Late afternoon shadows make me look thin and our Pomeranian, Rascal, look big.
Retreating into the shadowy woods of Turkey Mountain on hot days.
A deer checking me out while on my hike.
An old hunting camp found on a hike.
I’m linking to Shadow Shot Sunday 2, check it out!!
On a bike ride a week or so ago I stopped and took a photo across the Arkansas River to this power plant. Yep, I used a filter.
From the same spot I turned about 30 degrees to my right and captured this scene of the new pedestrian bridge and low water dam going on. They are really busy, busy, busy with all the work going on. Who knows when it is going to be done.
A few days later I took my bike back to the river to do another dam inspection trip and the skies opened up. Fortunately, I hadn’t started my ride yet.
A few days later I was walking in a park and captured this scene.
I took a hike on Turkey Mountain and captured a scene at Pepsi Lake.
The trail I was on came out on a powerline right of way and hey, there is the office building I worked in for about half my career way on downtown. I waved, “Hey guys, get your butts back to work.”
That’s about it for this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in the fun!!
Below is not my photo. This is a jigsaw puzzle I did on my Ipad of the Mouton Barn at Mormon Row in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. This may be the most photographed barn in the world!!
I’ve always loved Mormon Row, it reminds me of a ranch that my aunt and uncle had in Idaho not that far from this scene in Wyoming. The closed up barn with great patina. The brutal winters mean not too many windows.
This is a photo I made a few years ago. Just looking at how the west barn eave cuts into the tree line I think I was standing just 10 to 20 feet west of where the person who took the photo for the puzzle was standing.
And while we are loosely of the subject of architecture. Above is a photo of Westhope here in Tulsa. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I think it is one of only three of his designs in Oklahoma. I knew of it but had never chased it down until last week when I did a geocaching AdventureLab focusing on oil millionaires houses in Tulsa.
And this is from a bike ride I did earlier this week in Tulsa. The river is the Arkansas River and the hill across the river is Turkey Mountain. An Urban Wilderness in the middle of Tulsa.
And here is the monarch waystation I help take care of on Turkey Mountain.
And a couple of sky photos from a hike at Oxley Nature Center.
And a shot of a prairie at Oxley.
And a drone shot from our backyard in south Tulsa looking west toward the sunset.
That’s all I got this week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come check it out!!
Last Saturday I got up bright and early and headed out to Turkey Mountain to run the Tess 5K Trail Run sponsored by the Tristesse Grief Center here in Tulsa.
I decided to go ahead and do a video of the start. After I was done videoing I had to loop around the timer’s truck and across the starting line myself.
A treat for me on this race is that most of it was done on the brand new sustainable trails constructed in the last year. Especially nice was the new trail from the lower parking lot up to the upper level of Turkey Mountain. Those old trails have gotten worse and worse over the years. It got so bad that I hadn’t used them in a long time.
The new trails are like a super highway through the woods. Another benefit is the chances of getting ticks and chiggers from the grass is way less. Also it is easier to pass other people and there is lots of room for both bicyclists and hikers/runners on the trail.
Pretty soon I had passed a small bunch of people and was way behind the pack. That’s alright, I was looking for a great hike through the woods. My running days are over. I do admit though on the smooth slightly downhill stretches I did trot a bit. Probably not over three or four hundred yards total.
And here we split off from the superhighway headed to the left and headed right to one of the legacy trails.
And up the rock garden after we turned south. I got an impromptu invite to a private geological tour of Turkey Mountain last week. I learned that the trail above is caused by alternating layers of shale and sandstone. As the shale layers dissolve and wash away the brittle sandstone breaks and falls down forming a kind of steps. Yep, the steps are ankle breakers!!
I also learned the top of Turkey Mountain is 300 million years old and has been submerged and re-emerged under a huge inland sea five times by a combination of tectonic and weathering forces. The guy showed us rocks that used to be sand on a beach and lots of little fossilized shellfish embedded in the rocks. It was amazing.
Enough geology for now. We made the loop and headed down the superhighway to the finish. All I can say is that I finished vertically. I didn’t place in my age group. Last year I finished first in my age group. Oh well I finished.
It was a great race, it was easy to register and they had lots of volunteers helping out. Timing was by Tatur, the best in the business in my opinion. They had lots of snacks and water for the participants and I think everybody left happy I know I did.
They didn’t have beer this year so I had one at home later on. In fact I might have had more than one, I’m not sure. They had tshirts but they are mailing me mine as I registered a little too late to actually get a tshirt at the event.
I’ll be back next year, here is my post from the 2021 Tess Trail Run.
A big thank to the Tristesse Grief Center, their staff and volunteers who helped, Tatur Racing, and my fellow racers.
I am linking to My Corner of the World. Check it out!.
I went hiking earlier this week on Turkey Mountain here in Tulsa. I came across this tiny frog traversing the trail.
I also went for a bike ride and took my camera with me again. As I was going down the trail I spotted a bald eagle flying high over me but headed down to the river. So I pulled out and spotted this guy fishing. That’s two weeks in a row I’ve seen a bald eagle in approximately the same location. Sorry for the fuzzy photo. I was at the far end of the range of my Canon Superzoom.
I also found this egret, or white heron or something several miles north of the Eagle out in the river looking for lunch.
And white pelicans on a sandbar.
And a log with two pairs of turtles. I didn’t know that momma turtles gave baby turtles piggy back (turtle back?) rides.
And a great blue heron. Again at pretty good range. They are skittish!!
That’s it for this week. I am linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Lots of really good posts there. Check it out.
We had a break the other day with unrelenting heat and cloudless skies so I launched my drone from the back yard. These were rainless clouds but hey they shaded us a little bit. This is looking northeast from about 50 meters high.
And looking straight west. Not a drop of rain in them.
I went downtown for some reason and ended up going by the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church across the freeway from downtown. I love the domes that are on the Orthodox churches.
And just down the street is Tulsa Fire Station 4 which is located right on Route 66 as it goes through town. They had a spiffy new (to me) Route 66 sign that I thought was cool. I posted it on Instagram and on a facebook Route 66 sign. Somebody from out of state asked if that was the only Tulsa fire station on Route 66. So I checked and no, there is one other Tulsa Station Fire Station.
Tulsa Fire Station 66, way out in city limits but in the country on Route 66. They call themselves “The Keepers of the Mother Road.” I thought I knew all the Tulsa US 66 attractions and no I didn’t. Check out their facebook page. They like people to come by and visit if they are not doing anything and host all sorts of school and other groups.
One of the things I do is water the monarch waystation on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. I went up there Wednesday morning and it had rained!! Not much of a rain but it soaked the parking lot. I didn’t feel much like watering after it rained plus the park had a contractor there laying down sod and I felt that they would probably be wanting to use the water tap and hose that I would be using so I just plugged and abandoned the project (oilfield lingo for giving up) and decided to go hiking. I’ll be back in a few days.
I went by one of the small lakes on Turkey Mountain on my hike. Something about skies and woods reflected on water really attracts me.
Earlier this week I went on another bike ride on the RiverParks trails. I stopped and inspected the progress on the new pedestrian bridge and dam. Going pretty darn slow is what I think but I got a shot of the crane.
And this is a photo from NASA from the new James Webb telescope that is taking some spectacular images of space. Click on the photo and you’ll get a description of what you are looking at. I’m still in the stage of just looking at the imagery, the text dulls the mind. (Sorry). They are letting everybody use the pics under a liberal creative commons license. Awesomeness is what I think.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
I went to see my brother Bob here in town the other day. He is staying at a nice place. Lots of things for them to do. I got comped a meal with him. It was excellent.
Desert was bread pudding!! It was right out of the oven.
