I am in Oklahoma this week on a bittersweet errand. Part of it is quite joyful. I am happy to be able to celebrate my Mom’s 90 birthday.
But for the third time in numerous years, my sister and I are helping her plan a move. She is moving from her apartment, down the hall to assisted living. At least she is able to do that and doesn’t need to leave the lovely property where she’s lived for the 7 years.
We had a little party here for her this past weekend. Some cousins drove out from the East Coast. More are flying in this week. Turning 90 in my family is very special (I am guessing it would be in most families).
So in addition to helping Mom, we took the cousins to a few Oklahoma sights. The first 2 above are from the Land Run Memorial, commissioned for the Oklahoma Centennial in 2007.
Despite Oklahoma’s sad history, the sculptures themselves are amazing pieces of art. The details rendered in the bronze are stunning.
The absence of plants are also notable. There is, of course, the grasses (and nothing was identified) presumably designed to simulate the prairie.
There was the prickly pear cactus shown in my top photo of the leaping jack rabbit.
And there was red aloe (that I grow in containers in Connecticut) but which is clearly hardy here.
On Friday I will show photos from my other “tourist” trip (a museum I have been to many times but my cousins had not, so they took the docent tour and I went outside to see what was blooming).
Gardendaze 
That is a great sculpture. The jackrabbit caught my eye, because I see a lot of them in the deserts of Southern California. Amazing creatures.
This was an amazing piece of artwork. It’s so realistic that you can almost see the wood in the wagons, the canvas on the tops–it’s beautifully done, down to the hoofprints in the cement on either side of the Bricktown canal where the horses are the supposedly fording the “stream.” There’s a dog running alongside one of the wagons too–it’s just amazingly lifelike–frighteningly so, in fact.