Saturday afternoon the family loaded up and drove to the Tulsa Botanic Gardens. The tulips are blooming plus they have a special exhibit of Lego Creatures by Sean Kinney we wanted to see. The tulips were great, maybe just a tad past prime, and enjoyed the Lego critters.
First up, a fox, including a tree shadow.
A gigantic butterfly
Little Lego Bunnies
And origami bunnies in the childrens’ area.
A snail on a mushroom
A frog on a lilly pad.
And a bird feeder with cardinals and a squirrel.
They also had a lawnmower and a rototiller and other things. Below is a video of all the lego creations we saw. It’s only a tad over a minute long.
I checked out the Teaching Garden at Woodward Park the other day and found some shadows including this table and chairs.
And this deck with several different shadow patterns.
And these daffodils in the shade.
This is a legacy photo of Carl Linnaeus. The scientist from the 1700’s who invented our modern system of taxonomy for organisms. He was also the original namesake of the Teaching Garden. I googled the matter to find out why his name removed from the name of the facility and I found this document from the Tulsa Garden Center explaining the matter. It reads, in part:
“In his tenth edition of Systema Naturae (1758), Linnaeus began using this system to identify mammals, and more specifically, humans. Dubbed Homo sapiens, Linnaeus separated humans into categories where he described each “type” of human by physical characteristics, as well as behavioral and personality characteristics – something he had not done for other species.
By being published as science, Linnaeus’s descriptions of these different groups was used as a way for society to justify slavery, ethnic cleansing, and colonization – all taking place during this time – through scientific racism, a “scientific tradition in [which] biology is used not only to prove the existence of race, but also, to maintain existing social hierarchies” (Revolution and Ideology). These ideas have repeatedly been disproven and universally rejected by the modern scientific community, but their impact can still be felt today.
It goes on to say that they left the sculpture in place as an educational tool and a reminder of our past. It also has a statement from the artist, Rosalind Cook, who supports the action that the Garden Center took to change the name. They provide an academic summary of the matter and links to a bunch of resources. I support their action as well. I feel bad because they took this action in March of 2022 and I had no clue. Oh well, now I know.
The last day of February was warm, it got up to over 80F so I declared it to be a short sleeve shirt and shorts day.
Several days earlier it was a lot cooler. Here’s a shadowy character coming to put some food on the tray and replenish the water.
Yesterday I was geocaching in a local park. I found about five caches and a few shadows including this one of a swing overlooking a nice view of the Arkansas River.
And a nearby roadside memorial.
And some curvy shadows left by these hard as a rock lounges on a former bridge converted to an event space. Yep, that’s a thing and it works well.
A bicycle shadows at the start of a bike ride on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. 15 miles and it was all good. Most bicyclists I know don’t think 15 miles is even a decent warmup. I love 15 miles myself.
Out on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain I found me a shadow selfie.
It’s a plastic ammo box laying on its side.
I’m a geocacher. Turkey Mountain has a geocache hidden in a hole in a cliff that I can see but cannot get to it. I’m a purist. If I can’t hold the cache, open it, and sign the log then I am not going to claim a find. They need to have another category such as “seen but couldn’t get to.” I got lots of those. Caches up in trees and such that I can’t reach. If I had somebody with me, then sure I’d try using ropes. The cache above is in a pretty remote area. If I fell and broke something and if I couldn’t get cell phone signal then I’d be in tough shape. Of course if I fell and was able to get help, my wife might kill me for being so dumb. So its kind of a lose/lose proposition. Meanwhile I’ll keep on checking on it. Maybe some critter will knock it out to the ground and then I could sign the log.
A “Moon Gate” to a trail system here in Tulsa. I think they are kind of cool. Like symbolically passing into another dimension. My hiking friend hates them and walks around them. This time I noticed afterward it made an oval shadow. If I was more on the ball I could have captured more of the oval than what I did.
And on the other side of the moongate, we got these shadows on the trail. This was the Thursday before the polar vortex and the temp was in the high 50’s.
Now it is about 7F and we have a few inches of snow. What a difference a day or two makes!
Seen on a hike on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. I used the Hipstamatic app on my phone to take the photo to enhance the texture and emphasize the age of the formation.
