I was out with the dogs the other morning admiring our sunrise when what did I see?
A spider on a web also admiring the sunset!!
Another sign of autumn is that I am starting my gig as a volunteer reading tutor. I’ve already met the young person I’ll be working with and am looking forward to helping them learn to read.
Another sign of autumn is that an organization I am with, the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalitionhas restarted our trail maintenance projects. It’s too hot in the summer!! Our latest project which we co-hosted with another organization had over fifty people working on various projects on Turkey Mountain.
I love autumn, it goes on for months here in northeast Oklahoma.
I am not much into crowds but I like State Fairs. How does that work you may wonder. Well you have to plan things is what I say. Read up.
The planning started this past. Not only do I dislike crowds, I like a good deal. The Tulsa Library System has an Adult Summer Reading Program. You sign up for on an app and you do everything online except pick up your prize. The prize was a coffee cup and a book of coupons including a coupon to get into the fair for free. So anyway the day I went to the Fair I brought my coupon, and they took it. Phase 1 successful.
First thing I saw after I went through the gate. Doesn’t get any more state fair than this.
Oh, I almost forgot. Go on a school day, early!! Do not go on the weekend if you don’t like crowds.
I headed for Central Hall where the arts and crafts are and saw this. I thought it was funny as all get out. How do they get there? How do they vet the parents when they show up? I have questions.
The first thing I saw was the photography exhibits. All sorts of talented photographers entered into the many different categories.
I am reminded again that I am not a photographer. I’m a picture taker!! Anybody can take pictures.
This is my favorite photo. I thought it was hilarious. Surely it should have got 3rd prize don’t you think? Wait a minute, its that a photo of me? Probably not, probably.
And then the pumpkin carving section. That’s always fun.
And this is my favorite pumpkin. Does it look like somebody?
And then the various projects done by students. They always amaze me with skill and imagination.
Lots of entries on grasses. You mean there is more than one kind of grass in the world? I get reminded of that every year.
They had entries on rocketry. I had never seen that before. I was involved with model rocketry when I was in high school and the first year of college. That was fun. I got to go the Air Force Academy and present some research I did on multistage model rockets.
Enough with all that, I went to the next building where they had a petting zoo and some sheep and goats on display.
And on to the animal barns. They animals on display were cows.
And this guy giving me side-eye. He’s beautiful.
I ventured over the midway for an obligatory food shot. Not into the midway, nor the buildings where they sell stuff. It’s all hot and crowded and I don’t do it. That’s okay there is lots of other stuff to do.
Found my way to the beer tent.
Got myself a corndog
And a wheat beer and got the farthest table I could from everybody else. Easy to do at this time of day.
I was involved in a Trail Cleanup Project on Saturday focused on this boardwalk wrapping around a pond on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. When we started the shadows were long by noon, the shadows were gone and the temperature was up, a lot.
I spotted this Great Blue Heron in the Arkansas River while I was bicycling.
On the same ride I stopped by this cool mural of a frog.
This is Sadie, our rescue terrier. She is a very sweet loving dog. She likes to play and play, and then she’ll stop and drop on the floor and fall fast asleep. Her fur is kind of scraggly but we love her just the same.
An Eurasian Eagle Owl on display at an event my wife and attended last week. What a beautiful bird. The handler said the owl flies free and hunts every day. He was only delayed once for an hour or so because some red shouldered hawks were attacking it, so it hid in a tree until the hawks went away.
I was at Tulsa’s Gathering Place Monday evening for a presentation having to do with Monarch Butterflies. After the presentation I wandered over to the nearby Arkansas River to see what I could see.
The Williams Crossing pedestrian bridge was open and all lit up. Just using my old iphone I took a few photos. They are not too bad. This is a view from downstream of the bridge.
And the view from upstream. The lights reflect nicely on Zink Lake.
Across the way, on the downstream side, is Public Service Company of Oklahoma’s Tulsa Power Station. An ancient old plant that is still active. Long time ago I worked for the pipeline company that delivered natural gas to the plant. It was always the last plant to come on during high demand periods and the first to be turned off when electric requirements tailed off.
I went kayaking on the Arkansas River’s Zink Lake last fall and got this photo of the bridge and power plant together.
The Williams Crossing bridge replaced and old railroad bridge that got converted to pedestrian service back in the 1980’s I think. It was a pretty cool structure itself. Here is a photo from before it was demolished to make way for the new bridge.
I checked on construction on the new bridge pretty frequently. About once a week or every other week depending on the season. Like all construction it seemed to go slow.
One of the great things about being retired is you really have a lot of time to do what you want to do. The other day I wanted to go to the zoo so I just went. The best time to go to the zoo is after school starts in the fall and during the week.
Notice the long line at the entrance. Not!! Zoo staff outnumbered visitors that day.
The first thing I did of course was go find a geocache. It involved the base of that rotating sculpture behind me. It was an earthcache so there were not a physical cache to find, I had to answer questions about the base. It took me a while but I think I got it.
And I passed by one of the pollinator gardens in the zoo. I spotted this Gulf Fritillary butterfly. What a beauty.
And this pipestone swallowtail.
And this hummingbird. I don’t know what kind and AI wasn’t sure. So if you know what kind it is please let me know in the comments. (Goes for any of the information in this post, let me know if I am wrong.)
From there I went to see the elephants. They are all Asiatic elephants. Elephants in zoos is very controversial. I get it.
And a komodo dragon.
And a kangaroo resting in the shade.
A pair of bald eagles.
A fuzzy photo of snow leopards chilling out.
An alligator floating in the water.
And a quartet of grey headed silverbills.
I took some short videos of other critters and then had my iphone stitch them together. The resulting clip is only 37 second long. Check it out if you have the time.
I loved my trip to the Tulsa Zoo. Do you like zoos? I love them.
Last week my bride, Heather, and I celebrated our thirty-sixth wedding anniversary. That is getting up in some years. We have been through a lot together, up and down and all around. I will tell you one thing, you don’t stay married that along by accident, both people have to work it. Anyway, we celebrated here in Tulsa.
We decided to go check out the Tulsa Botanic Garden. We are members but we haven’t been there in a while and it is always fun.
They do a great job with both the plants and garden decorations. I love gardens that also decorate with non-plant items. It adds a little extra.
I love color!!
And whimsy and butterflies.
While there we checked out their CrossTimbers trail. It winds for a mile or so through woods and prairie.
It’s got some great views.
I really wanted to see it because I was part of a group of people with the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition who came out in June and rerouted the trail to make it more sustainable and take it through more interesting areas. That’s an action shot of me above, back in June, with my loppers, bug spray, sun hat, and water bottle lopping away. We got a lot done in just a few hours. The garden still had some work to do after that day and they announced the new trail route was open a few weeks ago.
The Garden had a controlled burn done last year that really worked out well and knocked down the invasive species and opened the woods up.
There’s Heather, way ahead of me as usual.
I stole this photo from Heather’s facebook. She takes better portraits than I do.
So after the trip to the gardens we went home and cleaned up and went shopping for our anniversary gift. We were looking for a chiminea and we found one from a local out fit right away. A medium sized one complete with a bag of pinion, a bag of lava rocks for the fire to sit on, and a hat for the chiminea. And they delivered it to us a couple hours later.
So we went to our favorite restaurant and had a great Italian dinner and then came back home.
And fired up the Chiminea. Lots of fun and smells good with the pinon wood.
Thirty Six years in the book. I’m a blessed man, what can I say. Looking forward to Thirty Seven. Thirty seven is a prime number and I love prime numbers.
