A Pile of Seed Heads Blown by the Wind Against a Hangar

Winds swirled just right to make a neat pile against someone's hangar.

A Pretty Flight (Of Many)

Four Lakes Over Their Spillways

 Lake Arrowhead.

Lake Wichita.

Lake Diversion.

Lake Kickapoo.

Lucy Park Color

The Pumpkin Plummet at Wichita Valley Airport

Aircraft lined up on the ramp before the bombing begins.

Under a lovely sky, I walked across the field to photograph the pumpkin bombing target, a moped placed in the middle of a large yellow X. 

A charming moped serves as the target of the pumpkin bombing. In the distance, we can see the wind sock indicating a strong crosswind from the west. 

Closer view of the moped with the hangars in the background. 

I enjoyed walking around the target looking at the beautiful gourd flowers at my feet, and the beautiful sky above me. 

Pete pilots the Citabria as Jim, his bombardier, sits behind him, focussed on his task.

The Wichita Valley Airport every year hosts a charming event, the Pumpkin Plummet.

That Lovely Tree in Lucy Park, A Year Later

Pretty View Over the Fairway at the Creek

Fisherman on Misty Lake Kickapoo

Wichita River's High Flow

     With unusual situations comes a yearning for creativity, alongside one's curiosity. Camera and tripod in hand, I walked to some interesting locations along the Wichita River. Unusually large amounts of rain filled our lakes and rivers. The Wichita River climbed its banks a bit this week. The high level of water submerged plants and trees that had grown alongside it. In addition, it reached the suspension bridge that joins one side of the trail to another. Debris caught up on the bridge, and the flow frighteningly made it sag along the middle of it. I'm curious, though not like a cat, so the temptation to walk on the suspension bridge to approach the sagging middle did not overcome me, though I had thought about it a couple of times.

Flooded Path

Rainy On the Ramp

MyMrMallory checks the weather on his phone. Outside, Kevin walks briskly in the rain 

after checking his plane. 

A pilot and his wife enter the FBO, 

rushing from the rain. 

The beacon light turned, lit by the darkness. 

Nature Takes Over

An abandoned building on Highway 81, Oklahoma, surrounded by thistle and sunflowers.

Oil Field Mack Truck

To bring up the shadows I used a touch of HDR.

Clouds Over Attebury Grain Elevator As Seen from the Flyover

Sunflowers at Sharp Farms, Vernon

Sky Over Cessna and Wind Sock, Vernon

Storm Clouds Over Air Tractor

Storm Clouds Over Highway and Tank Batteries

Scissortail Flycatcher on Barbed Wire Fence

Fossils Near Mineral Wells

    In the early 1990s a borrow pit west of Mineral Wells closed for a remarkable reason. With the assistance of the Dallas Paleontological Society, the pit became a park, a source for all curious people to find fossils. Erosion inside the pit reveals corals, crinoids, echinoids, brachiopods, trilobites, and more, including shark teeth. The period in which the animals lived goes back 300 million years.  MyMrMallory and I had to take a look.

     Our bucket and pick at the top of the path that leads into the pit. In the background we can see the various sedimentary layers that line the walls.

Fossils abound in the pit, and we did not have to venture too far from the entryway to find them.

Favorite fossils found in the pit at the bottom of the path. 

Crinoids and brachiopods.