John & Anne Wiley

2010/10/31

Into the Sunset

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 03:46

We flew to Santa Paula for a visit with friends today, and saw some fun stuff along the way. It started immediately with this crisp view from the airport past UCSB to the Channel Islands.

3034 SBA UCSB CI

3034 SBA UCSB CI

The sky was clearing from an overnight storm, so the mountains were hiding their heads trying to sleep late. That’s “upper” State Street across the bottom, and our “voting” bridge over Stevens Park just left of center.

3036 Upper State to Mtns

3036 Upper State to Mtns

You remember: every time we drive across it going to/from town, we pause the conversation to feast our eyes in both directions and then vote on the best view. North toward the mountains usually wins, but today it would have probably been South toward the islands. Beyond Summerland there’s a polo club condo where we recently saw horses chasing a little ball. Today was quite a contrast.

3046 Condo Polo Cars

3046 Condo Polo Cars

Looks like antique cars, this is only about a quarter of what was on the field, and it looked like they were still setting up. A bit further East, on the beach near Carpinteria is a place locals call the Taj Mahal. I’d never noticed it until a mention and photo on Edhat, and I’ve sent them a different version of this photo asking for more info.

3049 Carp Taj

3049 Carp Taj

I didn’t get photos of the old planes we saw during a stop in Camarillo, including a B-25 that looked really cool flying. I sent Edhat a photo of the sunset in Santa Paula as we prepared to take off for home.

3050 SZP Sunset

3050 SZP Sunset

Sure was a lot of fun in three hours!

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2010/10/29

Magic

Filed under: by Anne,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 08:22

I found one of Anne’s pix from our airport sunset that she didn’t share, and it overflows with magic that more words would only delay.

0749 Magic

0749 Magic

2010/10/28

People Power

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 23:39

Politics is amazing. Our work with the Citizens4sbcc group trying to save our Community College has been more intense lately. For one thing we’ve attended several events and fundraisers.

2846 Montecito Fundraiser

2846 Montecito Fundraiser

This fundraiser Anne is surveying as we arrived, was at a posh ocean view estate in Montecito. Beyond the pool is a lower level with magnificent rambling tea garden. Behind her is the sprawling mansion, and you can get a small glimpse from this later photo looking back up the yard.

2851 Uphill

2851 Uphill

The campaign has a decidedly uphill quality to it right now, as the incumbents go for broke. They’ve hired (with taxpayer funds) a campaign consultant, and are investing thousands in misleading ads and opinion pieces. The negativity of their approach is overwhelming! The thing I find particularly discouraging is their use of “doublespeak” (accusing our candidates of the despicable things their campaign is actually doing). I celebrate that they have their own opinions, but get upset when they espouse manufactured “facts” that are exactly opposite of reality. sigh…

Some of the events we’ve attended have helped refresh our hope and resolve, like this fundraiser (for a Parent Child Workshop, not our campaign). It’s a large group of parents and children working together on Parent Education, that was in one of the programs Anne supervised as SBCC Director/Dean.

2924 1/3 of a Fundraiser

2924 1/3 of a Fundraiser

Two thirds of the event is beyond this frame to the left and right. At the right is a live band, and to the left is the close-to-100 year old ranch with more action. It was so heartening to see the Carpinteria community pulling together working on the future of our world: raising conscious children. I hope when these kids grow up, the era of dirty campaigns has passed and we can focus on peaceful coexistence.

We went over Montecito couple of days later while taking a friend on his birthday flight, so I snapped this aerial view of the now quiet estate we visited in the first pix of this post. From above where political tactics don’t show as well, you can better see the beauty of our world.

2992 Montecito Estate

2992 Montecito Estate

2010/10/27

Over, then Over Again

Filed under: by Anne,Has Photos,Random — Anne @ 04:18

Two posts from us in one day, but I have more to add:

The flying was FUN today!  Short but exciting – and another brilliant day.  It’s been so cloudy, foggy of late that the clear air is exhilarating.

The fresh sourdough bread was yummy and took me back many years when I made bread regularly while living in the Carnation farmhouse on the Snoqualmie River in Washington state.  That was before breads got good in stores.  Nancy brought a sourdough starter she made from the organic chardonnay grapes she got at the Santa Ynez winery, Alma Rosa, our fave! [Note from John: my recollection of Nancy’s story is that she used that hazy coating you see on grapes, that’s actually a yeast, and she’s used the haze from plums before too.]

She asked if I’d be a “tester” for an article she’s writing for Edible SB. She reminded me of how one develops a “relationship” with the starter. Well our relationship is off to a great start, this starter and me, and the first loaf came out beautifully!

0759 1st Loaf of Sourdough Bread

0759 1st Loaf of Sourdough Bread

The little holes are done with scissors before baking.  Next, I’ll play with the shapes.

0761 Sliced Bread, Texture

0761 Sliced Bread, Texture

Well, the Texture looks about perfect to me, and the butter melting on it agreed.  Looks to me like the directions Nancy wrote will create many more happy bakers!

More bread in our future, with various accouterments 🙂

Once Over

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region,Tripp — John @ 02:40

We flew again today, though it was just once “around the pattern” (staying close to the airport). We left home just an hour too late due to tracking new lows in the SBCC incumbents’ dirty campaign (glad the four challengers have kept to the high road, and we’re looking forward to their improvements in SBCC community relations once elected). Anyway, by the time we got to the airport, the wind had shifted and picked up. As we drove in I saw the wind sock standing straight out and wondered how Anne would do with flying. We already knew winds had changed (though not how much!), but had decided to at least check on Tripp’s new tire (the old one had developed a small de-lamination of the tread in our last landing and we’d already been thinking about replacing it).

3027 Hope Ranch Shore

3027 Hope Ranch Shore

We did talk about it, and she decided to come along even though I offered to go around once first and see if it was turbulent. After standing by Tripp to watch another small plane take off, I found that Anne had been watching closely too. Since I was comfortable to fly in the gusty wind and it was it was to be short, she decided to join me. Offshore it was pretty smooth, but closer to the mountains we hit a few lumps. Before our landing a few minutes later I did one low pass over the big runway (parallel to the mountains) to practice crosswind technique, and it was fun to feel confident I could’ve easily landed if needed. Gusty winds like that are less enjoyable on a long trip, so we were glad to just be flying for a few minutes. Since I wanted to get this photo though, I continued on and turned offshore for this before turning again for a gentle landing toward the mountains and thus into the wind.

Now we feel all mellow from just that brief flight, and we’re about to enjoy another slice of the delicious bread Anne made with Nancy’s help (maybe she’ll post something about that).

Tasty Homemade Sourdough

Tasty Homemade Sourdough

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