Going from the museum to the gardens provided these geometric shadows.
A view across the relaxing and shady gardens to the Tempietto
At the tempietto, a couple relaxing inside, and a dogwood tree outside.
Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates.
I am linking with Shadow Shot Sunday
I visited the Philbrook Gardens here in Tulsa and found a couple of butterflies. I love it when I can capture them feeding from flowers.
A Gulf Fritillary butterfly feeding from a zinnia flower at the Philbrook Gardens.
A Buckeye Butterfly feeding on globe amaranth at the Philbrook Gardens.
I am linking with Saturday’s Critters
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.
I am linking with My Corner of the World.
Sharp Shadows from a bench on a sunny day.
Complex Patters on a swing
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.
The tempietto is the centerpiece of the garden at Philbrook Museum.
A former oil baron’s mansion that he gave to the city to Tulsa way back when.
The pond in front of the tempietto used to be the swimming pool for the residence. A changing room was underneath the tempietto
Linking with Shadow Shot Sunday 2.
I was at Tulsa Philbrook Museum Gardens checking out the fall foliage when I noticed some crystal balls hanging in one of the trees. So I went to check them out.l
They had hung all these balls in the lower branches. I loved them. I think they are for the Christmas holidays.
I had my lensball with me so I made a crystal photo of a crystal. I love garden decorations.
I’m linking with Weekend Reflections. Come check it out!
The tempietto at Philbrook has to be the most photographed thing in town. I’ve taken a bunch myself. Back when the Waite Phillips family lived here way back when, the pond was a swimming pool and supposedly there was a changing room underneath the tempietto.
The pond makes for some nice reflections.
I love all the flowers at Philbrook.
On another water body, Crow Creek, which winds through the property, there are lots of turtles.
And another flowers.
An invitation to look for a stone flower.
There it is!!
Stumbled upon the secret garden. The restaurant at Philbrook uses it for growing herbs and such.
It was too early to catch the change of color in the trees. Almost as good is this installation. “Oklahoma Autumn” by Eric Baker. It’s my favorite sculpture in the garden. There are two other pieces of this off to the right.
They got a lot of stuff in the 25 acres of gardens. Over 1200 trees and fifteen sculptures. I wonder if somebody is in charge of the tree count?
I’m linking with Our World Tuesday. Give it a try!
Sunday morning the family got up and Logan had breakfast and we dropped him off at his job at the Neighborhood Walmart and Heather and I went to have breakfast. Afterward we headed out to Tulsa’s Philbrook Museum of Art to check out their newest exhibit “Innovative Expressions” which turned out to be very academic but interesting. It showcased the printmaking art of Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, and Camille Pissarro. I learned some things that I didn’t know before. I didn’t take any photos though. Check it out if you are in town. It is open until September 9.
After the exhibit we toured the three levels of galleries. It doesn’t take us long as we have been there many times before so seeing the art is like meeting old friends. Philbrook does a good job of swapping things out and so we always see things we hadn’t seen before. I love Thomas Moran’s “Grand Canyon” (above).
And this one is a favorite of mine. I am from New Mexico and too me nothing beats snow on adobe like this, “Tesuque (Dark Houses)” by Theordore Van Soelen. It is also special because when I was born my family was living the Tesuque Ranger Station.
This is one that I don’t remember seeing but Heather told me that it has been on display before. So meet my new friend, “Bridge over the Stour” by Childe Hassam. I love it.
Next we went to the gardens of the museum. It had been raining earlier but then settled into a very light sprinkle. The tempietto in the background may be the most photographed item in Tulsa. I think it is beautiful. I’m always trying to think of something new so here I focused on the flowers which caused the tempietto to soften. You can tell there is a person on the other side of the pond who is way out of focus.
It is my lovely wife, Heather. The gardens at Philbrook are especially lush this time of year. Their gardening staff really works hard keeping things tidy and green.
I spotted a purple coneflower.
Another area of the gardens that I liked.
We had a great leisurely couple of hours at Philbrook. It is a great place to get away from it all for a short time. If you plan on visiting check their web site for all sorts of information for days and hours of operation, special exhibits, events and all sorts of other information.
