the color purple

Lower Mountain Fork River
Broken Bow, Oklahoma
June 2017

"Listen, God love everything you love - and a mess of stuff you don't. But more than anything else, God love admiration.

You saying God vain? I ast.

Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

What it do when it passed off. I ast.

Oh, it make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about But any fool living n the world can see it always trying to please us back."

- Alice Walker, The Color Purple

crossing borders

Crossing the Red River with Lake Texhoma in the distance
Oklahoma/Texas State Line
September 2016

What a spectacular send-off this morning as I make my way to Orlando to meet the crew and guests for TCS World Travel's Around the World by Private Jet Expedition. I'll join two other expedition staff and 80 guests for an eight-country journey around the world - ending back in Orlando 23 days later. This expedition marks TCS's 250th jet trip. Stay tuned as the destinations are unveiled one at a time.

Somewhere in Texas

time to go home

Lake Coeur d'Alene
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
September 2016

Fall arrives to this part of the world without much fanfare. A warm autumn wind whips the water into a frenzy. Clouds move like passing freight trains bound for more distant places - parting at just the right moment for a blazing sun to cast copper shadows at days end. The pine trees sigh as the temperature cools. How do I bottle this and bring it home to my cast iron forest still battling hot days and jungle heat despite what the calendar says? Where I live, its a waiting game. Every living thing is seemingly lifeless and immobile - refusing to move until summer moves on - waiting for that freight train of clouds to pass through delivering the cool breezes and damp skies that will bring life back to the prairies. Summer is now an unwelcome guest who has overstayed his visit. It's time to go home.

instagram 2015 best nine

2015 Instagram Best Nine Photos

There's an end-of-the-year meme going around that generates your nine most popular photos posted to instagram. These aren't my nine most popular - but they are my nine most favorite. They represent an otherworldly, incredible travel year to more than 26 countries - 10 which were lifers!

The photos, from left to right represent: Amman, Jordan; Quartz Mountain, Oklahoma; Kandalama, Sri Lanka, St. Petersburg, Russia; Toronto, Canada (Pan Am Games Opening Ceremony); Kona, Hawaii, Cape May, New Jersey; and Pico Bonito, Honduras. Although Australia was the last country I traveled to in 2015 (still here as I write) - travels to Honduras in early December brought me to my 120th country (not that I am a lister!). 

And since I am fairly certain no one reads my blog anymore - I might as well go ahead and post my travels from 2015 - because they were pretty mind-blowing:

January

San Antonio, Texas (Alamo Bowl)

Palau (#110)

South Korea

Seychelles (#111)

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

February

Cartagena, Colombia (#112)

Lake Tahoe, California

Tucson, Arizona

March

Joshua Tree National Park

Sydney, Australia

April

Madagascar (#113)

Kona, Hawaii

May

Honolulu, Hawaii

Toronto, Canada

Rome, Italy

Lisbon, Portugal

La Coruna, Spain

Bilbao, Spain

Bordeaux, France

June

London, England

Amman, Jordan

Beirut, Lebanon (#114)

July

Toronto, Canada (Pan Am Games)

a five-week assignment

August

Alaskan Cruise

Beijing, China

September

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

St. Petersburg, Russia

Kona, Hawaii

October

Tonga (#115)

Adelaide, Australia

Sri Lanka (#116)

Madagascar

Maldives (#117)

Bali (#118)

Papua New Guinea

Fiji (#119)

November

London, England (Rugby World Cup)

Yangon & Bagan, Myanmar

December

Honduras (#120)

Port Douglas, Australia

parallel forest

Parallel Forest - Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge
Photographed on the nearly-annual uncle/nephew Christmas break hike - 2015

A nice winter break - step into the evergreen goodness of these nearly 100-year-old cedar trees in the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge and you are immediately transported back to the delicious green of summer-time.

a walk in the woods - sequoyah national wildlife refuge - oklahoma

Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge
Near Vian, Oklahoma
December 2015 - ©trryan

last rites of autumn - wichita mountain wildlife refuge - oklahoma

Fall leaves peaking in Oklahoma's Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

 The last rites of Autumn, taken earlier this evening in my beloved Wichita Mountains. So good to be back home so many thousands of miles later.

Under a most luminous gibbous moon tonight, we sat in the warm tropical air, the south wind teasing the changing leaves, and listened to the bitter sweet sounds of a number of nocturnal insects - still plucking their summer tunes, oblivious to how soon summer would be over. This was, indeed, to be their last song. A few hours later the wind turned as if in a tailspin, bared its winter fangs, and now howls through the canopy as the temperatures plunge below freezing.

Cache Creek running through the Narrows

into the woods

Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge
Oklahoma City
January 2014

snow falling on cedars

Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge
Oklahoma City
December 2013

a snowdrop by the road today bowed gracefully - celebrating the solstice with a walk in the stinchcomb wilderness

Celebrating the Solstice with a Walk in the Stinchcomb Wildnerness

Oklahoma City

December 21, 2014

WINTER, a sharp bitter day
the robin turns plump against the cold
the sun is week
silver faded from gold
he is late in his coming and short in his stay
Man, beast, bird and air all purging, all cleansing, 
earth already purified awaits the rite of spring
Her bridal gown a virgin snow and frosts in her hair
A snowdrop by the road today bowed gracefully 
and high upon the wing up in the sparkling nothingness, 
a lone bird began to sing
Can gentle spring be far away?

