was one of the happiest in my life as that meant I could ride my bike again. I love riding my bike.

We had a nice neighborhood rainbow in June.

Heather, right, and her friend, Debbie, left.

In September, Heather and I, protested on No Kings Day. We were amazed at the turnout in deep red Oklahoma. I think it amazed a lot of people that turned out on a chilly, rainy day. It was a typical genteel Tulsa affair. The cops showed up just to make sure people knew where to park so they wouldn’t get towed. People that drove by that didn’t agree with the protest just drove on through. Others waved and honked their horns. No tear gas, or angry counter protesters. Just people being themselves.

In August we went for a family vacation to our beloved Orange Beach, Alabama.

Thanksgiving 2025

And, son Logan started work with a law firm as a paralegal in August. He had been studying and dreaming about that for a long time and it came to happen. He loves his job. We love that he loves it, and we love that he is out of the house during the week days! He also earned his drivers license!! A twofer!! We are so proud of him.

My sister Ellen came to check on our brother Bob. Next to Ellen is her husband Irv. Irv is the world’s greatest BIL.

In October I had a little relapse with my knee when I slipped and fell on a hike and my right ankle ended up being right by my right hip. I was able to walk back a mile and half to my car and drive myself home and get cleaned up. Heather drove me to the Orthopedic Urgent Care who patched me and set up an appointment with my surgeon’s office. His PA said that I might be sore for a while but I’m okay.

Sadly, our brother Bob passed in November after an illness of six years. We miss him terribly. Ellen and Irv jumped through a bunch of hoops to get Bob a spot and full military honors at the Pikes Peak National Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Brother Bob was a good guy. Physically tough, never complained and a laugh that could fill a room. A history nut, especially about the Presidents. Want to know who was in Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet? Bob was your man on that. Runner of over 50 marathons and over a hundred half marathons. He joined the Navy, saw the world. Decided he didn’t like ships so he switched over to the Seabees which he loved. Ended up his career after his military retirement as a civilian employee for the navy.

So our little family is at the end of 2025 and wishing all of you a great 2026!!

Shadow Shot Sunday – Park Shadows

Photographer blind shadows at Oxley Nature Center

Boardwalk Shadows also at Oxley Nature Center.

A tree with premature balding Manion Park in Tulsa. You can see the photographer’s selfie at the bottom. He had premature balding starting about 55 years ago! He tells everyone that he doesn’t waste his hormones growing hair.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Shadow Shot Sunday – Autumn Shadows in Tulsa

A sheep grazes peacefully at the Gardens at Philbrook oblivious to their long shadow.

A sunny/shady place to rest on my bike ride on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. The view includes autumn color, the Arkansas River and Turkey Mountain on the other side of the river.

Complex shadows at Tulsa’s Tandy YMCA

I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday

Hiking Tulsa’s Shadowy Trails

I went on a short hike on Turkey Mountain on Friday. I love this bridge across the top of a dam.

This is another trail elsewhere on Turkey Mountain going across the top of dam.

Earlier in the week I went on a short walk at Hunter Park. I love post and beam fences. Among other things, they make great shadows.

I had a lot of excitement yesterday at the No Kings Rally here in Tulsa. Time to settle the nervous system down and relax.

I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday. Great gang to chill with.

Midcentury Modern Shadows

Recently I went on a walk around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. The walking trail winds around the park which contains a lot of things. An 18 hole golf course and a par 3 course as well, playgrounds, a pony league and little league ballparks, fishing ponds, a huge tennis complex, a high school, a public swimming pool, a public library and more!! The trail is paved and 3 miles long and is very popular. On warm days I like it’s shady spots.

The clubhouse for the golfcourse has two walls made out of concrete blocks. I don’t know how old they are but they look like the blocks that were common for screen walls back in the 50’s and 60’s.

Don’t see too much of them any longer. I love them. It makes for a screening wall with a lot of visual interest, including geometric shadows.

I’ll finish with these shadows. A tree in our backyard late in the day. I loved the pattern of sunlight and shadows on the tree trunk and limbs.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Saturday’s Critters – Mother’s Day 2025 Edition

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We finally took our new dog, Sadie, the terrier mix, to a dog park. It had been rainy and cold and we wanted to get our vet to clear Sadie so off we went on one sunny afternoon. Above is my wife Heather with Sadie and Kodi, our pomeranian, in tow.

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Sadie loved it. She’s a social butterfly with both dogs and people. She was running here and there making friends with everyone. She was right at home. We kept asking her if she was looking for a new home.

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Kodi has always like the park but is much more reserved. This time, our poor little dog, got run over by another dog and that was it for him. We were told when we got him that he is a little dog with BIG FEELINGS, and that is true.

Sadie is making friends with Lizzie the cat. Lizzie insists on boundaries though so even though they may be together eventually we hear a hiss and a paw whacking Sadie on the head when she forgets the boundaries.

Kodi being cute one evening. He looks like a little bear cub.

At Brookwood Pond in Tulsa, here is a Mother’s Day shot. Geese and goslings.

Also at Brookwood Pond, I’m sneaking up on Great Blue Heron. All I had for a camera was my phone.

And at Hunter Park in Tulsa, another phone shot of a Great Blue Heron.

In our backyard an Eastern Bluebird visited our camera feeder.

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I attended an event at Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area and afterward went on a short hike. I was going along and I could hear all these birds up in the trees, but could I see them? No!! I then I got to thinking maybe they are not up in the trees, maybe they are down below so that is where I started looking and I started seeing all sorts of little birds close to the ground. I didn’t really have a good lens for taking photos so these are highly cropped and thus a little grainy. Above is a Carolina Wren.

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And this is a Tufted Titmouse I think.

I guess that I am not as smart as I thought I was. I have walked miles in the woods over the years listening to the birds up in the trees and that is not where they were. Anyway, I finally learned something.

And Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers.. None of us would be here if were not for our Mothers. This Heather with our son Logan and Kodi back when he was little.

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And here is my favorite photo of my mother. She loved fishing and she was good at it. She had mobility issues so she didn’t move around very much but she could catch the fish. This was her favorite spot on Birch Creek in southeast Idaho.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters