Playing around with a double exposure app on my phone yielded this shadowy photo of a deck rail shadows and flowers.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2.
Shadowy Shadows
Backyard Cardinal
A cardinal in our backyard having a little snack while perched on the feeder.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters by Eileen. Come check it out.
Skywatch Friday – Hot Summer Hike
I was up on Turkey Mountain Tuesday afternoon, watering the Monarch Way Station. A nursery had donated some plants to us on Saturday and we planted and watered them that day. It’s been scorching since so I watered them again. Still hot. Fortunately I have pretty good place to watch the watering, and the goings on in the main parking lot. Took me about an hour to do and I decided to go on a short hike.
I drove up to the upper parking lot and took off to what some call the “back country” to the northwest. Not near as many people that way. I saw two mountain bikers and another hiker during my trek. I used a combination of new trails including the above, and…
the older trails which still hold most of the mystery of Turkey Mountain to me. I can feel the history on Turkey Mountain. It’s had farmers, cattlemen, oilfield roughnecks and drillers, moonshining, and up until the cartels put them out of business, meth labs. I still think that there is a lot of monkey business goes on.
I was checking out the trees, many of them are wild and twisted. The competitive forces of nature at work.
Nature is just awesome. Below is the route I took.
And now a bonus section courtesy of NASA. It is the clearest view of Neptune us earthlings have seen since the Voyager 2 satellite moseyed by in 1989. This was shot with the James Webb Space Telescope.
It is shot in near infrared light so it is not as blue as previous images. You can see the rings (Neptune has rings? Now I know). And 14 moons!!!
Shadow Shot Sunday – Old Water Tank
Deep in the shadows of Tulsa’s Bales Park is an old, retired, stone water tank.
Saturday’s Critters – Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Maybe?
Saturday afternoon my wife and I were sitting on our back patio when we noticed this bird in one of our trees. It was quite a ways away and I was only able to get this photo of the back of his head. INaturalist gives a tentative ID as a Red-bellied Woodpecker. I had never heard of such a thing. Any help would be much appreciated.
Saturday was Monarchs on the Mountain on Turkey Mountain. A festival honoring butterflies and nature in general. I didn’t see any Monarchs but this giant caterpillar made an appearance. I was working a booth for the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition so I talked to a few people and I also planted a few new plants in our Monarch Waystation on the Mountain.
I’ve been watering the way station once or twice a week for months and have seen maybe two or three monarchs but a bunch of swallowtails. Those little buggers are shifty and hard to photograph. Lately the fritillaries have been all over the place. They like to hang out on a nearby tree.
Our veterinarian has an office cat. It is used to all the hub bub in the office. It just snoozes away and ignores everybody.
This is from our backyard trailcam earlier this month. A cardinal eating from a feeder.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters. Check it out.
Skywatch Friday – the Moon and More
We had a Full Corn Moon last week paired up with a crystal clear sky.
And some more clear skies on a day when I sneaked onto the new Bales Park trails here in Tulsa. They are putting up a fancy rustic wicket over the trail.
They have a nice boardwalk over a marshy area.
And Bales Park has an overlook to downtown Tulsa not very far away. That land across the freeway to the right is the very northwest end of Turkey Mountain. Nice to have two great public areas so close together. The highway department is redoing a freeway interchange at the center left of the photo. As part of the work the highway guys are putting in a bench to be used as a trail connector between Bales Park and Turkey Mountain. It was a big enough deal that US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came to town and made a press conference at the interchange to talk about the project as part of a project to reconnect parts of Tulsa that have been semi-isolated since the 1950’s. Here is the link to an article about it. Hilarious because Oklahoma’s Representatives and Senators all voted against the project and now they are all taking credit for it.
And switching gears, here is photo that is not mine.
Another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. I think of Monument Valley. I am not sure.
A Voyage Solar System Walkway “Lifts Off” in Broken Arrow
On September 13, the City of Broken Arrow, OK celebrated their Voyage Solar System Walkway installation. The Walkway is a model of our solar system at a one to 10 billion scale. The scale involves both the distance between the sun and planets but also the size of bodies.
So the sun is the size of a large grapefruit. Earth is a small dot just a few feet away. Pluto, is 2000 feet down the street.
The installation is designed to help people understand just how vast our solar system is by bringing it down to human scale. Voyage was designed by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. The first installation was on the main mall in Washington, D.C. Other installations are in Kansas City, Missouri, Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas, Palo Alto, Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, Ocala, Florida, and Lake Charles, Louisiana.
It was interesting hearing about the efforts of many people over the years to get the Walkway installed. Money was raised by local businesses, individuals, and a go fund me page. The city helped out with construction, It was a community effort.
I love that it stretches from the front of an elementary school to the local high school. A ready made model for learning just steps away.
Here’s a video the City of Broken Arrow put out that explains it a lot better than I can.
And of course I made the Voyage to check it out.
I’m linking with My Corner of the World
Michael Buble in Tulsa.
Heather and I had our 33rd Anniversary the other day. We didn’t feel like celebrating much because our dog Rascal was not doing very well at all and we ended up putting him to sleep the next day. So things were not very happy at our house. Last night though we went to the Michael Buble concert here in Tulsa.
We’re glad we went. We love the guy and he always puts on a great show. This was the fourth time we’ve seen him. He sings an updated “Great American Songbook,” standards from people like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and others. One of my favorite songs is, “I’m Feeling Good.”
Another favorite is “Home.”
Over the years, he has mellowed quite a bit. He used to have kind of a bad boy persona and his shows could be quite raunchy. He’s now married and has four children and seems to be quite the family man but he still looks has that playful smile.
And we were happy. That is about as smiling as it gets for me. We had a good time.
Rascal, RIP
Twelve years ago a very social, very well behaved, Pomeranian puppy showed up at our house and introduced himself. We took him in and tried to find his owner but no luck so he was ours. We named him Rascal.
We all fell in love with him. Very smart, and loved people and very in tune with everybody in the family
We called him the dog that goes. He loved going places and his walks.
He was a good sport, even if it involved dressing up for the occasion.
We called him a Diva. He loved getting groomed and kind of showed off a little bit. He was quite the flirt.
He was a beautiful dog was fully engaged in his world.
He started having multiple health issues. We did all sorts of things. He loved accupuncture and physcal therapy.
He was still active and loved going to see his friends in the neighborhood.
We took him on a trip earlier this year and he loved it.
He got to where he couldn’t walk very far so we got him a dog stroller. He got to where he liked that as well.
Anyway we lost him today. He was a trooper right up to the end. He’s in a much better place and we sure do miss him. Our pets just don’t live long enough.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters. Check it out, lots of people who love animals link there.
Fiery Skies in Tulsa
We’ve had some pretty good sunsets in Tulsa lately. Late day weather helps with the clouds in the western sky. One evening I launched my drone and went up about 50 meters. Not much wind which is rare for Oklahoma.
Another day I was taking son somewhere and we had good skies so I was taking shots as I safely could while driving. This is from our house looking west.
And at our church a little later.
And the drive home.
Another day I had to get my car serviced. We live only 0.8 miles from the mechanic so if the weather is good I walk back home. So this is an early morning shot to the east. I have to confess that since I have retired I have not seen very many sunrises.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Check it out, lots of great posts there.