Shots from the past couple of rides, these were things that simply caught my eye. First up is actually a single root cluster of trees that are very old and huge, with boughs drooping to the ground in places.
This is a couple of crab apple trees in full bloom. The blossoms exude the unmistakable fragrance of apples, but when they grow, they’ll be just about berry size. Still, it was very pleasant just standing next to these things.
Crooked Oak Creek near Eagle Lake and near its mouth into the North Canadian River remains a favorite prayer chapel of mine. This is where I felt compelled to stop and pray three years ago, just moments before I shattered my knee cap. The anniversary of that is the 28th of this month.
Along the banks of that same creek is this dead tree. It’s been standing like this for several years, resisting the storms for the most part. Not much has been lost since I first saw it.
This is Kuhlman Creek, looking upstream where it crosses the Tinker AFB Golf Course. This creek stays wet all year because of the watering on the golf course.
This is the signature Oklahoma Redbud trees in full blossom alongside the bikeway out at Draper Lake. The colors can range from pale pink to deep burgundy, the latter being quite rare.
Spring is my favorite season, creation is at it’s most joyous. So, the 28th is three years, times flies. My brother turns 60 on the 28th, ha ha, I can’t laugh too much another 4&1/2 it’ll be mine. I like your pictures, I shake and have to use a tripod or brace real good. Old trees are my favorite place to have a heart to heart with God.
That giant old tree is the primary source of shade that makes this spot a great prayer chapel.
We used to have a crab apple tree in our side yard. Guess who was the one who had to collect the fallen apples and dump them in the woods out back?
That first photo of the cluster is downright strange. Looks like a Lovecraft creature emerging from the ground.
That cluster is some sort of elm, and that sort of crazy growth is common when the water table is high enough for them to withstand our fierce summers. It has grown there undisturbed for the better part of a century.
I the 1970’s, as a kid living in the old country, there where Giant, centuries old Elm trees. We had a communal 1&1/4″ thick Manila rope. The Elm grows in such a way that they made the perfect swing tree and I’m not talking backyard swings, these were Tarzan swings. They were so sturdy we could hold the rope and run along the wide bough, until the rope “pulled” you off and you did some serious swinging from one bough to another, where another kid would be waiting to leap. Hold out three fingers the ring was the launchpad the middle the pivot where the rope was secured and the index finger would be where the next kid would board (a “boardy”). We had all sorts of swing “techniques” . A lot of fun. Sadly, Dutch Elm Disease killed them all. English Oak worked too but, they didn’t have the spread of the Late Great Elm.
Sorry Generation A-minus, your techno-doodads can’t do anything close tothe fun I had, oh…I guess pre-16. Yeah, that’s about right. Kid’s today may enjoy a more affluent upbringing than their parents but, what is the real cost?