The wind blows here in Oklahoma and with a motion sensitive trailcam I can get hundreds of photos of nothing really fast if I point it to a hanging bird feeder or trees. Wind the wind blows I point it at our bird bath or a stationary feeder.
We get a lot of robins showing up for a drink.
And doves
At the stationary feeder we offer whole peanuts and sunflowers seeds. Those are popular with squirrels, grackles,
and blue jays.
Not in our backyard but from the Tulsa Botanic Garden a monochromatic lego lion!!
I headed up to Tulsa’s Wooward Park to see if the Daffodils were blooming.
And oh, man!! They sure were blooming. The blooms were fresh and people hadn’t picked them, yet.
They were beautiful. There were a couple of young women sitting in amongst them (they were carefully making sure they were not trampling photos) and taking selfies. Usually I take photos of all people doing selfies but I left them alone to enjoy the flowers. They were probably taking photos of me and posting about the creepy old guy lurking about.
They also had lots of hyacinths.
And tulips
They had forsythia shrubs blooming
And rebuds. I’ve always loved that stone staircase.
The big trees don’t have their leaves yet.
And they still have remnants of trees knocked down on during our Father’s Day Windstorm in 2023.
Lake Bixhoma is a water supply lake for the Tulsa suburb of Bixby. It is known for its clean water and protection from wind since it is surrounded on three sides by hills. It has a few hiking trails that are known for being kind of tough plus they have all sorts of venomous snakes there. I’ve been lucky and never seen one except for a water snake last year. The place also has a geocache that has not been found in four years. So I wanted to do two things. Find the cache and hike completely around the lake which I have never done before. I also wanted to lessen the chances of serpent encounter by doing the hike while the snakes were still in brumation (the snake form of hibernation.)
So I started off at the beginning. I couldn’t make heads nor tails of this map at the time. All I wanted to do was avoid the “snake farm” indicated on the upper part of the map. Off I went. You don’t really need a map. Just keep the lake in sight and you’ll be okay. That turned out not to be totally true.
The trail is a mix of old road, nice single track and some pretty technical rocky sections.
They used to have a road that went deeper into the park and had picnic pavilions, restrooms and such. These are now abandoned.
There is evidence of old farms and houses here. I’m told that this is a model T axle. How it got there, I don’t know.
There is a little creek flowing into the lake.
Last year I came looking for the cache and turned back at this creek crossing. I had my good camera with me and no walking stick. So I didn’t want to take a tumble into the water. This year I came upon a young woman who had two dogs on leash who was considering the crossing and went ahead and did it even though the dogs were pulling here pretty hard. I said, okay if she can do it I can so I got across with dry feet.
Soon after crossing I started deadheading to the cache. No trail so I was going around thorns and such. Found me this old turtle shell.
And a skull of some unlucky critter.
I got to ground zero which was almost on the lake. It looks like one could take a kayak almost all the way there. In fact almost all the previous finders used a kayak but had to beach it in marshy areas and get all muddy coming in.
I looked for the cache for an hour. I was envisioning something big like an ammo box. I was convinced that the cache had gone missing. “Muggled” they say in the geocaching world. I looked for it for an hour or so and couldn’t find it. I had marked ground zero with my blue water bottle and when I gave up looking for the cache well then I couldn’t find my bottle. So I had to hunt for the water bottle and when I found it, I saw the cache. Which is why I marked the zero point with my bottle. I could have saved an hour, oh well.
The thing is that the cache container’s top had been chewed by some critter and the container was level full of water. So I obviously could not sign the log. I’m still claiming it! I logged the find online and cache owner got back with me and said that they would replace the container.
So then I hiked out. Since I wanted to circumnavigate the lake I had to take the long way out. It was a mile and a half to the cache site and I hike almost two and a half miles to get back out. A good time was had by all is my motto.
Tuesday night Heather, Logan, our Pom Kodi, and I loaded up and drove to the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check out the Route 66 Christmas Chute in their downtown. We went last year and loved it!!
The city blocks off several blocks of Route 66 downtown and install these big frameworks and then people decorate them. You walk underneath the decorations. It is wonderful and you have great light for taking photographs. Also the merchants really go all out decorating their storefronts for the occasion.
Most of the restaurants are open if you are hungry or thirsty plus there are pop up shops selling food, drinks, and gift items.
Logan really loves gingerbread cookies.
Heather loves snowmen.
I love the reindeer and the sled.
Kodi loves Heather!
He also found two other poms to have a faceoff with. They were barking at him and he was just looking. He didn’t like being pulled away. I swear Pomeranians are the most spoiled dogs ever but we still love ours.
The Grinch was in a storefront!!
I figured out what Santa is going to leave me.
If you like Christmas trees, they have dozens of them, from little dinette sized trees.
The Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow had a Chalk Art Festival this past weekend so me and Heather went and checked it out. The formal name is “Chalk it Up 2023 Art Festival” Check out the link for the official website. They have the event every year.
I think they had thirty two or so entries and I picked out my top five for this post.
They had categories for students and adults.
For some reason I love chalk art. Part of the attraction is the transience of it. Once the festival is over, they take up the barricades and the traffic flows and it degrades quickly. So no, you cannot buy it, take it home, and then make your kids and grandkids wonder what to do with it when you are gone. Because the art is gone also.
There is always one. This person chalked her piece to face the other way from what all the other contestants did. Good for them is what I say!!
This is the piece that won. I love it. I loved it before I found out it won. Kind of a sense of awe and wonder.
This jellyfish is a favorite of mine also.
The festival had a lot more going on than the chalk art. Lots and lots of booths with people selling little homemade trinkets, sculptures, paintings, jewelry, etc. We are kind of in the downsizing right now so we are not in the market for more stuff. The event was well attended and people seemed to be enjoying themselves.
This is not chalk art but it is a mural I really love in downtown Broken Arrow.
This isn’t chalk art either. After the event my bride, Heather, and I ventured over to the nearby Broken Arrow Brewery and discussed the event over a nice IPA.
My wife Heather in the distance. Leaving me behind as usual.
My favorite trail on our recent trip to southeast Oklahoma’s Beavers Bend State Park was the Lakeview Lodge Trail. We hiked a little over 4 miles. The trail had some up and down, some water views, and was in generally great shape. The woods were opened up and it was very enjoyable.
