During a hike at Oxley Nature Center last Sunday I saw a few deer out and about. They were not in the open they were in brush and trees. So I got to practice simultaneously manual focusing, and aperture. Not that good at it but I got a few decent photos.
I love seeing deer out in the wild.
It is always so unexpected.
Last Sunday morning, I attended Church of the Trees at Oxley Nature Center.
I saw the light right after I started. I loved the sun in the forest and I love the poem that a former “Artist in Residence” at Oxley wrote.
I love short poems. I really like the title of this one, “Sunfall.” There is a reason we need to have poets. They know what to call things, and how to describe them.
Found me a new favorite tree.
And instead of stained glass we had the light filtering through these leaves.
I loved the light on the trees bordering a water pipeline right of way in the park.
And another long boardwalk.
And a maple leaf near the end of my walk.
And bonus video content, only 71 seconds long.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday
Heather and I loaded up one day last week and went to Philbrook Museum to check out their Patrick Gordon Retrospective show. He’s a Tulsa area artist who has been painting for years. I am sorry to say that I had never heard of him. That’s sad for me because he is a great artist.
He paints mainly in watercolors but also does oils. He is spectacular with flowers.
The colors are very rich and the effect is overwhelming.
He uses a lot of symbology in his painting. He painted this for his church. The flowers represent the members. The statue of liberty represents freedom. The name of the piece is “Simple Gifts” which is Gordon’s favorite hymn.
He did a lot of commissions. This was for a family and the objects on the table represent things dear to the family. I keyed upon the toy railroad tank car. Apparently the family sold Magnolia Petroleum to one of my former employers, Mobil Oil Corporation, for a huge sum of money. Good for them is what I think.
He did portraits as well. This is “Osage Falconer.” I found it quite striking.
This is entitled “James and Maya.” Another striking portrait.
And I loved this one. He did this in honor of Tulsa’s 100th Anniversary as an incorporated town. The oak leaves and acorns are symbolic of the Council Oak Tree where the Muskogee Native Americans who made the long trek on the trail of tears congregated to form a new town. You have the Arkansas River and the oil tanks symbolic of Tulsa’s place as the Oil Capital of the World. I loved it because of the vantage point. High above the city looking toward the west along the Arkansas River and the sunset.
This is one of hundreds of photographs I took with a similar vantage point. Before I retired, I took similar photos to his painting during the late fall, winter, and spring from my office. As far as I can tell, his vantage point was higher and to the north of my office building. You notice that I bring everything back to me. I’m bad about that. I’m selfish like that. You don’t have to agree with me so fast about that.
A special treat is that you can watch Pat Gordon paint right in the Philbrook gallery. Check the web site if you want to see him to make sure he is going to be there. They also have an interesting video of him that plays on a continuous loop talking about him. After all these decades he still paints full time in his home. The guy is a painting machine.
You want to go see him check out Philbrook’s web site for the details and get yourself some tickets. It is quite an exhibition. Gordon also has a website of his own with photos of even more works. Go check it out.
I am linking with My Corner of the World.
A sheep grazes peacefully at the Gardens at Philbrook oblivious to their long shadow.
A sunny/shady place to rest on my bike ride on Tulsa’s RiverParks Trails. The view includes autumn color, the Arkansas River and Turkey Mountain on the other side of the river.
Complex shadows at Tulsa’s Tandy YMCA
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday
Nobody naps as hard or as peacefully as our Lizzy the cat. She loves taking naps on the back of our sofa. Sometimes she’ll use one of the dog beds.
I walked into our family room the other day and all three critters were staring at me. What were they up to? I never figured it out. From left to right is Kodi the Pomeranian, Lizzy the Cat, and Sadie the terrier.
I’m a bad efeeder owner. I let the feeder run out of food and just plain forgot about it. I decided to take it down, clean it out and store it for a little while. While checking the app, the only bird that showed up the last several weeks was this lonely, hungry male cardinal. Boy did I feel bad. It’s only an 11 second video.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out, lots of animal lovers and great photobloggers link up with her.
So last weekend I was part of a group of people that worked on the trails at the Keystone Ancient Forest in Sand Springs, Oklahoma. The organization that I volunteer with, the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition, sponsored the trail day and a big part of the community responded, especially a ton of students from the University of Tulsa. We split everyone up into three groups to do lopping of branches intruding on the trail, replacing trail flagging so people don’t get lost, and blowing leaves off the trail.
After getting organized we headed out to work. The weather was perfect. I led a lopping crew on one of the trails.
The students didn’t lollygog around, they got right to it.
We probably did a mile or so of trail lopping until we headed back. We wanted to get everyone back by 11:30 or so. You don’t want to wear out your volunteers.
The Keystone Ancient Forest is a preserve with ancient trees. Some of the cedars are 500 years old and there are 300 year old post oak trees on the property. It has an ancient and peaceful feeling to it.
The Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition got its start as an activist organization joining with other groups in a successful effort to fend off an outlet mall from being built on Turkey Mountain. Since then, the organization has pivoted to being an advocate for wild spaces in the Tulsa area and participates in and sponsors environmental education activities. We also do six or so trail cleanup days per year at various public wild areas in and around Tulsa.
It was a day well spent. The park staff seemed very happy with the work that was accomplished.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.
Through somebody at TikTok I learned a new Japanese word that I love, Komorebi. It refers to light filtering through trees and casting a shadow on the ground. It induces a sense of wonder in those observing it. Google the word, there is a lot to it. So a light went off in my head on this because I’ve always loved sunlight through leaves and I love dappled shadows.
Above is what I mean by dappled shadows.
Dappled Shadows on my backyard fence.
Light filtering through leaves at a local park.
Backing off a little bit from the same tree and you get the filtered light and the dappled shadows.
I love this word, it names a feeling that I have had for a long time. When I go hiking I’ve shot a lot of photos at the end of the day especially of the sun peaking through the leaves or branches. Dappled shadows that I come upon often leaves me amazed. Especially when the wind is blowing and I’m watching shadows moved.
Since I have learned the word, I am seeing Komorebi everywhere I look almost.
I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday
Here is out Lizzie the cat chilling out.
Sculpture on Tulsa RiverParks Trails of mule deer.
Some Canadian Geese in another sculpture on the RiverParks Trails
And also seen from the trail, a great blue heron fishing for its lunch in the Arkansas River.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters.
Last week I decided to participate in a Trail Race, the Backyard Bonanza 5K at Lubell Park in Tulsa. You notice I didn’t say “run” because I was going to walk it. I figured I could walk the 5K. I hike that much once or twice a week these days.
I get there bright and early in the morning. It was 36 degrees so it was a little nippy. No wind and clear skies, so sign me up.
I brought my electric heated vest that Heather bought me for Christmas a couple years ago. Nothing but the best for me.
Plus they had a fire going. It was very warm.
There were two other concurrent races going on at the same time. A 25K and a 12K or something like that. They started earlier. That is the thing about trail races. Most of them are like that so you can run as long as you want or go shorter.
Since I was walking I went through the starting gate last. I managed to hold that position for the rest of the race.
The woods were beautiful and I just went into meditation mode being aware of the sun on my face and the various sounds I was hearing and making sure of my footing.
This little tipi structure has been at Lubell for years.
The course was pretty good. Not many rocks and good swithbacks going up and down the hills. Well marked. I’ve gone off trail a couple times during trail races. Easy to do if you are not paying attention. That can be disconcerting back where you are supposed to be.
And before I knew it, the Finish Line!!
The race photographer caught me at the end in my electric vest and my number 61 tag. I love prime numbers so I was proud of my 61. I was also representing the Dallas Cowboys!
Chatted with a few people and had some pancakes that they were making. That is the other thing about trail races. They generally feed you pretty good. They also had chili but I wasn’t in the mood.
And here is the route. Started and ended in Lubell Park with an incursion into the Mooser Creek Greenway. The only thing better than trails is interconnected trails like Lubell and Mooser Creek. Notice that the distance is 3.9 miles which is more than a kilometer longer than a 5K. That’s the other thing about trail races, the distances are approximate because they use existing trails. Part of the charm in my book.
And here I am. I won my age group in the 5K. In fact I was the only one in my age group in the 5K. It was a fun time.
After chatting with more people I headed home.
I’ll be back next year! I have to defend my title if nothing else.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday.
Living Arts of Tulsa had their annual “Dia de los Muertos Art Festival” on Saturday the first of November. I love going and so off I went.
What I love are the ofrendas or altars to the dead that various families and organizations put up to honor loved ones who have died.
This ofrenda honors several family members who died. It was attended to by current family members.
The ofrendas incorporate marigolds, candles, photos of the deceased. Special foods and snacks, and hobbies and the occupations of those honored.
I love almost all the ofrendas I have seen, whether or complex. I think it is important to remember loved ones.
The cut paper like that shown above is a common decoration along with skulls.
I’ve thought about ofrendas for loved ones who had passed and what items that reflect their essence would be included.
I’ve also thought about ofrenda for myself and what would I want on it. Then I thought I could design one myself using AI. It would reflect my interests such as sports, my photography, my computer, and my iphone. Also, my favorite sports teams and such and snacks. So I fired up Microsoft Copilot and sure enough it was up to the task. I put in some prompts and it came back with suggestions and I went back and forth with it for a little bit and this is what I got after just a few minutes.
I gave it a photo of me to work with so you can see that. You can also see my camera, a couple of snickers bars, two plates of enchiladas as a favorite food, my hiking boots, and about three different iphones and logos for the Dallas Cowboys, Oklahoma Thunder, and Houston Astros sports teams. It was a lot of fun but felt kind of weird doing it also like I was tempting fate.
So I had a lot of fun on the Day of the Dead.
I’m linking with My Corner of the World