On a bike ride a week or so ago I stopped and took a photo across the Arkansas River to this power plant. Yep, I used a filter.
From the same spot I turned about 30 degrees to my right and captured this scene of the new pedestrian bridge and low water dam going on. They are really busy, busy, busy with all the work going on. Who knows when it is going to be done.
A few days later I took my bike back to the river to do another dam inspection trip and the skies opened up. Fortunately, I hadn’t started my ride yet.
A few days later I was walking in a park and captured this scene.
I took a hike on Turkey Mountain and captured a scene at Pepsi Lake.
The trail I was on came out on a powerline right of way and hey, there is the office building I worked in for about half my career way on downtown. I waved, “Hey guys, get your butts back to work.”
That’s about it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in the fun!!
I spotted this Great Egret on the Arkansas River during a recent bicycle ride.
This is another one. He was standing still and got tired of waiting on me. I was lucky to catch him in flight.
Our hummingbird feeder is getting regular visits now. Problem is that wasps and hornets are also visiting and they don’t like hummingbirds. So I’m trying to figure out what to do about it. I hate to kill native pollinators.
Lizzie thinks we got this tray in the living room for her. She thinks everything in the house is for her!
And our little Pomeranian, Rascal. He is very sick with cancer in one lung, congestive heart failure, and other issues. Vet said that he doesn’t know he is sick so just love every moment we have together with him and we are pumping full of meds and supplements. The weather has cooled a bit so we are taking him on short walks. He sure does love his outings. They wipe him the rest of the day but he’s happy. We are doing our best for him to live his best life.
Below is not my photo. This is a jigsaw puzzle I did on my Ipad of the Mouton Barn at Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. This may be the most photographed barn in the world!!
I’ve always loved Mormon Row, it reminds me of a ranch that my aunt and uncle had in Idaho not that far from this scene in Wyoming. The closed up barn with great patina. The brutal winters mean not too many windows.
This is a photo I made a few years ago. Just looking at how the west barn eave cuts into the tree line I think I was standing just 10 to 20 feet west of where the person who took the photo for the puzzle was standing.
And while we are loosely of the subject of architecture. Above is a photo of Westhope here in Tulsa. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I think it is one of only three of his designs in Oklahoma. I knew of it but had never chased it down until last week when I did a geocaching AdventureLab focusing on oil millionaires houses in Tulsa.
And this is from a bike ride I did earlier this week in Tulsa. The river is the Arkansas River and the hill across the river is Turkey Mountain. An Urban Wilderness in the middle of Tulsa.
And here is the monarch waystation I help take care of on Turkey Mountain.
And a couple of sky photos from a hike at Oxley Nature Center.
And a shot of a prairie at Oxley.
And a drone shot from our backyard in south Tulsa looking west toward the sunset.
That’s all I got this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come check it out!!
Friday morning I talked son Logan into going on a hike with me to Tulsa’s Oxley Nature Center.
In the parking lot we spotted a swallowtail butterfly. Swallowtails move around a lot so I just kept taking photos hoping one would be okay.
Later on in our hike we found a doe and her fawn in the woods. They were kind of skittish and the woods were thick so it was hard to get a good photo.
And later came upon this armadillo rooting around for something to eat. It pretty ignored us. I don’t think they see or hear very well. Years ago when I lived in south Texas they got hit a lot on the roads.
And as we were leaving we saw this doe and her two offspring. I think one might be a yearling and the other a pretty new fawn. They ignored as well.
Here’s my hiking companion, son Logan who has started a couple classes in the local community college’s Paralegal Program.
Yesterday it was 104F but later in the day clouds started forming up and about a half hour before sunset they were looking dramatic. So I got the drone ready and synched it with my phone and went outside about the time a huge gust of wind came through. I’m glad I didn’t have my little lightweight drone in the air cuz it would have been headed to the land of Oz.
So I brought it back inside and took a photo of the clouds from the ground and yep they looked great.
Rain to the West
A little while later the winds subsided some so I launched the drone from my back yard. I could only get about 30 meters in the air before it started barking at me to lower it or I would lose it. So most of these shots are at about 25 to 27 meters off the ground.
Rain to the North
There were several rain fronts that moved the area last night. We got no rain at the house.
Rain to the East.
But hey I got to take some photos. We had some drizzly rain Wednesday most of the day. That’s fine with me. A little bit of drizzly rain seems to be better than hours of running of running the sprinkler sysetem.
My friend, and former coworker, Josh, sent me this photo from the Bakken Field of North Dakota of a drilling rig set up in a corn field. Yep, they are still drilling up there. See all the trailers and such. There are all sorts of people involved in drilling a well. Most of the time they will drill at least four wells from one location.
That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday, go check it out!
About a month ago I checked out the Greenwood Rising Museum in the Greenwood District of Tulsa just north of downtown.
The museum opened to visitors in August 2021 a little over a 100 years after the Greenwood Massacre in the same area.
The museum has a lot to about the massacre but the emphasis is on the Greenwood community. It also has a lot about the forces of repression against people of color that has been occurring from the early days of Oklahoma right up to the present.
This isn’t the type of museum that has a lot of relics or art to look at. It’s more of a story telling museum using photographs, videos, and displays.
Greenwood was known as the “Black Wall Street” because of its prosperity. Cut off from the white part of town, Greenwood prospered and that was a problem for many in the white community.
The massacre itself lasted less than 24 hours from May 31 to June 1, 1921. A white mob attacked the district and killed several hundred people and burned much of the area to the ground.
