It’s May and we have rainy cloudy days and we have sunny days. I like the sunny days best because I like to be outside. Right now the sunny days are also cool days and those are the best of all.
We won’t have our California weather forever. Soon it will be hot and muggy.
I’m not going to worry about that now!
I try and get outside at least a little bit every single day.
I was feeling all energetic and everything so I thought that I would go for a little hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness. I probably should have gone to the gym, but I’m gymed out, Physical Therapy is all gym, and not the fun kind.
So off I went, the trails were all wet, not very muddy though but rain was in the forecast and the park warned that they might close the park to everybody if it got bad enough.
The upside of rain is that all the ponds were full. Nice to see.
I used a mixture of the new trails and the old trails. The Stay Gold and Tree Hugger respectively.
This pond was dry the last time I came by.
I was going down the trail with my Merlin app trying to figure out the birds that were singing and a mountain biker came by and said to be sure to watch out for the copperhead snake on the trail up ahead. Yes sir! Time to put the eyes on the trail and not the device.
Do you know how many sticks look like snakes!! A bunch. The thing about copperheads is that they are the slugs of the poisonous snake families. They are not vicious and once they find a spot they like, they don’t like to move, and they are hard to see. So watch where you step!
The only snake I saw was this chain snake.
This is a Skywatch Friday post so I need to have one view of the sky. Here’s the overlook on Turkey Mountain on the very southeast side of the park. That’s the Arkansas River down below. To the left are the funky old office towers that used to be the televangelist Oral Roberts hospital. (Don’t ask me why a faith healer needs a hospital.)
And then back to the parking lot. Never did see that copperhead. I am not complaining about it, just saying.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday and Our Corner of the World.
A sunrise this morning. We have a new dog, Sadie, and she gets up early, and that means we get up early with her. You dog owners know that when the dog gets up you better take it outside right away or face the consequences.
A neighborhood skyshot and reflection.
My volunteer gig with the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition is kicking in. It’s Earth Day season. Here is me and my friend Marci at the local electric utilities employee Earth Day event.
And at a community event a couple days later in downtown Tulsa.
And speaking of electric utility, here is there power plant on the Arkansas River.
And the boat shed at Tulsa’s Gathering Place.
Here is my wife Heather. We attended a fund raiser for the local botanic garden. It was called “Sip and Stroll” so that we sipped and strolled, noshed appetizers and talked to people. Our first grownup date in a while and it was fun.
It had been raining in the gardens so the iris’s had raindrops on them. I love raindrops on flowers.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.
Here is the Full Pink Moon from just a few days ago. It’s not pink. It has not ever really been pink. Now if you insist, I have the skillz and appz to make it pink.
From the Tulsa Botanic Garden. They had ultralife size origami, only with other materials and they called it florigami. It was cool, I’m guessing this is a giant begonia. Sorry if I am wrong, I often am.
And these are some big lillies.
And these are some tulips.
My gym is part of a hospital system that I think spends more on landscaping than they do on medical stuff (I’m kidding.) So these are the tulips from my gym. Does your gym have tulips? Maybe you need a cheaper gym. Maybe I do also.
Me leaving PT earlier this week cuz I hit 120 degrees on the knee bend test. That is a critical point in knee replacement physical therapy. Hurts like you know what but things are getting better quickly. Also, this week I was able to get on the stationary bike and turn the pedals. That was also painful but I loved it just the same.
From my latest money making venture. I’ve been saving the families aluminum cans for a long time. My wife gave me the ultimatum that they needed to be gone by the time book group starts or she’ll get rid of them for me. Hey she never asks me for a thing or ever gets mean or anything so we she makes a request I’m all over it. (most of the time). So I bagged them up and weighed them. 30 pounds!!
Drove 22 miles to a metals recycling place in north Tulsa. Got in line drove through the hole into the building. They threw my bags on scales and they suddenly weighed 17 pounds. Got paid in cash and I’m still trying figure out where my missing 13 pounds of cans went. To be fair, the scales are literally big enough to drive a car onto so I am not surprised that they are not true in the entire range. I’m not sure that I cleared a profit but hey I got to see a different part of Tulsa society. I sure lead a sheltered life is all I am going to say.
Went for a walk and found these small bluish-purply blooms and thought they were pretty cool. Just so you know, in Oklahoma, bluish-purply is word.
And late one day caught the American Flag flying.
I’m linking with the fine photobloggers at My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday.
Last Sunday our family celebrated a birthday, mine. A big milestone birthday, 70. Oops, how did that happen. I’m still here. Heather made me a great breakfast of blueberry pancakes, eggs, and bacon. It was great.
