Weekend Black & White - Philbrook Garden

Upper level of terrace above gardens and water feature behind Philbrook mansion..

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Skywatch Friday - Thunderhead

It brought us rain.

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Thursday Challenge - Wet

The gardens behind Philbrook Art Museum are beautiful at any time of year.  I spent a relaxing afternoon today with my camera.

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Wednesday Doors - Garden Conservatory

The Tulsa  Garden Center is located just south of Woodward Park near 21st Street and South Peoria Avenue.  Behind the mansion is a lovely victorian conservatory containing tropical exotics and beautiful orchids.  It is worth a visit.

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Ruby Tuesday - Tuberous Begonia

I was in Southwoods nursery last weekend and took a few photos.  Tuberous begonias come in an amazing variety of colors.  I am always seduced by their beauty but bring them home only to watch them curl up and die.  They are a bit too fussy for my garden.

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Macro Monday - Pipevine Swallowtail

Here is another Pipevine Swallowtail. They are the most numerous butterfly in my garden just now and therefore are the most often photographed.  Like many butterflies the pattern of the upper surface of the wings is different than the underside.

From above the upper wings are black and the lower wings are black with an iridescent blue or blue-green sheen and a border of white dots.  The degree of iridescence depends on the angle of the light falling on the surface.

The underside is dark with 7 orange dots along the border of the lower wings.  A better view of the underside can be seen in my Macro Monday for last week.  Although numerous, the pipevine swallowtail is a challenge to photograph because they just won't hold still.  They flit from flower to flower and when they stop to feed on nectar they continue to flutter their wings.

When I was a kid in high school many of my friends lived on farms or ranches in the area.  Many of these kids were in the 4H club and had interesting projects.  I would like to have tried to raise a lamb or calf to show at the fair but had no place to keep it in town.  So my interest gravitated to an entomology project and I began to collect insects.  Over the 3 years of participating I constructed paraphernalia to catch and mount the many varieties of insects and display them in glass topped cases.  The end result was entered in the fair to compete for prizes.  After all these years I find myself stalking butterflies again, this time with a camera instead of a net.  I can tell you that it is easier to catch a butterfly with a net than it is to get close enough to snap its picture.

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Black & White Weekend - Linnaeus Teaching Garden

Carl Linnaeus (1707 - 1778) is considered to be the father on modern botany. The Tulsa Garden Center has dedicated a teaching garden to him. It is a treasury of clever ideas for those of us who love to putter in our home gardens.

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Skywatch Friday - Sky over Lake Taneycomo

From our weekend in Branson Missouri last May.

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Thursday Challenge - Blue

When in Santa Fe a few years ago we admired this urn inlaid with turquoise.  Beautiful but a bit too pricey. All I could afford was a photo.

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Wednesday Doors - St Thomas Church

The New Life Family Church is located at 2101 N. Peoria in what was originally an Episcopal church.

The congregation of St Thomas Episcopal was created in 1926 to serve the African-Americans living in north Tulsa.  By 1931 they had constructed this rustic church in the gothic style.  It became the church home of many of Tulsa's prominent black families.  In 1952 another Episcopal church formed a few miles further north.  St Mark's was understood to serve the white community on the far north side. The two churches operated independently until the late 1960s when both congregations were suffering from declining finances and attendance.  Diocesan Bishop Chilton Powell suggested that if the two congregations did not merge then neither would likely survive.  In 1968 the two became St Aidens and located in what was St Marks.  After some initial adjustments St Aidens is still alive and well and has developed a number of programs that serve the community.  For a more complete history of this congregation look HERE.

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Ruby Tuesday - Nissan Sentra

The new cars have such a thick coat of clear coating over the color coat that they look "wet".  Very pretty.

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Macro Monday - Pipevine Swallowtail

Butterflies seem to love my big zinnias.  That's why I plant them.

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Black & White Weekend - Cherokee School, Turley

Turley is a small community on the north edge of Tulsa.  It has one school, a combined elementary and Junior High School that was built in 1920 with art deco elements, and functioned as a kind of community center.  Because of declining enrollment the school was closed last year and the students transferred to Greeley Elementary in nearby Tulsa.  It left a hole in the community.


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Skywatch Friday - Exit to Riverside

Two streets north and I'm home.

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Thursday Challenge - Wood

What better way to conserve the wood from a dying tree than to sculpt it into a pair of wild horses.  The chain saw sculptor is Richard Quick of Spavinaw, Oklahoma.

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Wordless Wednesday - This Charming Couple

- are 2 of the nicest people in the world.  Sue's brother Alan and his wife Virginia.  We love 'em.

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Ruby Tuesday - Red Lantana

Lantana comes in a variety of colors from pale yellow to pink to orange to bright red.  Many have blooms that are mixtures of these colors.  They stand up well to summer heat and seem irresistible to a wide variety of butterflies and other winged creatures.  I have them in a number of places and they are doing great in all locations.  Planted in spring they bloom all summer and grow to a surprising size bu late fall when frost knocks them down.  It is a standard in my garden.

