The Sky Above My House

The Ansel Adams exhibit at Gilcrease has made me much more aware of the sky.

Epiphany

After the service, coffee and cookies - beautiful cookies!

Epiphany

Epiphany celebrates the visitation of the wise men (Magi) to the Christ child. A joint Episcopal/Lutheran Epiphany service was held at Bethany Lutheran Church. It was a service of lessons and carols and was a lovely service.

Borders on 21st St.

Sue likes to buy books in bookstores. I like to look in bookstores and buy them at a discount online. It is tough for brick and morter stores to compete.

Borders on 21st St.

Sue is looking for something for her mother to read and I am tagging along. I can waste an endless amount of time in a good bookstore.

Ansel Adams at Gilcrease

Gilcrease has a wonderful permanent collection of Western and Native American art. We will come back and share that soon.

Ansel Adams at Gilcrease

We had a nice lunch in the restaurant.

Ansel Adams at Gilcrease

Also on display were some of Adams' large and small format cameras. I wanted to get a better picture of the exhibit area but every photograph had a crowd in front of it. We should have gone out earlier when it was not so crowded. Ah well, I met some interesting people.

Ansel Adams at Gilcrease

This is the start of the exhibit. There were so many people there it was hard to see. There was a long queue which snaked around the exhibit.

Ansel Adams at Gilcrease

Gilcrease Museum has had a fine exhibit of Ansel Adams photographs for several months and we waited until the last day to see it. So did a lot of people because there was a large crowd there.

This statue is at the entrance of the museum. Sacred Rain Arrow by sculptor Alan Houser.

Home Again

The critters are hungry.

New Year Plus One

It is time to return home. Smokey would like to drive but has no license. We have had a very nice holiday.

New Year Plus One

Sue has made herself at home in our kitchen and cooked a nice breakfast for us. Yesterday we had black eyed peas to bring us luck in the new year.

New Year Plus One

It is Friday morning and the wild turkeys are back just outside our window. They really are handsome birds, blue head, red wattles, and colorful bronze plumage. The big males have a tuft of hair-like feathers like a beard hanging over their chest. Because they are native to this country, Benjamin Franklin wanted to name them our national bird but the Bald Eagle won out.

New Year's Day 2009

Stone steps lead from the rear entrance down to look out at the river.

New Year's Day 2009

This is the main rear entrance of the lodge. The facility is available to rent for special events. Now I am looking for an excuse to come here.

New Year's Day 2009

The view from the promenade looks down the length of the Arkansas River. This is the same Arkansas River that runs a block away from our house in Tulsa. Smokey was very interested in all this.

New Year's Day 2009

The interior of the lodge is a great hall for meetings, banquets, and dances. Along the outside are several sets of doors where one might step outside onto a long promenade for a breath of fresh air. The promenade looks out over the Arkansas River.

New Year's Day 2009

Greenleaf Lodge has an interesting history. Built in 1937 by the WPA as part of the Greenleaf Recreation Area, it was attached by the U.S. Army as part of Camp Gruber and was used as an officer's club while the installation was greatly expanded during world war II. Camp Gruber was used as a training camp, then later as a Prisoner of War camp for German soldiers captured during Rommel's campaign in North Africa.

The German soldiers were housed and fed in equivalent facilities as the American serviceman who went through training here. They were used to do construction on facilities and roads in the camp and surrounding area. Compared to the conditions they suffered in North Africa as German soldiers, they considered themselves very fortunate to be interred in this picturesque countryside.

For a more complete history of Camp Gruber as a POW camp look Look HERE

Many found themselves on friendly terms with the American citizens they encountered during their confinement and looked back on this period as a positive experience. A surprising number of these men returned years later with wives and children to see where they spent the final years of the war.

For a related article from the Tulsa World, Look HERE

New Year's Day 2009

Looking down to the lake from in front of our cabin.