I fired the drone up over the backyard last week toward the end of the day.
It had been raining and I wanted to go hiking so I went to Broken Arrow’s Ray Harral Nature Center. A beautiful place with many paved hiking trails so one can go hiking while adhering to Leave No Trace guidelines. The end of the hike I found this composition with flowers, trees, and a sky. Nothing earth shattering, just kind of pleasant.
The Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow had their 2024 edition of the “Chalk It Up Art Festival” on their Main Street last weekend. Artists who entered got a designated space on the blocked-in street to create a work of art with chalk. We try and go every year. Lots of people enter and they are quite talented. The theme this year was “In My Own Back Yard” The following were my favorites.
Lots of entries featured pets.
Some had kind of a fantasy thing going.
This reminded us of our dear departed Rascal. He was such a good dog.
As a kid who couldn’t stay inside the lines on my grade school art projects, I appreciate people who bend the rules a little bit.
And I loved this. Who doesn’t love blowing dandelion seeds in the wind.
I think this won the “People’s Choice” award.
I think this had best in show. I love the deep rich colors of the work.
Another dog, Mango has his own swimming pool.
I think there were over fifty entries including those from children to adult artists. A talented group of artists for sure. They have Chalk It Up on the weekend of the September every year.
Sad thing is that the artists can’t dig up their huge pieces of pavement and take them home. Late Saturday afternoon, the police take up the barricades blocking traffic and people waste no time driving on this art. Oh well, that the nature of it.
I am linking with My Corner of the World
The Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow had a Chalk Art Festival this past weekend so me and Heather went and checked it out. The formal name is “Chalk it Up 2023 Art Festival” Check out the link for the official website. They have the event every year.
I think they had thirty two or so entries and I picked out my top five for this post.
They had categories for students and adults.
For some reason I love chalk art. Part of the attraction is the transience of it. Once the festival is over, they take up the barricades and the traffic flows and it degrades quickly. So no, you cannot buy it, take it home, and then make your kids and grandkids wonder what to do with it when you are gone. Because the art is gone also.
There is always one. This person chalked her piece to face the other way from what all the other contestants did. Good for them is what I say!!
This is the piece that won. I love it. I loved it before I found out it won. Kind of a sense of awe and wonder.
This jellyfish is a favorite of mine also.
The festival had a lot more going on than the chalk art. Lots and lots of booths with people selling little homemade trinkets, sculptures, paintings, jewelry, etc. We are kind of in the downsizing right now so we are not in the market for more stuff. The event was well attended and people seemed to be enjoying themselves.
This is not chalk art but it is a mural I really love in downtown Broken Arrow.
This isn’t chalk art either. After the event my bride, Heather, and I ventured over to the nearby Broken Arrow Brewery and discussed the event over a nice IPA.
I’m linking with My Corner of the World.
I was geocaching at a clinic’s gardens in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma when I came upon this sculpture. I thought, “interesting” and snapped the pic and moved on with my task.
I found what I was looking for and noticed the walkway circling the sculpture and saw roman numeral numbers, then the light went on in my head! The sculpture is a giant sundial and is keeping almost perfect time. Eureka. I love figuring out stuff like that.
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday II – come check it out.
One warm evening last week all three of us headed out to Broken Arrow to check out the Rhema Ministry Christmas LIghts.
They have been doing this for years and it is free and quite the show. The lights are spread out all over the campus. They also have really good pedestrian flow compared to previous years and that is important in these pandemic times.
There is no charge and there is a very chill vibe going on.
There are milliions of lights, and reflections of those lights all over the place.
It’s a Christian organization and of course Christmas is a big deal in Christianity, celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
There is certainly a lot of joy on the Rhema Campus.
I love the marching band.
And of course, you have to have Santa Claus.
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Come check it out!!
One of my hobbies is geocaching which involves finding stuff out in the world using a GPS receiver or an app on a smart phone. I’ve been doing it a long time and love it. (Check geocaching.com for more information.) One of the newer types of geocaches is Adventure Labs. I’ve done several of those. One I did recently was an animal sculpture themed geocache in the town of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I had to navigate to the sculptures and find out some information about each one. The technology utilized includes an electronic fence which means that I had actually had to go rather than sit in my easy chair and google to find out the information.
Anyway, its lots of fun and I found out new stuff. For example, downtown Broken Arrow has a life sized installation of a mouse. It’s on a windowsill. Why? I have no idea but its there. I love finding out new things in areas where I live and travel.
I’m linking with Mosaic Monday. Come join in!!
I was out and about Sunday afternoon out in the country west of Tulsa when I encountered a sign farm. It was a bunch of long forgotten old gas station signs arranged in a giant semicircle in a field out in the middle of nowhere.
I passed this once before last spring on first Bike Run, the Tour de Cure 2018. We passed it and I remember being very interested but being my first ride I didn’t feel like stopping and taking photos.
Remember the days of full service gas stations? You’d drive in and run over the cable making the bell ring, and somebody would be right out and you’d tell them to fill it up. They’d check the oil and fill the windshield washer tank. Ah, them were the days.
Somebody has spent a bunch of money not just collecting the signs but restoring them to mint condition and then installing them. To whoever you are, I salute you!!
Found me a nice suspension bridge at the nearby Ray Harrel Nature Park. All great nature parks have nice bridges, right?
I love railroad tie retaining walls. The look all old school and woodsy. They end up kind of blending in and becoming part of the landscape.
Logan and I went for a little hike on New Years Eve. He had his wisdom teeth taken out a few days ago and he was supposed to be quiet but by NYE both he and I were pretty owly and needed some fresh air and walking time. I have a hard to shake sinus infection and so I haven’t been doing much either.
So off he went!! He isn’t into running much but he was pretty restless. We went to Ray Harral Nature Park in Broken Arrow, a suburb of Tulsa. I kind of like it. It has lots of trails and not very many people. By planning your route you can get a couple miles in by varying the loops available.
The woods were grey but I did find a cardinal hiding from me in the shadows for a bit of red.
I finally catching up with the kid. There is something about pedestrian bridges that I love. I alos feel compelled to tilt the camera. For some reason it seems more interesting.
How about you? What do you tilt the camera for?
I’m linking with Shadow Shot Sunday today.
I wish everybody a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!
There is a striking sculpture in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. A bronze sculpture named “Binding Contract” by Bradford J. Williams is in the middle of downtown and it kind of tugs at the heart a little bit. Two cowboys are shaking hands across a fence and you can tell that they are neighbors but more importantly you can tell that for both of them, their word is their bond. For those of us in the business end of things, our word is very important and so is the word of your counterparty. Contracts are very important and not to be neglected but all they are is a statement in writing of both party’s intentions. From the day a contract is signed the business relationship is tested all the time with situations that were not foreseen and one depends on the other person’s word that the relationship will continue.
I love the sculpture and the principal it represents.
I’m linking with Good Fences today.
And a Happy New Year to You!