Skywatch Friday – Different Ways of Catching Rays!!

Sunset a few weeks ago captured with the drone.

And an opposite sunset looking to the northeast

I’ve rediscovered “tiny planet” apps. They take a photo and wrap it around itself.

I went on a bike ride on a glorious, windy, sunny, kind of cool Wednesday. I took the Katy Trail from Tulsa to Sand Springs to avoid the mobs of spring breakers on the RiverParks trails. It’s an old railroad that has been converted to a trail.

And a vantage from a high spot.

And turned 45 degrees to the refinery across the Arkansas River.

A late afternoon skywatch shot. After weeks of boring skies I’ve been busy.

A sunrise early in the morning.

And the old drone pilot himself.

We had a full worm moon on Wednesday with just a very light screen of clouds in front of it. I love full moons.

I am continuing to do jigsaw puzzles on my ipad. I love them. I love this Caribbean scene.

And this street scene. It takes me days to do these things. I don’t mind though it is very relaxing.

Anybody else getting their vitamin D on. I love being outside so much.

I’m linking to Skywatch Friday. Come check it out. Lots of great posts from bloggers all over the place.

Weekend Critters – Birds, Dogs, Squirrels, and Snow

We are having it all this past week. We had 80 degree temps, then snow with well below freezing temperatures. Today we are having dry winds that are going to create a fire hazard. Oklahoma weather in the spring is always interesting.

We’ve kept our feeders full. The squirrels dominate the feeders so I’ve been checking the action underneath. Lots of birds play well with others, dove, juncos, sparrows, cardinals they all see to get along. Bluejays and Grackles are more aggressive.

Sorry about all the orange flagging. The telephone company had all the lines relocated.

Them grackles are like a group of noisy teenagers.

Here at the end of the ten second video a bunch of them fly up to the tree.

We got a finch feeder and guess what, finches showed up.

A little bird bath action

And Rascal, our Pomerania shows up to see what all the fuss is about.

Rascal’s thick warm coat comes in handy when it is snowing. Sorry about the bad photo.

We turned our fireplace on for a little bit. LJ loves the fire.

That’s it for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out, lots of great posts there.

Early Spring Skywatching in Tulsa

I went walking around Lafortune Park and found this tree near the tennis courts.

Found this scene on one of our nightly dog walks in the neighborhood.

Found this at a walk at nearby Ray Harral Nature Center.

Launched the drone from the back yard and captured this scene at sunset. It is actually looking northwest away from the setting sun.

Another view from a different angle. I launched prematurely though, as colorful as my captures were…

If I’d have launched 10 minutes later things would have been a lot more colorful. This is from my front porch.

Went hiking on Turkey Mountain. I’m loving the switchbacks on the new trails going up and down the hills. There should be a lot less erosion than the old trails.

Found me what I call a chandelier tree while on my hike. You can tell the weather has been lots better so I am getting out more. Snow and ice again tomorrow though!!

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in the fun!

Going on a History Tour of Turkey Mountain

This weekend I went on a History Tour of Turkey Mountain hosted by the RiverParks Authority who oversee Turkey Mountain.

Our official tour guide was Ryan Howell who has given the tour a bunch of times and still makes it fresh for everybody.

It took about two and half hours and we covered about that many miles but we saw a bunch of Turkey Mountain and he gave us a ton of information. I thought I knew a lot about the Mountain but turns out I didn’t know squat.

Trees Damaged by Beavers Chewing on them

He covered everything about how Turkey Mountain came to be and what its official name is (hint, It’s not Turkey Mountain). Some history of the outlet mall that got moved elsewhere (to never be built) and the Master Plan and all the trails that are getting built. He talked about the difference between the old trails that all eroded and rocky vs the new professionally designed and constructed trails that are designed to shed water and reduce erosion and increase sustainability.

The most instagrammed wagon wheel in Tulsa.

He had tales of hidden Spanish Gold and Viking Runes and magical caves. (Hint, if Ryan knew where the gold was he wouldn’t be giving tours.) He went over the flora and fauna of the mountain and explained about the beavers, bobcats, wild turkeys, deer and Eagles nests and where, in general they can be found.

He talked about invasive species and prescribed burns with “cold fires.” He told us about a still unreleased movie filmed partly on the mountain and showed us the very rock where the lead actress took a power nap during filming. All this and more. I don’t need much excuse to go hiking on Turkey Mountain but this was one of the more memorable outings for me. He also showed us several reminders of Turkey Mountain’s past as a significant oilfield form the 1920’s to the 1960’s.

