The neighborhood adjoining us has a “swan pond” complete with a black swan that chases off all the other waterfowl.
This is from my front yard looking to the west at sunset one day.
A volunteer group that I am a member of had a meeting a local brewery just out of downtown. Leaving I took this photo looking west toward downtown Tulsa and the setting sun.
This is a painting I found at our recent trip to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. It is “Home by the Lake” by Frederic Church. It’s a great skywatch painting.
Last week one day I started with a hike with a friend of mine on the Mooser Creek Greenway. A three mile double loop where we heard a ton of birds and saw no other people.
I went home, got cleaned up, and headed out to Tulsa County’s Chandler Park in far northwest Tulsa for a meeting with an environmental non-profit that I volunteer for. After the meeting I checked my phone for nearby geocaches and sure enough there was one about 60 feet away. It actually was not where the cache was but there is some information on the sculpture one needs to determine the coordinates. Which I did.
There was another cache nearby where there are a lot of cliffs. I’ve looked for it off and on over the years because I don’t want to be climbing rocks or trees. But I decided to take a different tack on finding it and so I went down to the Lost City Trail.
The lost city trail winds in and out of the cliffs and is just plain beautiful. A scene or two in the movie “Flowers of the Killer Moon” were shot in areas of the trail.
There are steep cliffs and overhangs and all sorts of interesting stuff.
I find doing the shots over my shoulder seem to show the height of the cliffs better than straight on shots. Maybe its the sense of scale works better.
The clue for the cache is that it is in a hole. You know how many holes are in that cliff face? A bunch!! None of which I want to stick my hand into without knowing that is there. I took photos of various holes, none of which yielded anything. So I continue in not finding this cache.
I also tried my hand a few caches along Route 66 as it goes through Tulsa. One of which was associated with this sculpture.
And another one associated with this sculpture right across the street from the Eagle sculpture. Route 66 for some reason has all sorts of various
And further east along US 66 there is another geocache associated with this plaque commemorating the first oil well drilled in Tulsa County. Tulsa used to be center of the oil industry in the United States and called themselves, “The Oil Capital of the World.”
So I had a pretty good time on a great day in some bright sunshine under clear skies.
Last Sunday morning, I attended Church of the Trees at Oxley Nature Center.
I saw the light right after I started. I loved the sun in the forest and I love the poem that a former “Artist in Residence” at Oxley wrote.
I love short poems. I really like the title of this one, “Sunfall.” There is a reason we need to have poets. They know what to call things, and how to describe them.
Found me a new favorite tree.
And instead of stained glass we had the light filtering through these leaves.
I loved the light on the trees bordering a water pipeline right of way in the park.
Last week I attended the funeral of former coworker. I was sad for him and his family but I also got to see a bunch of other coworkers who came to the services as well. Afterwards I felt like checking out some of the new attractions on Tulsa’s portion of the Route 66, aka, The Mother Road, or the America’s Main Street. Turns out America’s Main Street is on Eleventh Street in Tulsa.
For some reason a half mile stretch of Eleventh Street has been taken over by “Muffler Men.” Supersize fiberglass sculptures. I love them, they are so oversized and colorful, how can you not like them.
As you can read on the mural behind him, this is “Meadow Gold Mack.”
I don’t know what this gal’s name is but I like her. Quite fetching don’t you think.
I love all sorts of Route 66 attractions. You know what my favorite is? A very little known sign where Paul McCartney stopped in the 2000’s while driving Route 66. He stopped and knocked on the door of a farmhouse and asked for directions. Can you imagine Paul McCartney knocking on your door? He was driving a 1989 Ford Bronco so he had no GPS in his car. I found this sign as I was looking for a geocache.
It’s the hundredth anniversary of the Mother Road next year and Tulsa is at its epicenter. National Geographic has some great information.
Our Pomeranian, Kodi. A tiny little dog with big feelings!
Lizzy the cat, the matriarch of our pets. We have another dog, Sadie who never sits still. Lizzy is Sadie’s favorite squeaky toy.
A pig chef on Route 66 in Tulsa. I love the silliness of route 66 attractions.
And a retired carousel horse getting new life on Route 66. It’s ready to ride. I also love the metal cactus to the left. The 100th anniversary of Route 66 is next year I think. It’s going to be epic in Tulsa.
I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Check it out. All sorts of talented photobloggers participate.
Saturday we went to a local shopping center that was having an “Artist on the Square” event with a ton of artists distributing their wares including a family friend. It was hot but there was space was shady so it was tolerable.
From our vacation last month. A distant rain shower moving across the Gulf of Mexico.
And in the neighborhood here in Tulsa a colorful sunset.
And not photo, not my copyright, although somebody holds it. A jigsaw puzzle I finished earlier this week. The sky was a bugger on this one. I’m working on a sea turtle puzzle now. It’s really hard.
Over a week ago, several dozen trail lovers and various politicos gathered on Turkey Mountain to dedicate a new area. The Sanctuary with 88 acres (some sources say 90) and six miles of trails. The contractor has been working on the area since last fall and it is now fully opened up. It is on Turkey Mountain but across the street from the main area of the park.
The trails were built on land already owned by Tulsa RiverParks through a $2 million grant from the Daryl and Julie Christner Foundation. Above is a family representative talking about how his dad loved being outdoors. I saw him later leading a group of mountain bikers on the trails.
I was standing right next to Oklahoma’s Lieutenant Governer, Mike Pinell. Rather than take point blank photo, I took a picture of his cowboy boots. So I am on oil and gas twitter (or X if you must) and one of the ongoing things there, tongue in cheek, is that round toed boots are lame and square toed boots are cool. You can see he is wearing round toes. I elected not to call him out on that. (True confession, I have two pairs of square toe boots and one of round toes.) His big mission as lieutenant governor is publicizing and pushing Oklahoma and he does a good job of it.
He talked about how everybody is always welcome at Turkey Mountain. He also said that Tulsa is the most philanthropic city in America and how many public private partnerships go on here. He mentioned that Oklahoma has 34 sovereign nations within our borders (talking about the Native American tribes) and twelve ecosystems.
So the speeches were limited, and then everyone was invited to hike a quarter mile to treehouse for refreshments.
So off we went. I had a peanut butter cookie and chatted with a few people I knew.
That’s the heaviest duty treehouse I have ever seen.
I studied on the posted map a little bit and decided I was going to go on a hike.
I love the trails. They are all single track and some of them are pretty rocky. So you have to kind of pick your way carefully, especially if you are an old codger.
It was a bright sunny day, and there are lots of trees so there were lots of shadows.
I head lots of birds but they wouldn’t come out and sit still for a photo.
At one of the trail hubs I found this headboard. I was thinking. I have seen that before!!
I saw it in 2014 when this was all privately owned and some outlaw trail builders built their own trails on the property. Take a look to the left and behind the headboard.
It’s an oil well! A relic of Turkey Mountain’s past. It looked familiar as well.
So here is my wife and son at the same well eleven years ago.
So we were pioneers of the Sanctuary. Somebody got hurt crossing the road back to the main part of Turkey Mountain and the owners of the property posted it and so exploration of the property came to an end.
Enough of past history. I finished my hike and went through the moongate at the main entrance. I just love moon gates.
So a little over two miles. A friend and I hiked about three miles on a different route a few days later.
At least one Tulsa News Station had a crew there. Channel 6 news. Check the link for several videos.
It’s hot and humid in Oklahoma, USA these days. Yes, well it is July and that is what we get.
I don’t really mind it. We have air conditioning in our homes and cars and you just have to adjust your outdoor time accordingly and use precautions. Take water, use sunscreen, dress appropriately, (I wear a lot of tech fiber clothing that wicks perspiration away.) And try to do outdoors activities in the morning and very late afternoons.
And look out for your pets, they need lots of water and rest also.
So just get out and enjoy yourself and take lots of photos.
