Tag Archives: Skies

Skywatch Friday – Spring Storm Coming Through

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This past Tuesday we knew we were having a storm blow through. Usually no big deal to Okies but this was supposed to be bad. The running and bicycling groups on facebook were cancelling their runs and rides and when that happens you know its bad. I went walking around Lafortune Park at noon and the clouds were already building.

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As an aside, they were getting ready to open up the golf course again on May 1. I don’t golf any longer and I didn’t understand why they closed. They are opening up, only one person per cart unless you are in the same household. No pulling the flag on putts and they have removed the rakes for the sand traps.

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Sorry, back on focus. Later that afternoon the winds got wild and woolly. We put the dog crates in our “safe space.” We lost our satellite tv reception but I have a digital antenna for the tv I use as a computer monitor in my office so we were able to monitor the weather. No tornadoes locally but there were tornado alerts.

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And afterwards we saw one of the biggest displays of mammatus clouds I have ever seen. Usually they are subtle, nothing subtle about these. Everybody in town was posting the clouds on facebook and instagram.

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I was able to fly my drone a little bit as the winds died down. Early on, it almost got away from me but I was able to bring it back. I have a mavic mini and it weighs only 249 grams so you have to be careful, especially when you are a rookie pilot.

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Later we had a partial rainbow. Here is the northern segment, looking northeast from our house.

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And the southern segment looking to the southeast. Storms can be kind of scary and we came out of this one okay and the air was cool and fresh. We’ll be having these all spring and summer I suspect.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday, come join in!

Skywatch Friday – Back to the Trails

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Wednesday night I went for a little run on Turkey Mountain for the first time in months. With all the rains and storms we have had and life in general, I just haven’t made it for a long time. Today was glorious though, cool and dry and as you can see the skies were spectacular.

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I love those big fluffy clouds. We have not had them for a long time.

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See that grass, I am not crouching down in the grass I am standing up. We have had lots of rain and the ground is still soaked. At home I haven’t even taken the winterization off our sprinkler system.

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The trails were nice, especially this dappled section.

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There is usually not much color this time of year but I saw a little bit on my outing. This pink bloom for one.

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And this yellow flower.

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And even a random leaf on the trail had some color to it.

I walked/ran about three miles and I loved it. I had forgotten how relaxing and meditative being out in the woods can be.

What about you? What do you do to relax?

I am linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – Scenes from Kansas

I am punting this week. I reached deep into the archives and searched for “Kansas Skywatch” so this is what I am doing. Why Kansas? I don’t know, Dorothy and Toto were from Kansas maybe. I was in the mood for Sky photos with you know, clouds or a little color. Lately here in Tulsa it has all been either gray skies or nice blue skies.

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Here is a Kansas sky with a little color. A little grainy but still, I love the color.

#ferriswheel #countyfair #coffeyville #kansas #roadtrip

And this is from Coffeyville, Kansas a few years ago. I stopped for gas and a carnival was going on close by.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – A Walk in the Park

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This past weekend son Logan and I decided to take a walk around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. Lafortune Park has a big playground, picnic areas, tennis courts, a high school, baseball parks, and two golf courses with a walking path about 3 miles long winding around it all. 

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I didn’t bring my camera, just my cell phone. Luckily there were some pretty decent skies.

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Part of the trail was a little muddy. In the 26 years we have lived in Tulsa I bet that I have either walked or run around Lafortune hundreds of times. 

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I love pedestrian bridges. Logan is now 20, when he was about 3 he liked to go hide under this bridge and pretend he was a troll. The kid used to drive me crazy!! Perfectly good playground 100 feet away. Oh well. 

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There he is. He lags a little behind but it works out because I take pictures and study on things and eventually he catches up to me.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – Visiting an Old Indian Trader’s Grave

The other day I had a meeting in a field office of my employer’s in Western Oklahoma. I had  a little time afterward so I went on a little drive.

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I drove past a herd of cattle.

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Then a newly drilled well being prepared for fracking. Notice the green pipe in the foreground being built to take gas from the well for processing and delivery to market.

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And then I turned down a muddy farm road to get to this marker.

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And walked a short ways down a grassy path to this humble grave.

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This is where Jesse Chisholm is buried. He  blazed the Chisholm Trail from South Texas to Abilene, Kansas where tens of thousands head of cattle herded north to supply beef for the northeast. He didn’t drive cattle, he was a trader with several stores and developed the trails to restock his stores. He also had good relations with many of the Native American tribes and negotiated to recovery of several women and children who had been kidnapped by the tribes.  He also helped facilitate several peace treaties. He died of food poisoning near where he is buried.

I think it is amazing that somebody who had such a huge part of the history and legends of the West has such a humble grave.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – From All Over Town

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The sky was clear and the moon was bright so I took a photo of it. Don’t forget this Friday we have a full blood moon coming up. This was about 86% gibbous phase. I don’t always get them but I love it when I can see the craters on the “bottom” of the moon.

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And here we are in the ‘hood. I loved the clouds one day when I was on the front porch. I guess sometimes I am a lazy skywatcher. While we are in a sharing mood, I took the photo of the moon from my front yard as well. Do you have any true confessions you want to share?

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And this is my favorite building in Tulsa. The Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. An art deco masterpiece built in the late 1920’s and designed by Bruce Goff and Adah Robinson. The interior is beautiful also. It was our family church when we first moved to Tulsa.

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And this is from Oxley Nature Center. I love how the island appears to be suspended in air. (Okay maybe I’m stretching it a little bit.)

Okay, that’s it for this week. Don’t forget the full moon on Friday. Take some photos for me. I’m going to be at a baseball game so I am depending on you.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – Bike Riding Skies

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You can tell that in Oklahoma we are strict. Walkers and runners over there, bicyclists over here. I feel jealous of roller skaters, and skate boarders. I guess they can go where they want.

Spring is here, the weather is warming up and we have daylight savings time. I love daylight savings time.  With the warmer weather it is time to ride my bike. I am not running any longer, I don’t know if I am ever going to run, and walking is great, but walking is so slowwww. Riding is a lot faster than running.

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That is the Creek Nation River Spirit Casino over on the left. The relationship with the tribe and the rest of the state is complicated in Oklahoma. I kind of like complicated. I had a guy ring the doorbell today to try and sell window replacements to us. He was a good guy and not giving me the hard sell. I asked his name (I forget what he said but it was both unfamiliar and nice sounding to me.) He laughed and said that he is Cherokee and the name means “first born” in that language.

Heather and I went on a bike ride a couple week ago on the Arkansas River. We started north an d basically flew north. We were sailing, biking was easy.  It was great. We went north to the turnaround and headed south, into a strong wind. It was a long slow miserable painful seven mile slog back to the car. Springtime and Oklahoma winds are not always great.

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Heather and Logan were busy doing something the other day and so I went on a bike ride on the Arkansas River. The forecast and the skies were both threatening so I didn’t go far.

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Today I took a half day off and came home and got our taxes organized to to take to the accountant this week. That always makes me anxious. I ran into some questions about my late Father’s estate and his tax return. I talked to my sister, I talked to the accountant, and I talked to my sister again and it is all good. Of course I am sure she appreciated me calling her about tax questions on her birthday. But I got it all figured out. And then it was like, I got it all figured out, the kid is still at work, Heather is at work. I am going for a short bike ride, so off I went for a quick ten miles. Above is a not bad turnaround point.

I am linking with Skywtach Friday

Skywatch Friday – In Like a Kitten Out Like Lamb

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The Blue Rose Cafe on the River. I love it. Not in the cards today though.

I still can’t run and today I was planning on getting on a cycling machine but the forecasted rain had ended and temps were moderate so I decided to get outside and walk a few miles instead of getting on the cycling machine. I don’t know about you but exercise machines are a necessary evil. So I went walking in the windy, gusty, cloudy weather (I love that kind of weather.)

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I had to go check out progress on a high rise condo/apartment complex going up. I enjoyed my time out on the river. I went a total of about 3.2 miles.

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This is in my employer’s parking lot. We are all about checking, double checking, and rechecking. We have protocols for everything and used to be March was a big month for snow. In like a Lion, out like a Lamb is what they say about March in Oklahoma. With our climate change, February is the new March. So soon I expect we’ll be outfitting the parking lot security vehicle for snow in late January instead of March.

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After work, I drove home, and this sky greeted me just before I got to the house.

Here in Oklahoma, we have our issues but we do have great skies. How are the skies where you live?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Wintertime on Turkey Mountain

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A few weeks ago I took a walk on Turkey Mountain. I came onto the recently cleared and regraded pipeline and I noticed that one could view the entire west side of Turkey Mountain and if you look really closely you can vaguely see the tall buildings of downtown Tulsa in the distance. We love our urban wilderness here in Tulsa.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Skywatch Friday – November 2017 Edition

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Well it is November and our weather up until today has been pretty mild, blue skies, and sunny skies.

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My photo doesn’t really show but we had a crystalline clear moon one night. These was a few days ago just shy of the Full Beaver Moon or Frost Moon. I love moon shots.

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My wife’s cousin’s wife (got that?) Sheri Lou has been taking photographs of the goings on around the family ranch in Western Oklahoma and she sends them to me and I doctor them up and post them and we have a pretty good partnership going on. I love the wide open skies of Western Oklahoma and the tough, big hearted people that live out there.

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We have had a few funky skies in Tulsa. Here is a few weeks ago downtown in the late evening.

So what is up with your skies?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday