Tag Archives: My Corner of the World

Skywatch Friday – First Day and More

I hope that everyone had a great New Year’s. 2024 was a year of blessings and also trials and tribulation for us and we got through it. Back when I started blogging, there was a friend of mine who also started and quit because she said people only put the positive parts of their life online so it was dishonest. So I guess I am dishonest. Sorry about that and I don’t feel bad about it all. I’m a blessed man, what can I say. I have this irritating trait that no matter what the situation, I think things will be okay. I couple that with a sense of realism about what okay looks like.

I have always loved New Year’s. It’s like a fresh start every year. We didn’t do much, stayed home, had a nice dinner, watched some television.

In late December after weeks of monotonous gray skies I saw that things were shaping up for maybe a good sunset so I got my drone in the air and captured a bunch of images. I put them in a video and here it is. It is only twenty seconds long so do not panic!

New Year’s Day morning I went with Heather to a class she is starting at a nearby YMCA. It is cardio drumming and twenty people showed up to take it. Not bad for a brand new class. She is already teaching it weekly at another YMCA here in town and monthly at our “home gym.” It is lots of fun, you have drumsticks and you drum on an exercise ball in time to music. She leads the different moves. It is lots of fun, she loves upbeat music and so do her students. She also teaches Zumba at two different gyms, and a couple water classes, aquazumba and aquastrength. I take both of those classes. She stays pretty busy. She has been teaching for years and is very good at “reading the room” providing alternative moves for those who need them.

Afterwards, I took off and found a geocache and hiked a short distance. If you are a geocacher, New Year’s Day is an important day to find one and if you are a hiker you should go on a First Day’s Hike. So I did both. Yeah me, hah!

And then we went home and had our New Year’s Day meal featuring chicken quarters and baby back ribs that I smoked on the day before New Year’s Eve. That red stuff on the meat is a very spicy rub use. It brings the heat.

Meanwhile, I did another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. Great way to stay busy while we watch our streaming shows. The one I am working on now is a Canyonlands scene with lots of tan colored desert and skies. Very challenging.

Again, I wish everyone a Happy, Heathy, and Prosperous 2025!

I am linking with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday

Christmas 2024 Happenings

We had a nice surprise for Christmas this year. My sister, Ellen, came down from Colorado to visit us. (She is also a blogger, check out “Life on the High Plains“)That’s her on the right. We had a great visit.

We went to see our brother, Bob at his residence and had a meal with him and a little pre-Christmas celebration.

Ellen is a lover of all animals. Our Pomeranian Kodi loves her and even let her pick him up, for a little bit. He doesn’t let me even touch him. Our cat Lizzie loves Ellen as well.

We took her to the Tulsa suburb of Sapulpa to check out the Christmas Chute. We love the Chute. Talk about an extravagant display.

They block off a long section of their main street and put these steel frameworks in which they stuff with lights and decorations.

They have all sorts of various themes.

They provide a list of things to look for. They are hard to find but it gets you to looking hard at the decorations. The main one this year was Christmas Pickles. I had never heard of such a thing. We found a few of them. Check out the Christmas Chute web site for more info.

Here’s my bride, Heather, and I looking for the items. I’m holding the checklist.

It just goes on and on. The crowd had a great casual fun energy to it. They have all sorts of opportunities to shop or get snacks.

We spent quite a lot of time there.

All good things come to an end. Ellen returned to her home in Colorado. We all miss her.

Kodi was not happy at all at her going home.

I am linking with My Corner of the World

Adventure Lab Geocaching on the RiverParks Trails

Earlier this month a nice cold, sunny, windy day, I went to Tulsa’s RiverParks trails to look for an Adventure Lab Geocache. Adventure Labs are a specialty cache where you have to visit a site and find information there. No physical cache is involved so it is appropriate for areas where they don’t really want you hiding stuff. Check out geocaching.com for more information. So this Adventure Lab involved going to several sculptures and getting information from the sculpture or accompanying plaque.

I ended up walking about two or three miles and had the parks trails to myself. At the end of the Adventure Lab you get coordinates to a “real” geocache and I found it as well.

And I took photos of all sorts of other stuff. We still had lots of fall color and the skies were really blue.

These are some sort of infrastructure and artists had painted murals on them and I really liked them.

And RiverParks installed this little musical drum for little kids and immature 69 year olds geocachers.

And I got this certificate!! I am not sure what you do with certificates. I am now up to 2287 geocache finds. But who is counting, right?

I am linking with My Corner of the World and Skywatch Friday.

Getting Started on Christmas

Recently we visited Rhema Bible Church in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. They put on a great show of Christmas Lights ever year. They have lots of lights and almost infinite parking and although traffic is congested it’s doable. We like to go when we can park the car and walk around.

I loved the carolers in a Victorian vibe.

Santa’s Sleigh and the Reindeer. I don’t know where Santa is.

One of my favorite things is the walk around the pond. There is always great reflections. And the ducks and geese think they are part of the attraction.

At home, my wife has decorated but that will be a different post. Looking at how she decorated the bakers rack I guess you probably saw right away that she loves Snowmen. We are invaded by snowmen.

I participate in a nice social media thing called Postcrossing. To simplify it is where you send and receive postcards from all over the world. I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve sent and received about 350 cards. I do about one a week. I’ve made some new instagram “friends” and even found a few geocachers out there. And it is free!! Except you know international postage is expensive and you have to buy the cards from wherever you buy cards. Check out postcrossing.com if you are interested. The above is a card I picked up in Santa Fe last summer showing Christmas in that town. I sent it to someone in Belgium.

And switching gears a little I am back to doing online jigsaw puzzles on my ipad. I had misplaced my ipad charger and ordered another and fired up the app. I love it. I have to tell you sensory wise, the cardboard back side of real life jigsaw puzzles is a No Go for me. Plus what do you do with the puzzle when you are done. What I really love is that once you place your last piece, the jigsaw lines disappear and you can save it as an image. Plus there are no lost pieces and it doesn’t take up your tables, and the pieces all oriented right.

That’s all for this week. I’m linking with My Corner of the World.

Skywatch Friday – Touring the New Gilcrease Museum

As described previously I got a chance to tour the new Gilcrease Museum last month. The building’s exterior is finished and most of the interior.

One thing I love about the building is that it has views of the outside. This is from the terrace looking north to the Osage Hills.

This is looking through another window east. You can see downtown Tulsa just to the right.

From the terrace looking southwest into the sun.

This area is going to be a cafe with outside seating on the terrace. I didn’t take any photos of the new galleries. No windows and plain gray walls. Not much to see there, yet.

On the terrace looking at the exterior walls. I was struck by the wavy design and asked the guide what that was about. She said she was told but did not understand it. She said it was “architectspeak.” Maybe so. I think it does add interest to the building.

They are still building this grand staircase which is going to be in the center of the building and go to all the floors.

I can’t wait to see it when it is done.

How much does all this cost? About $140 Million. Check out the private money donated. Tulsa has a lot of very generous families who are not afraid of donating money to the right cause. There is a lot of work to be done. They are designing the interior fixtures. The contractor will turn the building over in May 2025. The concrete and other materials used in construction needs to “off gas.” The vapors could be harmful to the collection, so the museum is not scheduled to open until November 2026. I can’t wait. Check out Gilcrease.org for more details. Check out their online collection. It’s fabulous.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

New Zink Lake Overlook Murals

On my little kayaking adventure a few weeks ago on Tulsa’s revamped Zink Lake I passed what is known as the Zink Lake Overlook and I saw this mural facing the lake. I had seen some painters working on it but I didn’t know if they were just doing graffiti or what. Nope, no graffiti, they had been commissioned by the River Parks to paint murals. Eleven different artists involved. How cool is that?

I don’t have any before photos. When I first got my drone I flew it there just to play around. As you can see above it was a dingy neglected place with all sorts of nooks and crannies that are hidden from view. I think you know what I mean I say that public places that have nooks and crannies hidden from view is not really a good thing.

I did like the bollards they used to define the water’s edge. Makes it look like some sort of riverboat infrastructure. They were handy for daring kids or high (on drugs or alchol) adults to jump from one to another. Well all that changed.

https://www.fox23.com/news/new-zink-lake-overlook-murals-are-now-open-for-the-public-to-enjoy/article_91dd4eb2-7d44-11ef-8681-a7f76a037af5.html

I stopped there and checked it out. It is a sea of color now and paints have been sealed to protect from the elements and make for easier cleanup in case of tagging. Oh boy I hope that taggers spare this place.

The nooks and crannies are still there along with a huge surface to paint.

The bollards are gone and now we have better fencing to prevent falls and mishaps.

I just love all the colors.

In one of the nooks and crannies somebody sleeping. No way you can keep it all out.

It is a lot more inviting public space now.

Right around the corner to the left was where the guy was sleeping. I left him alone.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

My Corner of the World – Hiking Oxley Nature Center

One day late in October it was very windy. Windy days I like to go to Oxley Nature Center, especially their Sierra Club Trail. You can hear the wind howling in the treetops but it is calm down on the ground.

And I hardly ever see anybody. This trip I encountered only one person. A guy headed towards me looking kind of angry and upset. I had my spidey senses going but he passed me without looking up. I could hear him walking past in the leaves, crunch, crunch, crunch. Any change in the pattern and I would have looked around. But nothing happened. I’m not going to begrudge anybody needing a little solace in the woods.

I took a small garbage bag and my grabbers with me. The places I go hike there is hardly ever any trash. This day I found just a few cans and wrappers and that was it. Put the trash in the trashcan at the trailhead at the end of my hike.

It was a feast of Oklahoma style fall color. We don’t have a whole lot of color in the fall besides some yellows and browns. I’m okay with it.

Here’s a little reddish color for you. My Merlin ID app was going crazy with all the birds in the area. I was going crazy with inability to see such birds, except as small specs when they took off. I saw lots of squirrels and a glimpse of a deer. Kind of a zero day for photographing animals.

And a short video of the wind in the treetops.

And at the end, I see where a city surveyor had set up shot. I hope that they are not putting a new freeway in!!

A little shy of 3 miles, a nice walk in the woods is what I thought.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World.

2024 Tulsa Veterans Day Parade

Monday was Veterans Day so I went to downtown Tulsa to see their annual Veterans Day Parade.

The Tulsa Police Department opened it up with their motorcycles and right behind them was a Junior ROTC Marine Color Guard looking sharp in their uniforms.

And then dignitaries in vintage military vehicles.

And then the floats. This one was done by my former employer. ONEOK (pronounced One Oak) always shows up big for the Veterans Day Parade.

And then a bunch of ONEOK employees followed the float. Other companies had floats as well.

And then another JROTC color guard.

The Booker T Washington High School Marching band shows up for the parade looking snappy in the uniforms.

And the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department shows up with one of their armored vehicles.

And if you know tornado belt culture you know that Storm Trackers are celebrities. When they are not working they go to events and will sign autographs for you. Here is Van Castor’s pickup truck. These guys follow the storms and tornadoes as they develop. Here in Oklahoma we don’t run for shelter when the tornadoes come, we run outside to take a look at them.

One veteran didn’t make the parade. Here is my brother Bob.

Twenty years in the Navy and more afterwards as a civilian employee. This is his door wreath put together by our sister Ellen.

He is in assisted living here and living life. Left to right, Irv (Career Army Vet), his wife (and sister to Bob and I) Ellen, son to Heather and I, Logan, and kneeling my wife Heather.

A photo I took of Bob several years ago when he turned 66.

Here he is in Tulsa several years ago. He used to visit and run in our local half marathon. He’s run over a hundred half marathons and over fifty full marathons. He doesn’t run any longer but he gives life everything he has.

I’m linking with My Corner of the World

The Colors, Reflections and Refractions of Autumn at Philbrook Gardens

Last week I posted about an special art exhibition at Philbrook Museum of Art here in Tulsa. My last line was that I was going to the gardens. The gardens at Philbrook are every bit as special as the art inside the building.

The signature feature of the gardens is the tempietto overlooking the reflecting pond. Philbrook started out life as a mansion for a rich oilman back in the day. The reflecting pool was the swimming pool and the change rooms were underneath the tempietto.

I love all the views and reflections that are possible in the pond.

_DSC0537_DAP_Aquarelle_Noveau Philbrook Gardens

This is a highly edited (can you tell?) photo of the main building at Philbrook (Villa Philbrook) from the steps of the tempietto. Sorry I couldn’t resist.

There is always something blooming in the gardens.

I revived my glass sphere and brought along a point and shoot camera that has a macro setting. I got this thing years ago and used it a lot and it ended up in the back end of my Subaru. I saved it. I still love the photos that one can get out of it. It took me a while to figure out how to do that. I also learned how to hold it. If you hold it in your hand in bright sunlight it’ll burn a hole in your hand. It acts like a magnifying glass. So I hold it off to the side or from the top. Technically I think this is refraction and not reflection.

This is a shot of some of the pumpkins on display. The sphere gives you an upside down view of the scene so I feel free to cheat and turn the whole photo upside down if I have to.

Blooms in the water.

I always feel chill after just a little time in the gardens.

I am linking with My Corner of the World.

Philbrook Museum’s “American Artists, American Stories” from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art has this exhibit going on currently of American paintings from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. We are members of the museum so I went and took a look at it. They had tons and tons of art. The following were my favorite works.

This work by Charles Willson Peale “The Artist in His Museum” is a perfect opener for an exhibit.

I loved the exuberance of Maxfield Parrish’s “Princess Parizade Bringing Home the Singing Tree”

I loved Young Woman by Isabel Bishop. It was painted in 1937 but it looks very contemporary to me.

Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos by John Vanderlyn. Such a dreamy scene.

Some still life’s bore me, others like this Still Life with Fruit by Severin Roesen I find very exciting.

And this by Philip Leslie Hale, “The Crimson Rambler” is very beautiful. I also find it intriguing because according to the accompanying card, Hale made a protest against woman’s suffrage.

The scene looks like right out of a film noir movie. “The Soda Fountain” by William J. Glackens.

So we are hearing about how humanity is threatened by AI and that we are going to be inundated by images and videos generated by AI that have no base in reality. You know that has happened before. This is “Penn’s Treaty with the Indians” by Benjamin West showing William Penn and a Native American Chief, Tamanend in a peaceful transaction where the Indians get goods and the white people get land. Cool! right? Wrong! The land was taken from the Native Americans and this painting of an event that never happened was commissioned by Penn’s son to bolster his family’s image. This led to people thinking it is historically accurate. I find it fascinating how art is harnessed to propaganda.

And I loved this, “De Soto Raising the Cross on the Banks of the Mississippi” by Peter Frederick Rothermel. The European explorers were a brave lot I think. Not just in exploring the North American continent but in things like planting a cross and declaring some sovereign in Europe now owns a couple gazillion acres just because.

And how about this hidden Thomas Moran work, “Two Women in the Woods” If you are like me, it was like, what two women? Oh there, and such a beautiful scene, with the two women hidden in the shadows. Not quite as dramatic as some of Moran’s other works but still a great painting.

As part of the exhibition, many of the works were displayed on a “gallery wall” similar to exhibits in the 19th century. It was interesting. To help study it they had a couple of couches and some binoculars available to patrons to inspect the works. They also invited patrons to try and find insights or ideas on why the works were arranged the way they were. It was kind of fun to sit there and just think about the works on the wall and how adjacent works were alike or different.

So after this exhibit I checked out the gardens but that is a subject for another post.

I am linking with My Corner of the World.