Tag Archives: Woodward Park

Woodward Park Skies and a Moon

I was loving the light and the reflections

My son not only has a BA in History, last summer he finished a certificate program to be a paralegal. He is working his way through the formal certification tests and has been looking for a job as a paralegal.

Oklahoma Fall Color is a lot of yellows and browns.

He got a call asking for him to interview a law firm in mid town Tulsa for a paid intern paralegal job. So at the appointed time I drove him to the firm and then headed out to nearby Woodward Park to wander around, see what I can see, and maybe take a few photos.

Stumbled on a wedding going on. I wish them a long and fulfilling marriage.

It was late in the day, the sun was low and the shadows were long and it was a beautiful Oklahoma autumn day. Autumn here lasts ridiculously long.

Got me a silhouette

So I wandered around doing my thing and when I was about finished, son called and said he was done. I picked him up and he said the interview went well and they would let him know in a few days.

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They came through with a full time, paid, temporary intern job at a salary about 50% higher than the box store job that he has. So of course he said yes.

The sculpture is Rosalind Cook. A very talented artists who is retired and lives in Tulsa. This is named “Poems and Promises” and was a gift from Ms. Cook and her husband to the City of Tulsa.

Monday morning my wife took him to work and I picked him up at the end of the day. I have picked him up after work countless times over the years and he never had the big smile that he had that day. He had a great first day. He was nervous at first but his training kicked in. He had such a sense of accomplishment.

I don’t know who the artist is for this work but this little lady is going to get pretty frosty this winter. I have photos of her with a robe made of snow.

His boss sent him an email saying he did well.

Appeal to the Great Spirit. I have been posting a lot recently of this sculpture. I love it even though it is controversial to some degree for cultural misappropriation. I’m pretty “woke” especially for Oklahoma but sometimes a scupture is a sculpture.

His second day went well also.

I fired up my Hyperspektiv App and made a glitchy video of the work. I kind of like it.

Who knows where this is going, they only promised a temporary job, but for now his Mom and I are happy just enjoying the work he is doing.

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It kind of looks like a skinned grapefruit.

And here is that moon I promised you. The full Beaver Moon shot a few days ago in my back yard.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday

Saturday’s Critters – In and Out Edition

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Here’s a sculptural critter, some sort of heron I think at the Linnaeus Demonstration Gardens.

And another artistic critter. This little girl on the back of a turtle at the Tulsa Botanic Garden.

I hardly ever use my drone for critter photography and this is “Appeal to the Great Spirit” at Woodward Park. I used my drone to get a different perspective on this sculpture.

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In the backyard I got this squirrel getting his photo taken.

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And a bunny out past 3 am.

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And this leaping squirrel.

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And some birds buzzing the backyard on a high speed low altitude run.

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And these guys going for suet feeder.

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And a Canadian Goose at Woodward Park contemplating the pros and cons of staying vs migrating.

I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters

Shadow Shot Sunday – Appeal to the Great Spirit

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A shadow of a sculpture in Tulsa’s Woodward Park

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Appeal to the Great Spirit sculpture by Cyrus Dallin.

The sculpture has an interesting history. Their are lots of copies out in the world. The original is at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Read the Wikipedia Article.

I have 27 photos of this sculpture in my archives. I feel drawn to it whenever I visit Woodward Park. These photos are from 2014.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Geese, a Turtle, and Other Critters

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A wedge of Geese at Tulsa’s Woodward Park. (I just love the various collective nouns for the different kinds of birds.)

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Also at Woodward Park, an equestrian sculpture, “Appeal to the Great Spirit.” It used to be at high school in Tulsa that got torn down. Fortunately it was saved. The original was by Cyrus Dallin in 1909 and is on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Art.

A bison mural I found while working an Adventure Lab Geocache.

And I was in a creek bottom in south Tulsa replacing a geocache that went missing when this guy showed up to see what was going on. Usually I see snakes in this area, never any venomous snakes just rat snakes but no snakes today. I would rather see turtles.

I’m linking with Eileen’s Saturday’s Critters. Go check it out!!

Skywatch Friday – First Flowers of Spring

I headed up to Tulsa’s Wooward Park to see if the Daffodils were blooming.

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And oh, man!! They sure were blooming. The blooms were fresh and people hadn’t picked them, yet.

They were beautiful. There were a couple of young women sitting in amongst them (they were carefully making sure they were not trampling photos) and taking selfies. Usually I take photos of all people doing selfies but I left them alone to enjoy the flowers. They were probably taking photos of me and posting about the creepy old guy lurking about.

They also had lots of hyacinths.

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And tulips

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They had forsythia shrubs blooming

And rebuds. I’ve always loved that stone staircase.

The big trees don’t have their leaves yet.

And they still have remnants of trees knocked down on during our Father’s Day Windstorm in 2023.

So yep, Spring is Springing in Woodward Park!

I am linking with Skywatch Friday

Redbud Skies and More

Several days ago I was on Turkey Mountain checking out the Monarch Waystation. I water it when needed but it hasn’t needed a drink in weeks with all the rain and cool weather we have been having. I sowed some native prairie seeds a couple months ago and I was trying to see if any of them were coming up.

