Halloween

Road to the Prairie

October




 

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Golden Delicious

We've just had a taste of fall weather, but its in the air.  All the things I love about it, marathon training, colorful foliage, sweaters, cider, come back to me.  This image from a past year reminds me of how invigorated all creatures are this change of season. 

Eyes on the Prize

Rodeo Bull

An Unguarded Moment

Untitled

Action

Tulsa State Fair

The harbinger of fall, the Tulsa State Fair, opened on September 30.  After a summer that delivered triple digit heat in higher numbers (114 degrees) and longer duration (over a month except for a one day break) than anything I've ever experienced, it seems a dream that fall is finally here. 

For the last four months I have been a slave to the weather.  Running in the pre-dawn hours to escape the heat and sunlight, watering my plants and garden religiously, dealing with the jungle of my back terrace (weeds of every description, voluntary trees, and poison ivy), Asplundh coming into my back yard and cutting down three of my shade trees because they have grown too close to the power lines, and resigning myself to living in constant air conditioning, has made me want to move further north and have a smaller eco-footprint.  Deal with different weather problems.  I haven't been to the Tallgrass Prarie at all this summer.  I can't even imagine how the bison have dealt with the intense heat in their shadeless landscape.

Then, just as incredibly, after three months without rain or respite, the temperature dropped suddenly into the eighties and stayed there.  As I ran my usual route in the dim light, I felt chilled by the cooler weather.  I picked up my pace to stay warm.  I caught my first cold in years.

So, I was excited by the prospect of breaking my photography hiatus with the Tulsa State Fair.  Picking up my 7D with a 50mm lens on the front, I went to the fairgrounds around noon Saturday, October 1.  Thousands of trucks and cars, semis used to haul animals and equipment, communication dishes and trucks, all were parked in the fairgrounds parking lot.  Additional  land had been cleared to provide parking on smooth, clean, packed ground.  And a charming shuttle wagon hauled by a giant truck provided transportation to the front gates.  All for free: parking and shuttle.  Entry into the fairgrounds was only $10 for adults, small children enter free.  

OMG.  The Tulsa State Fair has to be the best fair in the world.  There are rides galore, food venues of every stripe and then some, and then there are the animals.  Seriously, how often do you see an animal that weighs TONS, is spotlessly cleaned and groomed, and docile enough to be petted?  And there are whole arenas full of them.  They put all the white cattle together, all the red cattle together, all the black cattle together, and all the fantastically spotted Belgian Blue cattle together.  New mothers are displayed with their calves.  It is pretty unbelievable.  People are super friendly.

Well, I've probably said too much.  A picture is worth....etc.  Here are a few of mine.