We were without a backyard fence temporarily until one could be built so when our dog had to go outside one of us went with him. So this is really a long shadow selfie from our backyards, clear across the greenbelt and to the property fence on the far side. I love looking tall and skinny, Kodi loved looking like a big dog.
I went on a little bike ride last week on the RiverParks Trails and stopped for a little rest in the sun.
I also went on hike on Turkey Mountain and took this shadow and tree selfie.
We’ve had a warm spell lately and life is glorious now. I can fly my drone without it going all “Danger Will Robinson” on me.
We have had a contractor replacing our backyard fence in something besides a rainy/snowy/icy windstorm.
I was able to go hiking without risking hypothermia.
And I went on a long bike ride Monday along the Arkansas River. It was crowded, every old retired guy in town had the same idea and were out cruising the river in their cargo shorts.
I was at an event recently that had a bunch of people with associated with environmental and conservation groups. I got to talking with somebody was with the Tulsa Audubon Society and she mentioned they partner with Jenks School District, close to Tulsa, on an outdoor classroom located right next to one of the schools. That perked my interest up and she said it was just a fraction of an acre but was packed with all sorts of stuff. She said it had an attractive water feature that local photographers use and was open to the public.
It has been cold, wet, and rainy here and so my outdoor time has been limited but one day we got a little break in the rain so I went to find it. Iphone maps was no help but I knew what school it was by and found it that way. It’s called the Flycatcher Trail. Check out their web page and their facebook page. They are very active with work days and other events. You will also find a better physical address than Apple Maps has for it.
So I went looking for it and found it and it is as advertised. Lots of and lots of things in a very small space, and very well done.
They have habitat with birds, insects, and small critters.
A very nice water feature with a space for photography.
They have small winding trails going this way..
and thay way
leading to purple moutain houses
and two chimney swift towers
They are also a demonstration garden so they have things like this rain barrel. We get lots of rain in Oklahoma so a rain barrel can come in handy.
Anyways, this was a fun find. I love how they get the kids involved in it. Anything we can do to get kids off devices and checking into nature is a good thing.
We caught a dry sunny spell a while back so I took the opportunity to walk around Lafortune Park here in Tulsa. The walking path is three miles long and encircles two golf courses, a tennis club, a public library and several little league baseball fields. Three miles is my sweet spot and I bet I have done hundreds of laps in the over thirty years we have lived here.
I love the netlike shadows that chain link fences make.
Trees always have great shadows
I don’t remember pursing my lips like this I didn’t notice it until afterwards. So this is my shadowy face, with a strange expression. Don’t worry, I’m not going to kiss you.
This is our sweet Lizzie. She has a sad face she is really a good cat.
And this is our juvenile delinquent, Kodi the Pomeranian. Most of the time he is a sweet dog but he has issues that we are working on. My wife, who he really loves, has left town for some training so he and I are together this weekend and we have had some challenges but we are making it work. I jollied him into going on a walk which took the edge of his anxiety and later we played for a bit and he let me pet him for quite a while.
The weather broke for a little bit the other day so I went hiking on Turkey Mountain. Towards the end of my outing the sun almost broke through and the birds high in the trees all broke out in a cacophony of birdsong. I only had my phone with me so I got no photos and I made this video just for the sound. It was great. Since then, we are back to misty rain. We were supposed to have a work day on the mountain Sunday but put it off for a month due to the muddy conditions.
That’s about it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out.
For whatever reasons I haven’t been out much since the first part of this month. Too cold, too rainy, blah blah blah. I’ve got lots of excuses.
The above is a tree in my backyard. We are still waiting on a new fence. I’ve paid the guy a deposit now we just need it to stop raining.
This photo and the two following are of Tulsa’s Own Park just northwest of downtown Tulsa. I think it may be Tulsa’s oldest park. It has fallen by the wayside. The city keeps the grass mowed, picks up litter, and chases off vagrants and such but it has been abandoned to the neighborhood and they seem to love it.
It is such an old place and feels settled in. And over the years their have been lots of geocaches planted there so I was there in December hunting down a couple of new ones.
And I love the pond. It is home to quite a menagerie of waterfowl. I think many of them are escaped or released pets.
This is a re-edit (all the photos in the post are re-edits) of a shot I took during out trip in December to Colorado Springs. We drove through the Oklahoma panhandle. You can see forever out there. I found the big sky and lonely highway exhilarating.
