Category Archives: Skywatch Friday

Gleaning Blackberries at Joe’s Farm

The other day Heather and I went to Joe’s Farm in Bixby to get a few things. The sign above is from previous years. This year the farm didn’t grow any produce, they planted a cover crop to replenish the soil. They still had blackberries and flowers as well as produce from other farms to sell. Heather loves blackberries and asked if the blackberries were still available. The lady there said they are pretty much all gone but if we wanted to we could see if we could find some for and gave us a container to put them in. So off we went.

We passed the fruit trees.

And before you get to the big tree you hang a right and…

And there are the blackberry bushes. I had never picked blackberries so…

I asked Heather, are these blackberries and she said yes but they are not ripe. The ripe ones are very dark. Okay, I get it. And the blackberries were pretty much all picked over but we went up and down several rows and gathered enough to fill the container. It was fun, kind of like geocaching, except for berries.

And then on the way back we stopped and looked at the flowers. They sell cut yourself flowers. Photos are free! And yes I used a filter on the photo above (and below). Flower photos demand impressionistic filters is what I think.

I forgot to take a photo of the blackberries we picked. Heather made a blackberry crisp out of them and that was pretty tasty.

I am linking with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – After the Rain

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Earlier this month I was at the Y taking a yoga class. When I went in, the weather was sunny. When I got out, the ground was soaked and the skies were full of clouds that had lots of rain still in them.

Looking South

Looking East

Looking West

We had had torrential rain. I drove home, about four miles and it was dry as a bone.

We had a Full Buck Moon on July 10. Clear skies so I was able to get a halfway decent image of it.

B0CC687B-F154-4CE7-9325-35D9504195A8 — Not my photo and I don’t own the copyright.

I started working Ipad jigsaws puzzles again. I have a very old Ipad and the app wouldn’t work because I needed to upload and install a new Operating System and it wasn’t working. Drove me crazy!! So I was googling like crazy and then I got on Microsoft’s Copilot AI and asked it how do I upgrade and it said just load itunes on your laptop and then plug in your ipad to the laptop and it will upgrade all by it’s lonesome. I did it and it worked!!

This AI deal is a little scary. I asked if it would take one of my photos and make a postcard out of it and it said sure, upload a photo, and tell Copilot what text I want on the card, what style a card and it would be happy to do it. So I haven’t done it yet. Maybe I’ll have one next week.

I hope that you are all okay!! Word is that ICE is supposed to hit Oklahoma hard starting today. So pray for all us Oklahomans.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatching Bike Ride on the RiverParks Trails

I went on a bike ride at Tulsa River Parks on a pretty clear day the other day. The trail runs north and south, I always check a weather app to see which the way the wind is blowing. I like the wind at my back wind I am heading back to my car.

It was a south wind so I started close to the north end of the trail system. I love this mural and it’s setting on the river.

I went a mile further north and crossed the river at the 11th street bridge and took this photo looking south.

We had some nice clouds that day. I love fluffy white clouds.

I crossed over to the west side of the river and went a couple miles south and crossed over the Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge. You can see that the river is still running full. The Arkansas River’s basin is huge. It starts close to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado so if is rainy there is potential for a lot of water.

I looked the other way to the refinery oil storage tanks. I was reminded of one time when I was on the bridge and group of people came by and one of them wondered what the tanks were for. One said it is for the refinery, another one said with air of authority, that those were water storage tanks for the city of Tulsa’s water system because everybody knows oil storage tanks are illegal inside city limits. Just so you know, the Arkansas River water is pretty nasty. Way back when, the city layed a pipeline to a lake northeast of Tulsa and that is where most of the drinking water comes from.

I crossed back over the east side of the river and went down to what I call the Bear Fountain at 71st street. It’s a great place to rest up a few minutes. A new friend of mine hid a geocache near here. I spent some time looking for it but couldn’t find it. So I’ll try next time.

Turned around and headed north. The kayak boat ramp is closed. The river is too high and moving too fast. You’d be swept downstream fast.

So a little less than 14 flat miles at a leisurely pace. The red marker is where I started. My knee is coming along nicely. The first half mile or so is still “ouch ouch ouch” as I turn over the pedals but after that it’s fine after that. I’m still building up strength and endurance.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – The Weather is Heating Up

It’s hot and humid in Oklahoma, USA these days. Yes, well it is July and that is what we get.

I don’t really mind it. We have air conditioning in our homes and cars and you just have to adjust your outdoor time accordingly and use precautions. Take water, use sunscreen, dress appropriately, (I wear a lot of tech fiber clothing that wicks perspiration away.) And try to do outdoors activities in the morning and very late afternoons.

