Tag Archives: Woodward Park

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.)

Appeal to the Great Spirit

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.”

Shadow Shot Sunday – Saint Francis Edition

Our Health Club is part of Saint Francis Hospital here in Tulsa. The hospital has tons and tons of Francis imagery everywhere including going into the gym. I keep wanting to get a photo of him with Dallas Cowboys cap but I don’t want to trample the garden to get to him and my wife works there so I don’t to do any CLMs on her behalf (“Career Limiting Moves”)

Nothing makes better shadows than wrought iron. This example is at Woodward Park.

Oklahoma has lots of cool stories. In my opinion, one of the coolest is of the Five Moons. Five Indian Ballerinas from Oklahoma who achieved international acclaim for their dancing. Read more about them here. Above is Moscelyne Larkin.

So that is my Shadowy doings today. Check out Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Adventure Lab Geocaching at Tulsa’s Woodward Park

Those of you who have followed me for a while know that I am into geocaching where I search for hidden “caches” hidden by other people (and I have hidden a bunch also.) It’s a worldwide game with millions of caches in almost ever country. (Check out geocaching.com for more information.) An essential feature is that there is a container that is hidden. Well, that is not appropriate in a lot of places. Geocaching.com has added a new twist to the game that doesn’t require a hidden physical object to find.

I love Fall color and fallen leaves.

They have started something called “Adventure Labs” where one goes to particular places learns something about the place and answers a question. It is on a smartphone app that uses the GPS functionality of the phone to make sure that you are at the right place. Learn more Adventure Labs by clicking the hyperlink.

Dappled Sunlight is the Bomb

There are several Adventure Lab geocaches in Tulsa right now. The first one I attempted was at Woodward Park. A very old and very beautiful park in mid-Town Tulsa loaded with features such as gardens, ponds, a rose garden, Tulsa Garden Center, and so on. There are five steps to completing the cache. None of which are shown here lest I spoil someone’s experience. Attempting the lab cache I got to see all these sights though.

Woodward Park was built back in the 20’s I love the stone steps. I am sure that each violate hundreds of safety rules. I will tell you when they are wet they are as slippery as ice.

It took about an hour to complete the five steps. I could have done it quicker but it’s not a race, and I was in it for the experience. You have to be within a certain distance before it will let you see what the question is for a given area and your answer has to be exact. It was fun. I already knew the answers to most of the question and I learned some new stuff as well. There are conventional caches and this Adventure Lab cache both at the park now.

Last Blooms at the Tulsa Garden Center

So this is my nerd finding for the week. I was just glad to get out of the house after baby sitting contractors for two weeks!!

I am linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Our World – Tulsa’s Woodward Park

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Saturday, my wife Heather and I went to Tulsa’s Woodward Park. I wanted to check out the Azaleas. That’s Heather above with her hands on her hips like she is ready to do something. She is always ready to pitch in!

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The Azaleas were nice but not like last year but we loved it anyway. Above is a photo using my lensball. It is a spherical piece of glass that I keep in my car. It sure makes for nice photos, once I learned how to use it. One trick is that most of my photos with are inverted since it inverts the scene in front of it.

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Here is a two tone photo of Azaleas in the shade. I have learned how to do manual exposure and blah, blah, blah with my camera but I forgot to set the white balance to shade and it is hard (for me) to correct for that after the fact. Oh well, I’ll take it anyway.

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The Linnaeus Demonstration Gardens at Woodward Park had a butterfly garden. Heather had her notebook out and was making notes. I think we might have one in the near future.

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Woodward Park had some iris’s also. I love them!!

We saw lots of flowers, and stopped and chatted with a couple from out of town who asked about what to see in Tulsa. A great time was had by all!!

I am linking with with Our World Tuesday