From back in December, my therapy cat Lizzy found a sun puddle upstairs and was taking full advantage. She looks a little grumpy I think because I didn’t give her a chance to groom herself. She hates bedraggled photos of herself.
We got a little bit of snow last night. When I got up this morning, the light was a golden color and I needed a shadow so I went captured this shot of a chair shadow.
The other day we had a lot of fog in the neighborhood, and I liked the way the streetlight near our house looked so I attempted an artsy shot to capture what it looked like. I didn’t really succeed in what I was trying but I liked the shot anyway.
The streetlight cast a shadow I hadn’t even noticed when I took the shot. It made a shadow out of the adjacent stop sign. So even though I didn’t get what I was wanting, I am happy with the shadow I captured.
Also with shadows, today is Groundhog Day. We don’t have a groundhog but we got two chunky critters. Kodi,
And Lizzy,
They both saw their shadow. So I guess that we are going to have six more weeks of winter. You folks in the southern hemisphere, I guess you get six more weeks of summer, I don’t know how that works.
This ivy (or whatever it is) at Tulsa’s Guthrie Green provides some cooling shade in the summer from Oklahoma’s brutal sun and heat. In the winter it provides some shadows.
A short distance away a bamboo fence (or whatever it is) provides a green all year screen between a parking lot and the sidewalk.
You can tell I know all about plants!! Never had a lesson!
When I worked in downtown Tulsa I would walk by these windows every so often. I thought they were marvelous. I always wanted to see what they looked like from the inside but that never happened. Oh well.
I have a flag that I keep in the hall closet and try and fly it on all the National Holidays and several select days such as election days and such. So on Veterans Day in the US back in November I put it up. I thought it made for a nice shadow.
The first day of the year is a big deal for hikers and geocachers. I went to a private park to find a first day geocache. And I got a “souvenir.”
I went looking for another geocache close by. The area it is in is a mess.
Lots of spray can graffiti. I hate it the colorful mess.
It is quite popular. I found the cache but I cannot count it.
It was way up in a tree. Do you see the black tube at the top of the photo. In year’s past I would go ahead and climb the tree. I could probably do it now but I am 69 years old and the penalty for falling could be bad. (Maybe I couldn’t climb the tree. My orthopedic doc says I need a complete new right knee. Soon, I am going to enlist my wife to come with me to go visit him and get it scheduled.) So I can’t count it as a find because to do that you have to open the container and sign the log. I’m kind of a stickler for that.
I went on a first day hike as well. I went on a one mile loop at Turkey Mountain. The trail was named by the Muskogee Creek Tribe. I am not sure what it means.
Winter is a time for either no shadows during long periods of heavily overcast days or long shadows. I love the long shadows of winter.
I went for a walk near the new Zink Dam and Williams Crossing Bridge on the Arkansas River. There was a long bridge shadow on the water. Don’t remember too many water shadows.
The playgrounds that are busy when it is warmer are empty in the winter. This looks like a fun place to play. The ground surface is ultra spongey to keep little ones from getting hurt.
I walked over the Gathering Place and checked the shadows out there as well.
I am wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year 2025!!
This view of Christmas lights on our house is from ten years ago. I am impressed with my energy and ambition from back then and lack of respect for gravity. I put up old school bulbs and “icicle lights” on our gutters and the roof peaks. Those are old school bulbs so one could only put string together strands of three or so. I’m a chemical engineer, not electrical, so the strand limitation made for some strange geometry with extension wires and such. These days with the led’s, you can put as many strings as you want in series. And now, I don’t get up on ladders, period. Me and gravity are not friends, never were really. So if I can’t reach it from the ground I don’t worry about it.
I’m really bad about diverging. Sorry, I like the intricate shadows that the lights along with the tree shadows on this photo. December 2024 was a lousy month for shadows with all the overcast skies we’ve had so I reached deep back into my archives.
I continue to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year.
During a recent hike on the YMCA owned portion of Turkey Mountain I noticed that they had new trail signs. (I also noticed that I had grown taller and skinnier, I should hike more often in the late afternoon!) So I said to myself, hmm and looked on the other side of the sign.
It looks like Boy Scout Troop 20 had something to do with sign. Way to go guys (and gals as the BSA takes girls now.)
A very Merry Turkey Mountain Trail Christmas to all who celebrate the holiday.