Ryan has a lot of passion for Turkey Mountain and for educating the public on the resource. The tour costs a nominal amount and 100% of the proceeds go the Mountain. They have the tour several times a year, follow their facebook page to keep abreast of tours and other information

Shadow Shot Sunday – The Old Wagon Wheel

I went on an historical tour of Turkey Mountain yesterday and we came upon this old wagon wheel. I have seen it many times and photographed it a bunch. It was found submerged in an adjacent pond and was discovered when some people who were staging an adventure race on Turkey Mountain years ago did some practice swims in the pond and their legs hit the wheel. They got a tow truck out there and pulled this up.

They say it is part of a wagon used in the early day oilfield on Turkey Mountain. Way back when they actually put oil in barrels and hauled to the nearby refineries on wagons.

The tour guide said it was the most instagrammed wagon wheel in Tulsa. Looking in my archives I see that I have twenty six photos of it. It is very photogenic don’t you think?

I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday. Check it out!!

Weekend Critters – The Action at the Bird Bath

A female cardinal at our birdbath.

And a video,

And then a guy cardinal shows up.

And a video

And a sparrow

And one of our big fat squirrels checking the bath action out.

And LJ and LIzzie sharing a spot of sun in the house.

And to Oxley Nature Center. I think these are Pelicans. They were way up high and I had my long lens as long as it would get.

And some geese cruising down Coal Creek. I was looking for otters. The staff tells me I need to get there at 6 am to have a chance. I don’t see that happening.

About it critterwise for this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday Critters. Lots of great posts there. Check it out.

Skywatch Friday – The Sun! At Last!

The cold, sleet, ice, and snow went away so we have been able to go outside and it is liberating. I’ve been on a couple bike rides. I’ve been retired for a year and a half and I still feel guilty taking off on a bike ride in the middle of a weekday afternoon. Most days feel like the first day of summer vacation when I was a kid. They days are just full of possibilities.

Oklahoma history is different. One of my recent bike rides took me by this old cemetery in the middle of suburbia in south Tulsa. It is the Rentie Grove Cemetery named after the family that owned the property. The Renties were freed black people who were slaves owned by Creek Indians who brought them along to Oklahoma when the Creeks were forced to leave the southeastern Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.

We’ve been taking on our dogs on daily walks during not too bad weather. We have a one mile route that takes them by many of their “friends.” They and the friends give each other a good barking. A side benefit is good views of the skies with trees. Yep, powerlines but hey that’s part of it.

With the better weather I’ve been launching the drone more. This is a sunset at 50 meters.

And this was another day with a lower elevation. No, I wasn’t spying on the neighbors. I just liked the view of the sky.

I’m crazy about Route 66. It’s quite a history of the country and Oklahoma has more Route 66 mileage than any other state. This is a sculpture installation on the Riverparks Trails called “Where East Meets West” showing the conflicts between the old and the new, horse drawn wagons vs new fangled gas powered cars.

I am seeing a ton of homeless people in Tulsa these days. From what I understand it is a nationwide thing. I don’t have any answers but am glad to know that Tulsa is decriminalizing homelessness. If you call the police non-emergency line they will send out people to try and get people services rather than just rousting them out or putting them in jail.

My mother-in-law gave me a camera that my father-in-law owned. It is a 1960’s model Pentax SLR. It doesn’t work but I took it to a good camera shop and the guy said it looked like it is stuck mid-cycle. He was going to have the mechanic look at it and give me a call let me know if it can fixed.

I’m hoping it can. My father gave me his Canon film camera from the 60’s and I love the feel and heft of it and the action is smooth as silk. I have high hopes for this Pentax.

I finished another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. I’m really slow at these things and I love working them and love the finished photos. When you finish it the puzzle lines vanish and you can save the image.

#doubleexposure #hand #sunflowers #hipstamatic

I am thinking and praying for the Ukraine.

That is it for this week’s Skywatch post. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Check it out!!

Weekend Critters – Ice, Sleet, and Snow!!

We’ve had a little weather here. Sleet, freezing rain, and snow. Not too bad, the main thing was that it was cold. We’ve kept our bird feeders going. Cardinals and squirrels are the main customers.

DSCF0249 — We have several squirrels and they each have distinct feeding styles. I like this dude. No inverted positions for him. He just sits down for dinner and goes for it.

The back yard is cold, the patio got kind of slippery.

