We still don’t have too much Fall Color here in Oklahoma except for certain pockets like I found this past weekend. True confessions I applied a texture to cheat a little bit. I hope that you don’t mind.
Tag Archives: Oklahoma
Twenty Four Hours in Osage County
Those of you who know me, know that I’m a Geocacher. The Tulsa Area Geocachers have an annual event in the Fall that they have at various State Parks in Oklahoma and this year they went to one of my favorite spots in Oklahoma, Osage Hills State Park up in Osage County. It is a beautiful wooded, hilly location with lots of camping spots and a friendly accommodating staff.
Heather and Logan stayed home. They hate geocaching. Hate might be too mild a word for their feelings about it. So I went by myself.
So it was fun finding the various temporary caches placed by the participants. Some of the people are diabolically clever.
Osage Hills is known for having the remnants of a Civilian Conservation Commission camp built back in the 1930’s to house young men who helped build the facilities still used at the park.
Here is a link to an interesting short blog post about the history of the CCC at Osage Hills. I learned that the camp was active from 1935 to 1941. Its amazing that so much remains 75 years after the camp ceased operation.
Mainly I wandered the trails. I didn’t encounter many other geocachers as I started with the furthest removed caches and worked back and was more interested in taking pictures anyway.
I found the camp dynamite hut. It looks solid enough still, except for the roof.
I loved Lookout Lake. No geocachers here, just fishermen.
Found me a little critter. He told me he wasn’t a geocache.
The next day I got up early and went out to Sand Creek to take some photos. One of the prettist places in the state as far as I am concerned.
And then I drove out to the nearby Nature Conservancy’s Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. I always love the wide open spaces with rolling hills and the bison.
I’ve never been able to photograph the feeling of exapanse of this place. It is almost 40,000 acres.
It is huge and goes on forever.
And then I drove down to Woolaroc, Frank Phillips’ (of Phillips Petroleum) country place. Woolaroc is an acronym for “Woods, Lakes,and Rocks”. He has a first class western art museum, a buffalo herd, and all sorts of other stuff that an oil gazillionaire needs.
And a barn for the the critters. I love the barn.
And the landscaping (rockscaping).
And the Native American design motif. I know its cultural misappropriation but I still like it.
And then I went home. But I had a great time.
Oklahoma Sugar Art Show and Grand National Wedding Cake Competition 2016
One event I try to never miss is the Oklahoma Sugar Art Show at the Tulsa State Fair. it is only two days so if you snooze you lose. This year I couldn’t go Saturday so like a pagan heathen I went Sunday. Lots less pushing and shoving if you you Sunday I found out but there is still a lot of people.
The theme this year was “Mad for Metallics” so there was a metallic theme to the entries. My favorite cake was this Steam Punk themed cake. All sorts of gears and pipes and such.
Here is a detail. Marvelous is what I say.
I loved this gardening themed piece with the butterfly.
And this Winnie the Pooh themed item with the Pooh and the bee hive.
And this was absolutely gorgeous.
And these gears,
And these happy flowers. I wonder if they are a bit creepy though.
And there were a couple of Day of the Dead pieces also. That day is fast becoming my favorite holiday. Now I am sounding creepy.
And a mask, I love masks. There used to be lots of mask entries but they are so fragile.
And a classic beautiful piece.
I love the lattice work. How do they do that?
And a Victorian themed cake.
Our World – Tulsa’s Renovated Central Library Opens
On Saturday the Tulsa Central Library reopened after a three year renovation. They had speeches and presentations and all that. I missed them, but you and I know what they said probably.
I was happy with what they did. They opened the structure up, added lighting, and all sorts of whiz bank technology. They still have lots of books but the emphasis is more on computers and education now. The days of patrons wandering through the stacks looking for books is over. Most of the books I get from the library are digital downloads to my Kindle or Ipad. If I need a physical book I order it and they deliver to the library of my choice. Plus libraries are storing more of their books offsite in non-public buildings. Lots cheaper than using expensive downtown real estate.
They knocked out the center parts of the second and third floors to give the building a more airy open feel. It works.
Plus they have all sorts of new furniture to facilitate what patrons do these days. The old library had tables with chairs and rows of chairs. Many people bring their laptops and so now they can sit in semi privacy with a laptop table and plugs and a place to stow their backpack.
Or they have these cool chairs. I don’t like semi-privacy cuz I like people watching and listening in their conversations. You better watch what you say when you are around me because I have big ears. I like that the furniture has a midcentury modern “feel” to it in tune with the building it is in.
One of the coolest things are these study spaces that they have extended off the second floor onto the balcony. They are climate controlled and have windows on all four sides, three of them to the outside. They are of various sizes and configurations. I think they are wonderful.
And here is a view of one such study space looking to another. I think these are fabulous.
And speaking of the balcony they have opened it up again and there are more seating out there. What a way to spend a lunchtime in nice weather.
They have computers for the regular clientele plus they have computer education rooms of different types. They have literacy education spaces. It is all pretty exciting.
As for the books they have new undershelf lighting. I don’t know about you but sometimes the lighting is dark in libraries the few times that I have tried to find a book rather than order it.
I got all excited, a card catalog!! Alas, it appears to be a catalog of obituaries from way back when. Remember the good old days of searching through card catalogs and making notes with little stubby pencils on little pieces of paper and then going off to find the book. Yeah, I remember those days and they sucked. Give me a digital search any time!!
See that glass and granite building over there? That is where I work, one block away. I’ll be resuming weekly visits to the library to sit and read, people watch, and listen in on your conversations.
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday
Skywatch Friday – Arkansas River Sunset
Tuesday night I made a run late in the day on the Arkansas River Trail right off downtown here in Tulsa. I was able to get this shot above of a sunset. Pretty soon my evening runs will be in pitch dark but now I’m enjoying the earlier sunset and slightly cooler weather.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Turkey Mountain Skywatch – Eastern Sky at Sunset
This is a cell phone photo from the lower yellow trail on Turkey Mountain looking roughly northeast across the Arkansas River across south Tulsa. I’ve learned over the years that sometimes the best view at sunset is not towards the sun. I love how the river is reflecting some of the pink in the sky.
Summer is rapidly coming to a close. The temperatures are a bit lower, the humidity is much less, and the mornings are very nice. Autumn is my favorite season in Tulsa.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Skywatch Friday – Botanic Garden Sky
I haven’t been able to do to much Skywatching type photography lately so I went back into my archives a few months for this sky at the Tulsa Botanic Gardens.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Negativity and More with my Takashi Special Effects Camera
Holy Family Cathedral
When I was rummaging around Saturday looking for my generic Go Pro camera and I found my Takashi Special Effects Camera. It is kind of strange little camera with only 5 MP but it has various special effects built in such as negatives, black and white, sepia, and so forth. Check here for a list of my previous posts. Anyway I found it and fed it the AAA batteries it chews up like candy and took it for a walk at noon in downtown Tulsa.
I love the negative effect. It makes me see old sights in a new way.
It also gives scenes a spooky feel. I kind of like that.
The camera also has no shutter. When you press “the button” the camera just scans the photocell. So if you are moving the camera while it is scanning it distorts the image in ways that are pleasing to me. It is called the Lartigue Effect after a Frenchman named Jacque Henri Lartigue who discovered the effect in the early 1900’s. It can make buildings look kind of wavy.
I went down to the temporary replacement library for the Tulsa Central Library to pick up a book that I had on order and found out that that since they are closing it to move back to the regular library they moved it to another library, miles away. Oh well.
I love our library and the staff and have known a couple of them over the years but the present administrator I kind of worry about. The library gave him several months off to finish his PhD and then we come to find out that that he spends a huge amount of time and money flying to conferences here there and yonder. Much more so than libraries of similar sizes both regionally and nationally. He says that is where he found out about automated book checkout machines. Wow, I remember those from the last century. Oh well. I go to one conference a year and I think I’m pretty much up on what is going on in the natural gas industry. Oops, off topic.
My favorite sidewalk in downtown Tulsa on Denver avenue.
So I walked back to the office taking pics along the way. Isn’t it wonderful that electrons and photons are still free?
Downtown Tulsa in a negative mode.
The entrance to a downtown apartment complex.
Anyway I always dragging my lowfi funky Takashi out, feeding it some batteries and taking it for a walk.
Coldplay brings their “Head Full of Dream Tour” Concert to Tulsa
Heather and I attended the Coldplay Concert at the BOK Center here in Tulsa Thursday night.
Heather is a big, big fan and I was a kind of well, you know, I like their song Clocks, and they are okay, you know, they don’t suck.
I’m a fan now. We have been to some great concerts over the years and this one ranks up there with the best. Heather said it was “the best” she had ever been to, even better than Sting. Sorry Sting, you are now second best in Heather’s eyes I guess
The lead singer, Chris Martin is a dynamo. Not only does he have a great voice and stage presence but he is very athletic. He was running and jumping while singing the whole show. And the special effects were timed perfectly with his leap and jumps. Confetti, flame, lasers, and big balloons. They spent a fortune on expendables that night.
They had an “A” Stage at the front of the Arena, a “B” stage in the middle, and a small “C” stage in back. They were everywhere.
Playing their heart out without a break for over two hours and 24 songs. Here is the set list.
They played rock songs and ballads, their new songs and some of their old songs, and everything in between.
The fans loved them!!
We’ll be back and I will trying to find where Heather hid her disk.
As an aside, they had four light people hanging from the ceiling. They looked all strapped in and belayed so probably OSHA is okay with it.
We missed the first opening act but the second, Alessia Cara is a dynamo who can really sing.
Official, by gum video released by Coldplay for the tour.
Weekend Reflections – International Plaza
On an after work, post rain, run the other day I braved the security guards and dashed into Into the courtyard of International Plaza to take a pic of the multitude of various flags, glass, shiny metal, and standing water.