No white person was ever brought to justice. The blame was placed squarely on the residents. Although many had insurance nothing was paid under the provisions of riots exemptions.
Afterwards as the community struggled to rebuild, the City of Tulsa responded by requiring brick homes and other things meant to encourage the residents to sell out to white people.
Eventually, the community rebuilt itself and then faced another destructive force. Urban Renewal led to the demolition of many homes and businesses and the construction of a freeway running right through the neighborhood. The white areas south of downtown got below grade freeways to minimze the impact the effect of the highway on the residents. The Greenwood area did not get the same consideration. To this day, there are vast areas just west of Greenwood that are still barren.
The community is resilient and is thriving.
The museum is about a lot more than the massacre.
There is still a fight going on. The Oklahoma legislature has passed laws making it hader to register and vote, aimed squarely at minority voters. The fragile white legislature have also passed laws that inhibit the teaching of the injustices of the past. It might be illegal to bring students to this museum.
I went through the museum, and I did not feel that white people are attacked or disparaged at all. The facility is telling a story in an even handed manner. They are telling the story of their community in a factual manner.
https://flic.kr/p/2nzAQ8Q
I highly recommend visiting Greenwood Rising. It is well done.
Note that they are closed for the month of August as they refresh the facility. They announced an interesting thing, you can get a preview of the museum for free on the smartphone app “Bloomberg Connects.” I downloaded it and it is a great app. You can tour lots of museums all across the world not just Greenwood Rising.
So, I recommend check Greenwood Rising out if you happen to be in the Tulsa area. Check the link for hours and other info.
The heat is down just a slight bit nowadays so I took a walk around Lafortune Park. I’ve taken around a thousand pictures of the pond with the trees in the background. The water was clear and still and there were some clouds and some decent reflections.
I’ve been launching the drone again from the backyard. This is looking west.
And on another day looking north.
The software on my drone is a bit of a nag and very bossy. Like when our previous president flew into town for his rally the drone wouldn’t even get off the ground. Good thing to as the guy had Air Force One make a slow and low pass over south Tulsa before landing at the airport. I bring it because one recent evening it was pretty dark out but still some color in the sky and the drone wasn’t really in the mood. Said it was too dark so I had to affirm that I was flying at my own risk before it let me send it up. I liked the result.
And on another day it fussed at me again but I still sent it up and got another decent shot.
And this is not my photo. It is a jigsaw puzzle that I put together on my ipad. It took me weeks to complete. About drove me crazy. What I love though is that there is a tipping point in a puzzle where you have enough pieces down that the remaining pieces go very quickly. My next puzzle is going to be of the Mouton Barn at Grand Teton National Park.
Anyway that’s it for this week! I’m linking with Skywatch Friday – come join the fun!
Last Saturday I got up bright and early and headed out to Turkey Mountain to run the Tess 5K Trail Run sponsored by the Tristesse Grief Center here in Tulsa.
I decided to go ahead and do a video of the start. After I was done videoing I had to loop around the timer’s truck and across the starting line myself.
A treat for me on this race is that most of it was done on the brand new sustainable trails constructed in the last year. Especially nice was the new trail from the lower parking lot up to the upper level of Turkey Mountain. Those old trails have gotten worse and worse over the years. It got so bad that I hadn’t used them in a long time.
The new trails are like a super highway through the woods. Another benefit is the chances of getting ticks and chiggers from the grass is way less. Also it is easier to pass other people and there is lots of room for both bicyclists and hikers/runners on the trail.
Pretty soon I had passed a small bunch of people and was way behind the pack. That’s alright, I was looking for a great hike through the woods. My running days are over. I do admit though on the smooth slightly downhill stretches I did trot a bit. Probably not over three or four hundred yards total.
And here we split off from the superhighway headed to the left and headed right to one of the legacy trails.
And up the rock garden after we turned south. I got an impromptu invite to a private geological tour of Turkey Mountain last week. I learned that the trail above is caused by alternating layers of shale and sandstone. As the shale layers dissolve and wash away the brittle sandstone breaks and falls down forming a kind of steps. Yep, the steps are ankle breakers!!
I also learned the top of Turkey Mountain is 300 million years old and has been submerged and re-emerged under a huge inland sea five times by a combination of tectonic and weathering forces. The guy showed us rocks that used to be sand on a beach and lots of little fossilized shellfish embedded in the rocks. It was amazing.
Enough geology for now. We made the loop and headed down the superhighway to the finish. All I can say is that I finished vertically. I didn’t place in my age group. Last year I finished first in my age group. Oh well I finished.
It was a great race, it was easy to register and they had lots of volunteers helping out. Timing was by Tatur, the best in the business in my opinion. They had lots of snacks and water for the participants and I think everybody left happy I know I did.
They didn’t have beer this year so I had one at home later on. In fact I might have had more than one, I’m not sure. They had tshirts but they are mailing me mine as I registered a little too late to actually get a tshirt at the event.
I’ll be back next year, here is my post from the 2021 Tess Trail Run.
A big thank to the Tristesse Grief Center, their staff and volunteers who helped, Tatur Racing, and my fellow racers.
We have tried for two years to attract hummingbirds to our backyard. We get occasional visits but no repeats. After several months this summer, my wife finally took the feeder down, cleaned it out, and left it sitting on a table on our patio. Then I was looking out the window and saw a hummingbird to trying to use the feeder. It was persistent so we prepared some more nectar and hung it up.
And now they are coming back. In two days my trailcam picked up twenty-nine photos and videos of the tiny little birds. Don’t worry I’m not posting all twenty -today.
