I was in the Gardens of Philbrook in the middle of September, here is some of what I saw.
A colorful orange zinnia
A monarch butterfly
More Zinnias
Oklahoma Autumn by Eric Baker
Philbrook has a ton of trees
Some beautiful blue Adirondak Chairs. That is the new Tandy Pavilion on the rise behind the chairs.
Villa Philbrook from the Reflecting Pool
A watermelon and other plants near the new Tandy Pavillion
And speaking of pavilions. They new Tandy Pavilion makes for a great event space, plus some shady deck space. The A/C is ice cold and the restrooms are handy out in the far reaches of the gardens.
Nothing like Purple Phlox on a bright day.
A bas-relief. That may be Dionysus leading a couple ladies astray
First up, a Mississippi Kite sitting on a powerline in our neighborhood greenbelt. I love their distinctive call and style of flying. Despite their fierce appearance what I read is that they don’t look for little mammals on the ground, they like to catch flying insects to eat.
I turned my Merlin App on for a few minutes a while back in the backyard. It has better ears than I have. It is amazing what it can do.
And a collection of sparrows on a fence that I photographed.
To finish this post off, “Hippo” by John Kearney in the Philbrook Museum Gardens here in Tulsa. It’s made of welded chrome bumpers. I love it.
Last week I had to use photos from my archives for my Shadow Shot Sunday post. Why is that? It was because I wasn’t getting outside very much in this heat. Usually when I am outside, walking, hiking, in the backyard, etc I take pictures of almost everything and almost everything outside, during the day, casts a shadow. If nothing else, I cast my own shadow. Now as I write this, it occurs to me that this is the lamest Eureka moment ever. I’m almost embarrassed for myself. But that is alright. I embarrass everyone I know my mere presence, its okay if I embarrass myself every once in a while.
So with my newfound comprehension I went in the backyard and took a photo of this spinner casting a shadow on our fence. I kind of like the light on the spinner also.
A few days later I was at Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum looking at an exhibition and afterwards decided to go on a spin around their gardens even since it was a little early and the heat had not showed up. First thing out the door is this shadow of a decorative feature on the cast iron rails.
And then I turned left and went down this long “tree tunnel” with its shade along the whole length.
And out into the gardens and first thing is this shadow cast by a planting.
And some restful chairs in the shade of the a large tree. I think it would be cool to take a book and read there once it gets a little cooler.
Philbrook recently opened their Tandy Pavillion out in the garden. It is mainly an event space but I love how much shade is on three sides of the building. Plus the air conditioning is heavenly and they have restrooms. When you are in your 70’s it’s nice to have handy restrooms instead of trudging back up the hill to the main building. They also have a small exhibit of bird photographs on display.
They have all sorts of art on display in the gardens. I’ve always loved this. It is called Talisman by Oded Halahmy
I’ve always loved this structure in the gardens. It has a fountain to the left and it is always shady and restful.
And headed back into the main building I found this shadow on a bit of a patio. I love the contrasting pattern of the shadow and the pavers.
So anyway I have resolved to spend more time out of doors during the day even though my dermatologist tells me that the sun is trying to kill me. Sunscreen and wide brimmed hats are my friends!
And to be clear, many of my fellow photobloggers make great shadow photos indoors. I’ve done a bunch myself.
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.
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.
Sculptures of Sheep grazing contentedly on the lawn.
Leaves casting a shadow on a sidewalk
And now a reveal. This is the site of Philbrook’s only geocache from years ago. It has been disabled for years. It was a complicated multicache that would take a lot of time but lazy old me thought it out. Most museums are very protective of their gardens and don’t want nasty deet smelling geocachers tramping through their exhibits, dismantling light fixtures, and climbing trellises, fences, and art work so I thought of two places where the fusty but fun museum staff would deem safe enough for geocaching. And I was right! I found it 13 years ago, read all about it here. Oh, don’t bother looking for it if you visit Philbrook, it is long gone.
On a guided hike on Turkey Mountain, I was lagging behind the group (I like to lag) and found this butterfly. Google lens tells me that it is a Red Spotted Purple butterfly. Other resources say Red Spotted Purple Admiral. I don’t know, I just thought it was different.
An overhead view of the same butterfly.
I visited Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum and took a walk around the gardens. I saw this little pollinator working away, doing its thing.
And then a wasp looking critter working on these blooms.
And yet another pollinator, pollinating.
And a duck on the museum grounds. Do you suppose he snuck in without paying?
And they had sheep. I loved these sheep. They were on a secluded part of the grounds up until 2014 and then disappeared. They are back now in a more visible part of the grounds. There were lots of teenagers visiting the museum the day I was there and the sheep were a hit. Up to six or seven kids were sitting on them at a time. I just bided my time until they left to get this shot.
And then shift to our backyard. I was sitting on a bench reading and this downy woodpecker landed on a nearby branch and stayed for a little bit.
And going inside the house, Lizzie the cat spent a big part of a recent day with her tongue sticking out. Silly cat!!
And here’s the Kodi the Pomeranian puppy showing a little bit attitude during a training session.
And here he is at puppy school doing everything my wife asks of him. He’s a rock star at puppy school. When it is not his turn to do something he watches the other dogs and people closely. He’s taking it all in. I’m learning what it is like to have a dog smarter than I am.
And that’s a wrap this week for critters. I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out.
