Monthly Archives: October 2024

Saturday’s Critters – Backyard Edition

Kodi

Here’s our pugnacious pomeranian Kodi after a recent hairdo. He sure looks dapper with the cute cut and the halloween cat themed tie.

And another Gulf Fritillary in the backyard.

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And a squirrel on a recent evening. It has been hot lately.

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I love catching birds in the act of landing or taking off like this one coming in for a landing.

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Or this one getting ready to land on a suet feeder not pictured.

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Every once in a while I catch critters of all types staring right at the camera even though there is no flash, click or other indication. Somehow they know!!

That’s all this for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters.

360 Degree Skywatch over my Backyard in Tulsa

Recently I posted some sunset photos from my drone. I had forgotten that I made a 360 video of the same thing. A video from my drone at 150 meters over my backyard.

It’s only 35 seconds long.

I start out looking straight west and then go to the right. Not often you get color everywhere one looks at sunset.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

A Midmorning Paddle on Zink Lake

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Last Monday, I finished my morning reading tutoring at an elementary school here in Tulsa and decided by gum I was going to go kayaking.

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So I ventured to the Arkansas River, upstream of Zink Lake Dam and rented a kayak for a couple of hours from the vendor there. I helped her carry it down to the new kayak launch that the city of Tulsa had installed. It was pretty cool. You put your kayak in slot where it is partly in the water and then you push against the handrails and you are launched!! No wading in the murk to get going.

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I’ve been kind of in a funk lately. One knee is giving me problems and I got a steroid injection a month ago. It worked great for a week or so and then it started aching again. So think I do too much but then I don’t do anything which is not good. Well Kayaking is very knee friendly!!

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I cruised past some redone murals on the river shore.

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21st street bridge.

I thought the kayaking was cool. I’ve been running, walking, and bicycling both banks of the Arkansas River and Zink Lake for over 30 years. Now I was in the water and seeing things I’ve never seen before. A completely different perspective.

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I love this view. It is cathedral like. A cathedral with graffiti.

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There was hardly a breeze, the temperature was slightly on the cool side and the sky is beautiful.

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The new Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge.

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Headed back north with a view of downtown Tulsa where I worked for 30 years. I was waving at my former coworkers.

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The very beginning of the vegetation changing color.

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One of the two boat ramps on the west side of the lake (or river.)

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Headed back under the 21st street bridge.

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Checking out the RiverWest Festival Park. RiverParks is having their annual Oktoberfest soon.

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And now back to the Kayak dock. I had a great time!!

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

Shadow Shot Sunday – Appeal to the Great Spirit

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A shadow of a sculpture in Tulsa’s Woodward Park

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Appeal to the Great Spirit sculpture by Cyrus Dallin.

The sculpture has an interesting history. Their are lots of copies out in the world. The original is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Read the Wikipedia Article.

I have 27 photos of this sculpture in my archives. I feel drawn to it whenever I visit Woodward Park. These photos are from 2014.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Saturday’s Critters – Dog and Butterfly

I was geocaching at Tulsa’s Crow Creek Meadow when I happened across this butterfly. I do believe it is a Monarch.

Here is a video of it.

I was hiking on Turkey Mountain when I came across this bush with some sort of fritillary on it. My photo is too fuzzy for the online image searches to work properly.

Here is my wife Heather with our dog Kodi on an outing.

He is beginning to settle down after our roofing project. Here is expressing his displeasure with me. He’s a mess but we love him and are working with somebody help reduce his anxiety.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.

Skywatch Friday – Oklahoma Sunset

The other day the sky looked promising for a decent sunset. It seems the best conditions are high thin clouds. If they are too thick they kind of smother the sun and you get no color. And the thing is the colors don’t last so you have to be ready to go or the opportunity is gone. So I was home, my drone batteries were charged up so I launched it from the back yard.

If you are lucky, and I was that day, you get opposite sunsets which is where you get colors in any direction. So this is looking north.

And this is looking south.

And this was the west, the day before.

And this is looking down. You can see my orange landing pad. I do think that is my new roof. We color matched it to the old roof so there it looks the same. I do only periscope flights. I go straight up from the backyard and look around and then come back down. I don’t fly the drone over other people’s property or anywhere where I can’t just legally walk over and pick it up if something goes wrong. That’s just me though.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday