Tulsa’s Woodward Park on a windy, sunny, cool, beautiful Spring Day.
Tag Archives: Oklahoma
Happy Easter Everybody
Easter is time of rebirth, new beginnings and hope.
The flowers symbolize all that for me.
Not an especially good shot but that is my boy blurred out in the background
They are just so beautiful
Happy Easter to you!
Downtown Update
Sometimes it seems that different sectors of the economy out of synch with each other. The energy industry has gone down the tubes (although indications are that a recovery is in progress) and the building industry in Tulsa is booming. For full details, Looking out a window at work there are three different projects going on. The closest one is a new hotel going up. There are several hotels going up downtown now.
And then if you follow the street alongside the hotel you can see that they are extending the street to the high rise on the right. That is our former city hall that has been converted to a hotel. Part of the deal with the hotel to meet code is that they needed a street going to it because the city likes hotels to have two streets for firetrucks and such to use. It is a pretty expensive road project because it is on top of a parking garage.
And then just this side and to the right of the hotel is on lazy $50 million renovation of our Central Library. If you want to construct or do renovation for the full run down building, you need to contact a reputed construction company like Preserve services. From what I can tell they are going to store most of the books off site and put in lots more computers. I’m sorry but I think what they are doing is turning our library into an internet cafe for the homeless, methheads, and K2 addicts. Also, the library’s director hornswaggled the board of the library into giving him a paid four month leave of absence to get his PhD. The guy makes over $170,000 per year plus a $450 a month car allowance, plus, plus, plus. He makes more than the Governor of Oklahoma! Do you really need a library director who is gone for four months? Poor use of taxpayer funds I think.
Oops, I digress, what is happening where you live?
Skywatch Friday – Villa Philbrook Spring Sky
One of my favorite spots in Tulsa is the Philbrook Museum of Art. It is not only a great museum it has wonderful gardens. So last week I was out there taking pictures of daffodils and I took this tilted photo of Villa Philbrook and a twisted gnarly tree and a big dramatic sky.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Digital Art – Tulsa’s Linnaeus Gardens
Spring is here, last week, (when Spring wasn’t quite here, I guess) I took the big camera to Tulsa’s Linnaeus Gardens and took a few pics. I loved these flowers in the planter. The flowers seem a little overpowered by the mass of the rocks in the planter and the ultra heavy duty lattice above it but with the flowers, with the bright colors, overcame that mass. At least that is what I think. I used Topaz’s Glow to bring out the grain of the wood and the texture of the rock.
I’m linking with Digital Art Meme
2016 TATUR Snake Run
The closest I’ll get to a trophy!
The TATUR Snake Run was run today. The race is a little different in that who ever runs the longest in a given time wins. There is a three hour race and a six hour race on the same course. The course has two routes, a big loop of 3.75 miles and a small loop of 0.5 miles. You run as many big loops as you can within the allotted time and if you don’t think you can run another big loop before the time ends, you run the little loop as many times as you can. Partial loops don’t count.
The Godfather of Tulsa Trail and Ultra Running, and Race Director, Ken (Trail Zombie) giving pre-race instructions on a chilly Saturday morning. I had three layers on and running pants and gloves. Others just had shorts and a tee shirt. That is because they are tougher than I am. In addition to being a lot faster.
There is no crowding at the start line on a run like this. They have six hours to get dispersed. I always start at the very back.
This is the six hour guys and gals taking off. Ironically enough, they run faster than the three hour crowd, in general. Mainly because they are in great shape. Imagine ripping along at seven to eight minute miles for six hours? I can imagine it for one mile.
We ran this section but I actually took the photo on the Thursday before the race. True Confessions.
The race starts and stays on the upper level of Turkey Mountain and is relatively flat. There were a few boggy spots but overall the course wasn’t bad. The thing about trail races is how polite everybody is. People kind of move out of each others way, the slow runners yield to the faster runners overtaking them. I’ve never heard a cross word exchanged between runners.
I got into a pretty comfortable pace of running a half mile and walking a minute throughout the race. I stopped at every aid station and had a cup of water and a cup of gatorade. I had two nutter butter cookies on every lap. I don’t know why, it was working for me and I just went with it. I also had a few pickles for the sodium and a couple of banana segments for the potassium. I never did feel depleted out on the course.
I didn’t drink beer on the course this time. I wanted to get three big loops in and didn’t want any distractions.
I ran the three hour event and did three of the big loops and one of the little loops. I milled around a bit, had a beer and a half, a hot dog and a chocolate chip cookie. It was very breezy and cold at the end of the race so I didn’t linger for long.
I watched some of the six hour races come in and head back out. I was done at three hours. I couldn’t have done one more lap.
So I put on my finisher’s medal and went home. Thank you to the race organizers, the many volunteers and my fellow contestants for making this race so much fun. By my Garmin, I did about 11.5 miles. This has given me confidence to start looking around for a half marathon, which is 13.1 miles to do. My goal is to run the Route 66 Half Marathon in Tulsa next November. I would like to do maybe two others between now and then. Got any ideas?
I’ll be back next year!!
Today’s Flowers – Daffodil Mania
Here is the conventional view
I don’t mind Winter too much here in Oklahoma where it generally is not too severe and given my trailrunning and geocaching hobbies late Fall and Winter is really, really nice because I don’t have to worry about the many vipers we have here and the ticks, chiggers, bees, hornets, spiders, and wasps which have each sent me to the doctor before. Anyways Winter isn’t too bad but Spring is just great. It is great for baseball coming back and wonderful for the flowers especially the daffodils. I just love daffodils.
How about we get down to the ground and look up?
Tulsa’s best spot for daffodils is Woodward Park. This years “crop” seems a little sparse compared to previous years but still just spectacular.
How about zooming up the iso, and reducing the fstop to get narrow depth of focus. I know it is not much but I love this shot.
I went at lunch one day last week and the light was hazy. I thought it made for a nice effect.
Woodward Park is almost as good as the State Fair for people watching. We Tulsan’s love Woodward Park
I saw this lady get out of her car and she sat in the middle of a daffodil patch and brushed her hair really good and put a blue ribbon in and made a bunch of selfies. I thought it was really sweet. A couple years ago a guy and his girl were there and he set up a tripod low to the ground and he filmed he and his girl rolling around kissing and groping each other in the daffodils. That wasn’t too sweet.
On this past Wednesday during our Spring Break staycation the family indulged me by going to Philbrook Museum to take pics of the daffodils. They seemed kind of sparse there also. Still beautiful.
They had some of these very pretty blueish purple flowers also. That’s not the latin name for them, it is the Okie name.
And the purple flowers falling over the ledge is great also.
The best daffodils at Philbrook were in the front of the museum. They don’t charge you to look at these. We are members at Philbrook so its all the same to us. I love flowers in abundance. I’m greedy that way.
I know I am posting way too many pics of them. I promise not to post any more. I might change my mind though. Can you tell that I am a potential politician?
Here I found the abundance I was looking for. I fixed the focus about one third of the way down which left the flowers in the back kind of mushed (that is a very technical photographic term) in an effect that I kind of liked.
So this is my daffodil mania post. No filters, not even any cropping!
So, did I post too many photos? I’m trying to figure out what blogging means in this day of Instagram, twitter, and facebook. I love Instagram and post two or three pics a day with minimal text. Twitter I use mainly during breaking news plus it is a best way to keep abreast of industry news. Facebook is for friends. So I am trying to figure out where blogger fits in. I like getting to know people in blogging and it is kind of hard in Instagram and Twitter. With facebook I already know you. At least I thought I did until you started posting the My Little Pony videos. (hah)
So, how are the flowers where you are?
I’m linking with Today’s Flowers.
Weekend Reflections – Staycating for Spring Break
Logan has Spring Break this week. Originally we thought we might go to New York City but one thing led to another and so we are staying in town but trying to get out and do things. Wednesday we all slept in and then breakfasted at First Watch and then went to Zink Lake on the Arkansas River and walked about three miles or so.
We then went to the Philbrook Museum because I wanted to get some pics of daffodils. While there of course I had to take some pics of the Tempietto and the reflecting pool. I think more electrons have been spent photographing the Tempietto than any other feature in Tulsa.
All that is lost on some folks who walk around staring at the little screens.
Back to the Tempietto, I think it is the prettiest thing in Tulsa.aaBack to the Tempietto, I think it is the prettiest thing in Tulsa.
Wednesday night we took Logan to see the “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” with Clint Eastwood. I saw it about forty years ago when it came out and wow, I was blown away at how good it is. What a great, intense, well done, movie. Logan loved it also. Afterwards we realized it is the first R rated movie we ever took him to see so I guess it is a rite of passage.
Out of focus, and off kilter, I kind of like it that way except I wish I had the focus on the flower better.
I said something about daffodils, here are one and a half. I was trying to do the bokeh thing by messing with the speed and aperture. Next time I will figure out how to fix the focus so this is all I have for now. I’ll be posting my daffodil pics later.
Have you ever tried staycating? What is the secret.
I’m linking with Weekend Reflections
South Tulsa Skywatch
I used the Whisker Wire filter in Topaz Glow, backed off about two thirds.
So last Sunday it was kind of raining and sprinkling and so Logan and I decided we would go to the local mall and walk around a little bit. So we walked around and mocked the merchandise and left and I snapped the above pic with my cell phone. The sky was very dramatic. After a winter of no drama is was nice to see a few clouds.
What are the skies like where you live?
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Poems and Promises by Rosalind Cook in Honor of EG Camera Girl and Birdman
Friday at lunch I hauled the Nikon over to Tulsa’s Woodward Park to take some pics of stuff. You know Spring type stuff, daffodils and such. I got those pics and I got this one. Actually, this sculpture is hard to photograph decently because it is dark and the shadows and all that so I bracketed it with three photos in succession each about 2 fstops different; under exposed, right exposed, and over exposed. I then combined the three pics with some software I had and I got something halfway decent.
At least we can see her face and the background isn’t blown out. If I were a photographer instead of picture taker I could monkey around a little more but this what I get. This sculpture is named Poems and Promises and it was gifted to the City of Tulsa back in 2010 by the Sculptor, Rosalind Cook, and her husband. I think it is incredibly beautiful!!
I got to thinking that I had posted this art before and sure enough I posted some film photos back in 2012 so I went back and checked it out and and what stunned me were the first two commenters: EG CameraGirl and Birdman. EG CameraGirl was a Canadian blogger whopassed away at the end of February as a result of car accident where her husband died and Birdman was from Maine and died of a heart attack just after retiring from a long career as a high school teacher.
They were both full of life and had unique blogs and were lively, interesting, and humorous comments and both very encouraging. I never met either one in real life but I feel that I knew them. I know that I miss them both. So this post is dedicated to them.