3G Ranch, Washita County, Oklahoma
We were in western Oklahoma last weekend visiting relatives. As part of our visit we went out to check the cattle. Usually by the time July rolls around the color is washed out of the landscape but this year with all the rain the grass was still green and belly high. I’ve spent a lot of time in western Oklahoma and I love the friendly open people, the big sky and seas of grass across the rolling landscape.
A definite highlight of our vacation to Hawaii was helicopter tour that Logan’s Grandmother and my MIL gifted him for his birthday. It was great and I’m going to post about it in more depth in the future. For now, I’m posting this rainbow. I’m not sure exactly where we were on Kauai when this rainbow appeared but the island is home to Mount Waialeale which at an average rainfall of 452 inches per year is called the wettest place on earth. So it is probably a good place to see rainbows.
All I know is that the Kauai is beautiful and magical.
We just got back from our vacation to Hawaii last weekend. On our last day we ventured to Pearl Harbor and took the Navy launch over to the USS Arizona to pay our respects to not only the Sailors and Marines who died on the ship that day but to all who died for our country and their families.
It is a very somber and sobering experience visiting the Arizona. I’ll never forget it. It was such a pretty day when we visited and it was hard to imagine the death and destruction that came that day.
I found this dancing tree during one of my evening runs on Turkey Mountain. I love the way the leaves reflect the low sun on its way down. A few minutes after this, it starts getting dark up on the mountain and it would be time to head back to the parking lot but I’m always wanting to go a little bit further. I love the feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere.
Tuesday night was cool and overcast so we took the dogs on a walk. We took a detour over to the neighborhood elementary school with their mile long swing set. Kids certainly love to swing including our kid who is a high school junior. What the heck why not?
Go for it kid is what I say.
Linking with Skywatch Friday
The suddenly camera shy wife and kid off to the left. Note that painted look is because I used Topaz Labs Impressions software on the image. I backed it off about 50% on the strength of the effect.
More from our family trip to Woolaroc last weekend. We left Tulsa and it was all warm and everything and by the time we got to Woolaroc about an hour later it was chilly and windy but we had an interesting sky so it was all worth it.
Linking with Skywatch Friday and Good Fences
This is a horse pasture in the middle of south Tulsa. I drive by it when I drop the kid off at school. It’s like a breath of fresh air before plunging back into traffic to get downtown.
So what do you do to get a breath of fresh air?
Linking with Skywatch Friday and Good Fences
Son has a small part in a a musical at his school, Guys and Dolls, and is spending some long hours at his school at rehearsal. Last week I was a little early in the pickup line, so I got out of my car and walked down to the soccer fields and took pictures of the sun, not quite setting over Turkey Mountain to the west. If you are going to be a blogger you gotta have a camera with you all the time is my motto.
What’s your motto?
Captured during one of my Wednesday night runs on the Arkansas River trails here in Tulsa. I’m so glad that the weather is warming up. When I’m bundled up and fighting the cold wind I’m not usually in a mood to stop and take photos.
The first Spring storm clouds of the season were pretty spectacular Tuesday night. They didn’t get to Tulsa and I was glad that they were over there and I wasn’t. At the bottom right of the photo is the first redbud blooms of Spring that I have seen this year.
Wednesday night was a different story. Their were a series of storms that spun up in the Oklahoma City and Moore areas and came up the turnpike to Tulsa and hit right around quitting time. A trailer park in the suburb of Sand Springs got hit and caused many injuries and one fatality as well as extensive damage. Heather and Logan were at home and I decided to stay at work. Being on the road is the worst place to be during a tornado.
My office is a beige box in the interior of the building so I stayed there instead of going out side and taking pictures. I did get this one grainy shot of a flare at one of the local refineries. I don’t think the refinery was damaged, most likely it was just a process upset. They will be filling out paperwork for a week for causing so much smoke though.
This could be another wild year for storms here in the heartland.