We had a blue jay show up for lunch. Sorry for the ugly orange flagging. Our internet provider put it up to mark other utility lines.

I love the female cardinals.

A video of the blue jay.

Cardinals and juncos co-existing.

A female cardinal video.

Lizzie the cat checking out the patio action. She doesn’t like outside at all. She is a rescue critter. When she was just a baby kitten somebody drove through a store parking lot and threw her the window.

Abby likes going outside but she burrows under a blanket afterwards.

I finished another jigsaw puzzle. I’m loving doing them on the ipad. I’m not very good at it. My wife just flies through them. We are not racing though, are we?

That’s the critter roundup this week. I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Lots of great posts there. Check it out.

I’m also praying in support of Ukraine as they bravely defend themselves from naked aggression by Russia.

Skywatch Friday – Turkey Mountain Reverie

Monday was shirtsleeves weather here in Tulsa and I went to Turkey Mountain for a hike and see the progress on the trails. In the above pic, if you squint really hard you can see a small tracked backhoe working on a new trail. I gave them room and went the other way.

The new trails, are wide, and rock free, for the most part. They are built to be kind of “flowy” so there is gentle bends from side and side and up and down to enhance the experience for moutainbikers.

The new trails are open to everybody except horseback riders. They are trying to get the trails packed down really hard. They have a bunch of signage to encourage people to share the road. The mountain bikers love the trails and can get going pretty fast. So far I have not had a problem with bikers not being polite.

The new trails seem to be encouraging more people to go deeper into the mountain park than before especially families. The old trails were very rocky and technical and not family friendly at all. So people are getting away from the parking lot it seems.

But even though there were a lot of people on a sunny afternoon, there was lots of room for everybody.

There was some recently opened new trail on the cliffs overlooking the Arkansas River. It is nice having professionally designed switchbacks. Before this, the vertical trails just went straight up the hill and given all the rain we have the trails turned into gullies quickly.

So it was a good day for chilling out.

The RiverParks staff likes to have fun with the visitors. They are also continuing to build more trail and I expect there will be networks and loops of professionally designed and constructed trail reaching deep into the park. I’m loving it so far!!

A brief video of my adventure Monday.

Wednesday night, Russia invaded the Ukraine is a puzzling power play. Lots of people have died already. Earlier this week I got a postcard from somebody in Berlin showing the Berlin Airlift back in 1948 or so. It’s so ironic that here we are over seventy years later dealing with Russian aggression in Europe.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come join in!!

2022 Darryl Starbird Rod and Custom Car Show

Football season is over, what to do on Sunday?? I know, I went to the Darryl Starbird Rod and Custom Car Show at the fairgrounds. The Starbird Show is all about hot rods and custom cars, not your boring old Fords and Toyotas. All of the cars at the Starbird Show are one of a kind.

They are painted bright colors and polished to a high gloss. They are works of art in my mind.

Works of art that can be driven.

This car was supposedly built just for one episode of “Love American Style.” Is there another television show more 1970’s than Love American Style. The placard with the car said that it was for sale (no price asked) and had been in storage for 40 years. Huh?

I am not sure I want a car like this but I will look at it all day long.

This is one of my favorites. It looks like a Jetsons car (anybody out there remember the Jetson cartoons) with the bubble top. That is not the best part though.

The quilted interior is my favorite. And look, no spedometer! (or any other instrumentation for that matter. Pure style.

A customized Jaguar XJS Convertible.

A hotrod with a bathtub style body.

Is this not a surfer’s car?

No leaning over for a kiss in this car!

And another favorite. Sensitive readers should skip over this part. Apologies to everybody, Sorry, not sorry. I’ve seen a number of cars over the years with the logo “The Panty Dropper” on it. Very vulgar and low class, I assure you. I assure you, yes I do. Well at the Starbird Car Show the tables are turned. I present the “The Boxer Dropper” owned by a woman. Note the pair of boxers on the ground. (No!! they are not mine, shame on you for thinking that! It is a nice car though.) I loved this car and the concept. And I love that women are getting involved in custom cars.

My favorite car at the show was “Pannama” which may or may not have been in the car that the Van Halen Song “Panama” is based on. The owner had a photo of a car that looked like this with David Lee Roth (the lead singer of Van Halen in case you are wondering.”

The car is absolutely gorgeous and appears to be similar to the car in the video for the song. Below is the video.

Thank you for sticking me through all this. I’ve been to several of the Starbird Car Show. Check this link to check out my previous posts.

I am linking up with Image-in-ing. Check them out, join in!!

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