On July 4th, while I was in bed sleeping. Bob got up and did a mile in the halls of his place in his wheelchair. Six laps, he got this medal to celebrate. Not only was I asleep, I had covid so I couldn’t go cheer him on and take photos.
Last weekend, the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition had a work day on Turkey Mountain. Lots of people showed up to do some really hard work repairing erosion damage and rebuilding jumps and all that heavy work. Kudos to them.
What did I do that day? I watered the butterfly garden.
And took videos of the cottonwood trees shimmering in the breeze.
I also gathered up my loppers, a trash bag, and my 32 oz water container and ventured out onto a lesser used trail picking up litter and lopping limbs that intrude on the trail too much. So I didn’t do the big heavy lifting that others were doing but I was doing what I could.
So for a musical interlude, “American Kids” by Kenny Chesney. A fun summertime song. Enjoy
I was on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain the other day and came across something I had forgot about. A Human Sundial.
Here is what it looks like
And here is the instructions and the guy who put it together as an Eagle Scout Project.
So, I stepped on the July step, and sure enough, it gave the correct time. Corrected for daylight savings time of course. I remember discovering this years ago and I completely forgot about it. Nice to find stuff like this again.
Kudos to the Eagle Scouts of the World and their multitude of projects.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2 hosted by the Magical Mystery Teacher
We had a huge hot spell for a while and then lately it has been lots cooler and drier. I have to advantage of that.
One day I went to Turkey Mountain and hiked about three miles. My knee that has been bothering me was not a problem. That made me happy.
I moseyed along on the new trails and some old trails. I love being retired. You got the woods to yourself most weekdays!
I found a good vantage point on the mountain to see the Arkansas River and south Tulsa on the other side. This truly is an Urban Wilderness.
One day Heather and I bicycled 15 miles on the RiverParks trails. Doesn’t sound like much but it was a nice time.
At the house, the crepe myrtles are loving the sun. I posted this image on instagram and while I was thinking crepe myrtles, I typed out azaleas. Nobody said a thing about it except my wife. You need wives like Heather keep you straight. In other news along that line, I had some books to return to the library and so I went there and tried to put them in the book return slot and they wouldn’t fit. You know why? Cuz I was at the post office, that’s why. Heather got a laugh out of that as well. And I’m saying the books would have eventually got back to the library.
And another sunny photo at my MIL’s swimming pool. The net is up because my skin is so white that it causes sun reflections that blind our nations surveillance satellites. Don’t buy that, how about this? The local ducks took to using the pool as their hangout spot. Turns out that ducks can foul pool water quickly.
So that’s about it for me. I hope that everybody (in the northern hemisphere) is enjoying their summer. You folks way down south, just hang in there it will be your turn to have summer in several months. You guys in the tropics. Just enjoy if you can.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in!!
We’ve had this hummingbird feeder up for weeks. We keep stuff in and clean and refill regularly. The first day we had a hummingbird and nothing since then. Nothing in terms of hummingbirds. We got all sorts of other critters who perch on it or get behind it like this smart aleck squirrel.
And some more bird action in the background.
And here is a cardinal and a blue jay mocking me about my hummingbird failure.
I went hiking on Turkey Mountain and found this new (to me) bat nest.
I also found this black colored snake in the middle of the trail. He scooted off by the time I got my phone out and ready.
I also found this guy in the middle of another trail. I let him be.
I checked out the monarch waystation and there are more wildflowers popping up.
I saw this little moth looking creature on one of the blooms. Inaturalist says it is a “gorgone checkerspot.” I’ve never heard of that but I’m going with it for now.
And this doesn’t have anything to do with critters. It’s another jigsaw puzzle. I’m getting to where I am not intimidated by large expanses of sky or water. I’m really enjoying working on online jigsaw puzzles. No pieces are ever lost plus I use the setting where all the pieces are in the right orientation. I know, I am cheating.
I’m linking this to Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out.