This is a tree on a hilltop at Tulsa’s Bales Park from a hike I took a year ago. (Another re-edit.) It was a dark, cold day and I had the place to myself. You cannot really tell from the photo but the hill in the background is the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area. Between Bales Park and Turkey Mountain is a four lane limited access highway, US 75.
Speaking of Turkey Mountain this is re-edited photo of some sort of bicycle obstacle built there by volunteers. Back in the day, Turkey Mountain was pretty wild. The powers that be lightly administered it. They certainly didn’t build and maintain sustainable trails like they do now. So people, especially the bicyclists, would haul in lumber and build their own features. All over the place. Most of it was pretty rickety. It was wonder nobody died. At least I don’t think anybody died. If they did, I think the other bikers might have just dug a shallow hole, dragged the pour soul into it, covered them up, toasted him or her with a beer and kept on keeping on. Snitches get stitches is their motto.
A view of our north fence with shadows from the bench and trees. By this time next week we should have a new fence to replace this well worn installation. I love the old patina but it is time to go.
https://flic.kr/p/2ptrhKt
Son and I are still practice driving. He’s actually doing pretty good.
Tulsa’s Lafortune Park now has a small buffalo herd. They seem to be managing the cold weather very well.
From the archives a few years ago, flamingos at the Tulsa Zoo. They, along with most of the birds there, have been off display the last few times I have been there because of virus’s circulating around.
Another backyard squirrel captured on my trailcam recently. I just now noticed the date was wrong. I changed out the batteries and neglected to fix the date. The temperatur is right though. I haven’t been out and about taking photos. This year I am a weather weenie plus I have had a lot going on in my life lately!
And the fence contractor. I know he is not a critter but he is a really nice guy. He is replacing my neighbors fences. I told neighbor I would pay half for common fence. I then got the contractor to give me an estimate on my remaining fences. He pulls out his phone, calls up and aerial view of the neighborhood, finds my yard, measures the fence using the tool on his app. Multiplies by his cost per foot. Asks if that estimate works, I tell him yep, so he opens up an accounting app, puts in the amount, and my contact information and it sends me an invoice. It is pretty amazing.
So to continue the chain, I contact my other neighbor ask him if he would like to pay for half of our common fence. (I am not a beat around the bush kind of guy and if he didn’t want to pay half, I would totally understand.) He said yep, how much. So we have own little spreading construction project going on. I love wheeling and dealing. I also love good neighbors and we have good neighbors right now.
I’m diverging, got totally away from critters but you know everything in the world is connected right?
It has been a week! We have had some wicked cold weather and a little bit of snow.
Last Friday, my brother got sick and we spent hours in the emergency room. Turns out he had covid. So they bundled him up and sent back to his residence where he is being isolated for a while. I went home and tested negative but have been self isolating for five days. So stay at home, no gym nor anything else where people are. Low single digits inhibited me from doing anything outside so I’ve been a couch potato.
I had this bright idea of taking the drone out to various places around town and launching it. First though the batteries were all low and it took hours to charge them up. I went on a little test run in the back yard and I got just a little ways up in the air and the drone went crazy and one of the motors started barking. The screen on the controller said “Too Cold” so I nixed that but I got a few photos showing the snow in the neighborhood.
Normally with as sunny as it is our one inch would be gone but it is sticking around because it is so cold.
It took me about 20 minutes to push the snow off the driveway and walkways. If I didn’t it would turn to ice. Now that is really fun to deal with, especially when you are 68 years old!
So tomorrow I’ll self test and I’ll be free again!! (If I test negative) Plus it will be warmer outside. Probably going to be too muddy to go hiking ethically but I’ll find something else to do. Don’t you worry!! And my brother is doing okay as well. He is apartment is kind of small and he is going stir crazy. They will be testing him and if negative, he’ll be free as well! Being free is good in my book.
The other thing that happened last week is that I got notified by the internet company that hosts my blog that I had way too much traffic on it and it wasn’t coming from my friendly global blogging friends. It was coming under attack by evildoers! Traffic was up by a factor of 47,000!! They said fix it or we are going to shut you off. They were nice about it though. They sent a bunch of data on what was happening and gave me seven tasks I could do that would probably work.
Hey, couldn’t go anywhere, so the next day I went through the seven things with a sense of dread. Computerspeak is like a foreign language but with the links they provided I was able to tighten up security and upgrade things and it only took a few hours so I asked them to evaluate again and they said I fixed it and complemented me on how quickly I got-er done. Whew, big sigh of relief. My motto on the blog is if it is not broke don’t fix it. Turns out that is not too smart.