WINTER - by Tommy Makem

unveiled

French Lake
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Winter raised its ugly fist early in this part of the world - record breaking cold slammed into Oklahoma mid-November. The harvest of fall color was frozen in its midair reverie and left hanging lifeless on the trees like worn prayer flags still daring the soul to swoon to the seasonal and now frozen beauty.

Fog lifting in the Charon Garden Wilderness
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Fortunately that polar mass ushered in an early winter whose bark proved worse than its bite - it has been wet and warmish in the days since and two of my friends and I could not pass up an opportunity to hike in the Wichita Mountains as part of a road trip stop along the way to a wedding in Austin.

Add caption

We slipped out of Medicine Park in the early dawn under the veil of fog so thick we could only see 100 yards.

But once unveiled - the five mile hike toward Treasure Lake in the Charon Garden Wilderness proved to be the most magical of hikes.

Independently of each other, we've hiked all over the world. As childhood friends and former classmates who now travel and hike together - we've renamed ourselves the Fab Five and have most recently rendezvoused in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park and Joshua Tree National Monument in California for some absolutely spectacular hiking.

But nothing prepared us for the exquisite beauty that was revealed once the veil of fog lifted on this incredibly unique mountain range. We've traveled long and far only to discover that some of the richest beauty in the world is right here in our own backyard.

We said our goodbyes to this sacred part of the world and quickly headed due south to Austin to meet up with the two other friends that collectively complete the Fab Five.

And it was the beautiful daughter of one of the Fab Five whose marriage we were celebrating this weekend in Austin. I have to admit it is an incredibly rich feeling, at this juncture in my life, to be able to experience such exquisite beauty -- be it a blushing bride or a breathtaking landscape -- among the comfort of the equally exquisite beauty of childhood friends.

negative space

Negative space
is that in which you are not
the longing and angst
for your presence
enlightenment comes as a realization
that negative space has a value
in the algorithmic of everyday life
quotidian as existence can be
the glow on your skin
amidst the shadows of night
the flicker in your blue eyes
deep as a midnight dream
reflecting a sea of stars
I sum up, subtract, divide and multiply
each sensation when in your nearness
until the result is infinitum
no way to count
or account.

Miguel Angel G.

San Diego, December 2014

Photo:  TR Ryan ©December 2014 - North Canadian River, Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma City

travels along the north canadian river in early winter; plates 1-3

Plate 1
East of the North Canadian River
Stinchcomb Wildlife Reserve - Oklahoma County

Plate 2
North Canadian River, Oklahoma County

Plate 3

relentless pursuits

Sunrise - Edgemere Park
Oklahoma City
November 30, 2014

Despite the relentless pursuit of winter, Autumn hangs on one more day in its colorful and blustery bliss. Soon these panes will be like prison bars keeping me inside and dreaming of sun-filled days in  distant places yet to come as my passport twitches between my fingers.

It won't be long before the trees replace their leaves with the froth whipped up by the ever-present howling winds from the west and north.

on sacred ground

Cache Creek through the Narrows
Wichita Mountains - Oklahoma
September 2014
Sacred land to several aboriginal tribes

I stray onto sacred ground
The resting place of souls bygone.
Solace is what I seek,
But there is no solace
No succor to be found
Not here among broken, fallen stones.
Nor bent, wilting trees.
I search for you under the moon
Thoughts of you race through my mind
Feelings better left unspoken.
This was our place
The fertile earth from which the black rose of our love took seed.
We exchanged blood amidst these graves.
Transfused our darkest thoughts and dreams.
It is here too that our love died.
A fitting place for something that is no more 

-grim blackheart

you must be present to win

July 4th Sunset, After the Rain
Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma

That all
the water is
sparkling seems

undeniable
in this light
Sudden rain

takes the edge
off Oklahoma
heat at sunset

There is music
in the rain, in
the red

horizon, in
the red dirt, in
the hands, in
the voices, in
this body of friends,
remembering.

Drink it all in
you must be present to win

- Steven Schroeder
Meditation on a Theme of Sam Baker

Photograph: July 4th sunset after a thunderstorm in the Wichita Mountains ©trryan

the remembered earth

Sunset - Treasure Lake
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind

upon the remembered earth, I believe.

He ought to give himself up

to a particular landscape in his experience,

to look at it from as many angles as he can,

to wonder about it, to dwell upon it.

He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season

and listens to the sounds that are made upon it.

He ought to imagine the creatures there

and all the faintest motions of the wind.

He ought to recollect the glare of noon

and all the colors of the dawn and dusk.

For we are held by more than the force

of gravity to the earth. It is the entity

from which we are sprung,

and that into which we are dissolved in time.

The blood of the whole human race is invested in it.

We are moored there, rooted as surely,

as deeply as are the ancient redwoods and bristlecones.

- N. Scott Momaday

morning comes to elk mountain

Cache Creek at the base of the Elk Mountain Trail
Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

spring lingers in the wichita mountains

A View of the Narrows
Wichita Mountains, Oklahoma
June 2014

Generous rains in May and much of this month of June have left the Wichita Mountains lush and verdant and prolifically carpeted in wildflowers and butterflies. She's dressed in her best finery and for me that means a twice-a-week visit to revel in the outrageous beauty until summer's hot blazing sun returns. It's just a matter of time. But for the moment I cherish these wet, languid days suffused with the yellows, reds and purples of prairie flowers.

Cache Creek at the Base of Elk Mountain

A Blanket of Blanket Flower
Gaillardia - Indian Blanket - Oklahoma State Wildflower

Another View of the Narrows

for whom the bells toll

Photographed at Martin Nature Park as part of Jamie Csizmadia and Leigh Love's Native Plant and Photography Workshop in Oklahoma City.