And look out for your pets, they need lots of water and rest also.

So just get out and enjoy yourself and take lots of photos.

Skywatch Friday

My Corner of the World

Skywatch Friday – In the Air and Over the Water

From a drone flight in early June. Usually June is boring blue but we are getting lots of clouds this month.

And another flight a few days later. It looks like a giant hammer is fixing to pound Tulsa.

And from my first post-surgery bike ride. I had a knee replacement back in mid-February and have done a lot of Physical Therapy and exercise on my own as well. Earlier this month I went on my first ride. Six miles. The first two of which were ouch, ouch, ouch, on every pedal rotation until I got warmed up. So it is just a small ride. Earlier this week I did another of eight miles and it went well also.

It rained here a few days later and so for my hiking I went a park that has paved trails. Less erosion that way and I am all about Leave No Trace principles. (Hit the link to find out about the Seven Principles of Leave No Trace.)

Last week, my wife and I went to a free concert at Jenks Riverwalk. It’s a nice shopping/eating center right on the Arkansas River. I took a little break from the music to take some photos.

Linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Colored Skies and Subtle Skies

I fired the drone up over the backyard last week toward the end of the day.

It had been raining and I wanted to go hiking so I went to Broken Arrow’s Ray Harral Nature Center. A beautiful place with many paved hiking trails so one can go hiking while adhering to Leave No Trace guidelines. The end of the hike I found this composition with flowers, trees, and a sky. Nothing earth shattering, just kind of pleasant.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Late Afternoon in the Neighborhood

I launched the drone the other day. It wasn’t sunset time but there were clouds and light so off I went. This is 40 meters over my backyard in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looking west.

And then I turned the drone 180 degrees to the east and pointed the camera closer to the ground.

And, as you can tell, I played with the photos a little bit. I used a program called Dynamic Auto Painter and used one of their watercolor presets.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Rainbow Mania Takes Over Tulsa, Oklahoma

The other day we had a fast moving rainstorm move through Tulsa. It was very intense and didn’t last long.

It left a calling card, a beautiful rainbow to the east. It was rainbow mania on Tulsa social media. Everybody got rainbow shots that were a lot better than mine. But hey, I’ll take mine. I don’t get too many rainbows.

Looking west you can see the tail end of the clouds coming through.

I’m a pretty down to earth guy but I regard rainbows as a sign of good luck.

Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Urban and Other Skies

I fired up the drone again and flew over the backyard in between rain storms. This is looking to the west. You can see everything is very green in Tulsa right now with all the rain we are getting.

A stopped in traffic, crepuscular ray shot one afternoon.

And another shot from almost the same spot yesterday.

The City of Broken Arrow has a Veteran’s Park with all sorts of monuments in honor of veterans. This is the “War at Home” Memorial. It honors veterans who came home from war but committed suicide later. It’s a huge issue. War is hard on people mentally and emotionally and we need to make sure they are cared for when they come home even though their wounds are not physical.

And I went on a short hike at our Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. The John and Kate Kaiser YMCA tucked to the very northwest corner of the Wilderness Area. I am a Y member so I just check in at the office and take off. I hardly ever see anyone else on the trails there. It’s pretty remote from the rest of Turkey Mountain.

Skywatch Friday

Tulsa Skies

I fired up my drone for the first time in a long time. It is Chinese made and partly due to the recent trade squabbles it is a little less friendly than before. But I navigated the changes in controls, got the batteries charged, and launched it right after a wave of thunderstorms came in and right before the next wave. That kind of thing can result in decent sky shots if you are lucky and I guess that I was lucky.

Another neighborhood sky shot, this one from ground level.

And yet another neighborhood shot, same street, different location, different day.

Not all my adventures result in a great time. I hit up my bride for a hike at Oxley Nature Center’s Northwoods Area. She said sounds good and we loaded up and went. Turns out that they are doing some road repairs on the access road, so they have closed it. So I said lets go anyway, so parked alongside the road and walked to the trailhead, about 0.4 miles away. And oops with the access road closed to the trailhead they are not maintaining the trail. We forged on ahead. We had sprayed on some deet at the car but left the bug spray in the car. The mosquitoes were hungry and were about to carry us off. The bride was getting eat up but we marched on ahead anyway but got stopped by a dead fall across the trail at the one mile mark. The brush was too thick to go around it so we came back on a slightly different route.

Not a whole lot of fun but still out in nature.

And I apologize but for some reason this post is not accepting comments from people. I have no idea why.

Skywatch Friday