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Macro Monday - Look Me in the Eye

This little guy is not afraid of anything, least of all an old guy with a camera.  There are a gazillion different Skippers and to be honest I don't recognize this fellow.  I do know that he's partial to zinnias

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Black & White Weekend - Expo Center

Expo Center in the Tulsa Fairgrounds is an enormous open space of 448,000 square feet of which 354,000 square feet is column free space. This typically is the venue for large trade shows: the Boat show, the Home and Garden show, and others. Several corporations have paid for naming rights over the year,. It has been the Quik Trip Center, and currently is officially the River Spirit Center, but everyone still calls it the Expo Center. It's big.

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Skywatch Friday - Sky over Prairie

The Tallgrass prairie covered 170 thousand acres at one time over the central plains.  Now the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is a partnership between the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy and covers 11 thousand acres in Kansas and Oklahoma.

The first time I was up in the Tallgrass Prairie was in the early 1990's when Freewheel, the week long across the state bicycle ride went through Pawhuska and then north to Kansas.  I stopped on top of a rise and looked out across the prairie and watched the wind move the grass in long waves like green water.  If you have the time drive through there.  It's beautiful.

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Thursday Challenge - Fire

Twelve days after Christmas is the festival of the Epiphany which celebrates the coming of the Magi, the "wise men" who followed the star that led to the baby Jesus. It is the custom of many Episcopal churches to mark this occasion with a bonfire made from all the trees and greenery left over from the Christmas season.

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Wednesday Doors - Price Tower

The Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma is Frank Lloyd Wright's tallest structure at 19 floors and 221 feet.  For details look here.  It is one of three Wright buildings in Oklahoma along with two residences, one in Bartlesville and another in Tulsa.

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Ruby Tuesday - Dodge Ram Crew Cab

Here in Oklahoma we like our Pick-em-up Trucks.  This 4 door Dodge Ram Crew Cab will haul the material for a job and 4 folks to do the work.  Or on Saturday it can carry the family to a ball game.

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Macro Monday - Bull Thistle

Sue and I drove up to the Tallgrass Preserve on Saturday to admire the view.  By this time of year the prairie is usually dry and brown but this year is lush and green.  The buffalo were grazing up to their bellies and looked fat and happy.  Bull Thistle is often found growing next to the road.  It blooms purple then dries to a brownish gray.  This year the seed pods themselves are purple.  I don't recall seeing this much color before.  I read that the stalks and root of the plant are edible and provide food for rabbits and deer.  Those critters have tougher mouth parts than I do.

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Black & White Reflections - Spirit Center

The front entrance of the Spirit Event Center seen from the inside.  We were there a few weeks ago for an all-tribe Powwow.

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Skywatch Friday - Full to the Brim

The Arkansas River is full from bank to bank - for a change.

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Thursday - Animals

Buffalo Cow, Tallgrass Prairie, north of Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

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Wordless Wednesday - All-Tribe Powwow

Oklahoma was Indian Territory before it was a state.  There are still a lot of us around.

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Ruby Tuesday - Double Delight

Double Delight is a great hybrid tea rose.   It's both beautiful  and has a rich fragrance.  This one has been thriving in a large stone pot on my deck behind the house for the past 6 years.

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Macro Monday - Swallowtails

The Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly feeding on nectar from wildflowers along the Arkansas River.  See Wikipedia.

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Black & White Reflections - Corner Cafe

The Corner Cafe, 53rd and South Peoria.

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Skywatch Friday - CityPlex Towers

The former ORU City of Faith from across the Arkansas River in Jenks.  Tulsa has had an abundance of rain this summer.  As a result the river is filled bank to bank for the length of it.  After the terrible drought of the past 2 summers we are due some rain.  Everything is lush and green.  Wait, that might be Yogi.  (Just kidding)

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Thursday Challenge - Blue

The great blue whale of Catoosa. For more see HERE.

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Wordless Wednesday - Mini Sopapillas

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Ruby Tuesday - Red Hibiscus

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Macro Monday - Blue-fronted Dancer

Blue-fronted Dancer damselfly, Arkansas River, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Black & White Reflections - Cloud Gate, Chicago

Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The sculpture and AT&T Plaza are located on top of Park Grill, between the Chase Promenade and McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink. Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons). For more, see Wikipedia.

By the way, the girl whose reflection is looking at us in the first photo is our granddaughter Moira, age 7.  To me, her reflection appears to be flying to us out of the bean.  The photo was taken by our 13 year old grandson Will.  The bottom photo was taken by his 15 year old sister Molly.  Photography seems to run in the family.

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Macro Monday - Wren and Horsey

My granddaughter Wren on her very own horsey.  A little girl on a miniature horse should qualify for a macro monday photo.


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Black & White Reflection - Fox River

Fox River, Saint Charles, Illinois.  Nice photo Sue.

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Skywatch Friday - Pottawatomie Park

Pottawatomie Park Pavillion, St Charles, Illinois.  Susan had a family gathering up in Chicago last week and came  back with some terrific photos.

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