And then we headed to the Tulsa Botanic Garden. Their tulips were peak, in my opinion. It was a little overcast which makes the colors pop!!
All sorts of different colors and varieties.
As a bonus, they had a “florigami” exhibition going on. Florigami is like life sized origami. The works on display were incredible.
I loved this huge florigami tulip on top of the hill overlooking the gardens.
The tulips were everywhere. I have about twenty times as many photos of tulips as what will show up in this post and instagram. Oh well, I got them if I need them.
They had some beautiful wisteria also.
And rotating florigami.
I stole this photo from Heather’s facebook page.
And then we went to Eerie Abbey Ales in downtown Tulsa and had a beer.
And then the nearby La Tertulia restaurant for some decent New Mexico style Mexican food. Green chili enchiladas.
Home for birthday cake. This one lasted three days. I love sheetcake birthday cakes.
Can’t believe I’m 70. That is getting up there.
I get lots of skywatch photos from my front and back yards, and that is great except…
I like getting out as well.
Another day, looking west again.
We have no daffodils in our yard though. Gotta drive to them.
I always love a flag snapping in a strong, cold, spring breeze.
The school where I tutor a first grader is honoring all their teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers, janitors, tutors and everyone else who helps out.
The other day the knee was feeling strong so I fired up the electric mower and got the job done.
On another day the wife and I went to a big box store and bought some cushions for our patio furniture. The cushions were cool but these roosters take a better photo. Can you believe stores let you walk in and take pictures of their stuff? Some stores say no photos but I ignore those signs.
The afternoon after I mowed, I decided to go take a hike at Turkey Mountain on a little bit more challenging trail. Only a mile long but the killer was about 300 feet of elevation change.
Here is some switchbacks on the 300 ft climb.
I loved the br
You can tell I really liked the bridge since I took two photos of it.
Staying in or Going out? You need to do both!!
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
My knee is continuing to heal well. As soon as all the scabs drop their own I can back in the pool which will be great!!
I’ve transitioned from Home Health PT to Outpatient PT. So I am going to a place twice a week where I pay people to torture me. They give me homework to do so my therapy cat Lizzie checks it to make sure we are doing everything right. She’s a funny cat. Whenever I got on the bed to do something, she’s right up there with me. If you don’t have a therapy cat I suggest getting one.
I’ve started taking Heather’s cardio drumming classes again. I started out seated and now I can stand for half the class before I have to use the chair.
Last week I went on my first walk all by my lonesome. First I had to check out a fire we had in the greenbelt behind our house. Apparently a squirrel shorted out a transmission line, caught on fire and dropped into some brush which caught on fire. The fire department on was on it quickly fortunately.
I went on walking and heard this loud bird. I could see him but couldn’t figure out what it was so I fired up the iMerlin app on my phone.
Brown Thrasher it said. A new addition to my life list!
Found a big field of henbit. Years past I would attack in our yard but I’ve come to find out that it is an important source of food in the spring for pollinators. So now I let it be.
My little outing was a little less than a mile and left me exhausted, sore, and very happy. Time to get back to the house and put some ice on the leg. So yep, things are looking up.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday
That’s a saying about Oklahoma that I heard the whole time I have lived here, could apply to Texas as well where I lived before. March can be very mild and it can be bitterly cold. We’ve had both types of days this March.
The worst are the warm, dry, very windy days. That is when we get lots of grass fires. We get a lot of rain in northeast Oklahoma which means that at the end of winter we have all sorts of dead and dormant grass on the ground and it doesn’t take much to set it ablaze. Lots of huge acreage burned, almost 200 homes burned so far this spring.
And then we get the bitterly cold days. I hate those. March is such a heart breaker.
Warm days we take our dog Kodi to the dog park. He has gone from being scared and hostile of other dogs to where he is now a social butterfly with both dogs and people. What changed? We don’t know but we love seeing it.
How is your March going so far?
We have a full moon tonight, the Full Beaver Moon it is called, others call it the Full Worm Moon. Later on we are supposed to have a full lunar eclipse. We are also supposed to have cloudy skies so unless I just happen to wake up at the right time, I won’t make it.
I am linking with other skywatchers at Skywatch Friday
It’s been a couple weeks since my knee replacement surgery. I’m getting a little anxious for this healing thing to get a move on. I snuck outside yesterday and took a photo of our tree outside at the very beginning of the afternoon golden hour. I love spring. It is still cold, but the sun is up high, the wind is blowing, the sky is bright blue.
Today my wife Heather took me on a little outing. We went to see my brother who lives nearby. When I first to the hospital my sister drove down from Colorado and spent several days just checking up on him. She is back home now.
It sure felt nice getting outside.