I don’t know a thing about wildflowers, and it looked like a bunch of weeds coming up to me. I guess that may be what some people call wildflowers. It may take a few more weeks and somebody who knows what they are looking to see if we are successful or not.

And then I ventured down the paved path and hung a right on the dirt road to the redbud grove. It is beautiful a whole hillside covered with redbuds. There are lots of the trees around town but I don’t know of any that are all together like this.

And then I ventured on the new Lo Chi trail. The old one was cool but kind of frustrating because it was an out and back along the base of the east side of the Mountain. I hate out and backs so I would do what other people did, climb up the side of the mountain to another trail. I’m too old for that foolishsness now.

And there is no need, the trail builders have made a loop out of with all sorts of cool switchbacks and other features to make it fun. You can enter and exit at different spots from the paved trail. Loops are fun, out and backs are boring.

So back on the paved trail I took a shot of the railroad tracks on the base of Turkey Mountain, next to the Arkansas River. They have only one customer now, a big Kimberly Clark Plant. So every once in a while, you can see a freight trail lumbering slowly along these rails. I am not a railroad expert at all but I would not think that these sketchy rails, ties, and roadbed could handle much of a load.

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And then fast forward to Tulsa’s Woodward Park. The flowering is disappointing this year for whatever reason but one could find nice groupings here and there.

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So it was worth going to but I wouldn’t travel far to see it.

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The tulips looked nice in the overcast late day. I think they are almost at the end.

Tuesday we had dramatic skies in Tulsa so I made this low key photo.

Monday I rode my back on the RiverParks trails. My north turnaround was the Route 66 Sign Park. I took photos and then used the circular app on my iphone to twist them on top of themselves. I love this kind of stuff.

I did another one and it looked like a hot air balloon.

And I have been doing more jigsaw puzzles on my ipad. I love it. So these are not my photos.

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I loved this one but it was booger bear. I worked from the inside out. I started at the steering wheel and moved outward. I put on the edge pieces as I found them but I didn’t stress about it.

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I loved this one. It was a lot easier with the brightly colored sail and the stratified colors. On this one I started with the sails and the bright green sea.l

So that is it this week for Skywatch for me. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Shadow Shot Sunday – Floral Hand Shadows

A few evenings ago I ventured out to Tulsa’s Woodward Park to check out the azaleas, tulips, and other plantings they have there. I decided to do something dumb that I do from to time. I pulled out my phone and fired up the Hipstamatic App and did some double exposures.

First I hold my hand up to the sky and snap the first shot and then point the camera at something floral and snap the second shot. The flowers fade out in the sun but come out in the dark shadow of the hand.

So I am sure that people were wondering what I was doing but you know, that’s their deal. You do you, people, and I’ll do me.

I may have carried it too far. I don’t know.

I had fun with it though.

For great shadows, check out the Magical Mystery Teachers Shadow Shot Sunday.

Autumn Colors at Woodward Park

Tuesday was a very warm day here in Tulsa. After my yoga class I headed up close to downtown to Woodward Park. Lots and lots of trees here and tons of fall color. So I just wandered around.

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I stopped by the Five Moons, Oklahoma’s Native American ballerinas. In the last century these five women, Maria Tallchief, Marjorie Tallchief, Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, and Moscylene Larkin were at the top of the ballet world. Hit the link above to find out more. The sculptures are actually on the grounds of the Tulsa History Museum which is adjacent to Woodward Park.

I also stopped by “Appeal to the Great Spirit” to check him out. I love this sculpture. It used to be in a local high school until they tore the school down and the statue was moved to Woodward Park.

Lots of brilliant fall color on disply.

I love this blast of yellow as seen from the shadows.

A similar effect here.

And here is shrub bursting with sunlight.

Stopped by my favorite sculpture of all time. “Poems and Promises” by Rosalind Cook. I used the Hipstamatic and Snapseed App on this.

By now I was getting hungry and I was close to downtown so I headed off to the Arts District.

I got some coneys from James Coney Island. It’s been in Tulsa for over a hundred years. I get them with cheese, chili, and onions and add a healthy splash of hot sauce and pepper them chili powder. Don’t knock it until you try it.

They sky was clear Tuesday night so I took this shot. It’s the Beaver Moon at 93% waxing gibbous so not quite full.

I hope everybody is having a great week!! I”ll be linking with Skywatch Friday, come check it out!!

Our World – Springing in the Rain

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It was a wet soggy day here in eastern Oklahoma on Sunday. I felt the need to go take some photos so I loaded up my camera and drone and in search of photos to take. I found these trees blooming at the Tulsa’s Woodward Park. I love the blooms, don’t tell me what they are because I was too lazy to wander over and look at the labels under each tree.

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Next I got a few minutes of non-rain at the RiverParks. It was wet and soggy and the Arkansas River was up quite a bit.

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Got this glimpse of a guy doing what I should have been doing, running on trails. Maybe next time.

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Instead, here is me standing on the trail, in the rain. If I’d of waited a couple of hours, the sun would have been out. Kind of reminds of an old joke but I’ll spare you.

I’m linking with Our World Tuesday today. Come join in!!

And a musical interlude, with Gene Kelly, Singing the Rain. I couldn’t find “Drone Piloting in the Rain.”