John & Anne Wiley

2011/03/21

Rain Seekers

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 02:17

I stayed dry today, unlike my Seattleite wife who relished the chance to weed her rose garden.

6200 Not Blue

6200 Not Blue

Despite the intermittent heavy rain and the amount of blue in this pic, she was quite happy. She came in smelling all fresh and green, and now enjoying the warm fireplace and the welcome she received from a happy dry hubby. Now as darkness falls, the rain gets even heavier, and as I write this, another scene outside caught my eye.

1866 Guard Frog

1866 Guard Frog

When we moved into this place, the previous owners had left behind a massive cement frog that we instantly adopted. We enjoy putting him in various poses around the yard. A few weeks ago he took up this watchful position near the dry fountain. As you can see, it is now overflowing with all the rain. Is it just me, or does he look happy? Can he have spent some years in Seattle too? I hope the xeriscape plant with bright red flowers is happy with all this water, because it took root on its own and we haven’t watered it in this normally dry climate. I hope we can get a break in the clouds to take a quick flight tomorrow, because I’d like to dry Tripp out and get some pix of the local seasonal waterfalls that must all be spectacular right now.

2011/03/19

Days in boots

Filed under: by Anne,Has Photos,Nature,Random,White North Adventure — Anne @ 08:24

While walking downtown in short sleeves, John noted “It’s a little cool today without a jacket.”  Then he heard himself, given recent context of our month in climate 100′ colder than Santa Barbara, and repeated the sentence so we could both take in what an amazingly different experience we were having.  So it seemed fun to revisit this man on a bridge in recently purchased big clumpy warm boots.  Though head and hands are momentarily bare, the car is just across the street.  Behind him is the North Saskatchewan River completely frozen and covered with snow.

1520-not in shirtsleeves

1520 Not in shirtsleeves

On the same outing I snapped this snowy home as we drove by.

1529 Snow House

1529 Snow House

We enjoyed our time there, and it’s fun to see it warmly from this distance.

~by Anne

2011/03/18

Happy Green

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 02:33

Aye and here’s wishing you a happy St. Patrick’s Day! We seem to have reached the age where going to one of the great Irish pubs downtown for a green beer no longer holds much appeal. Instead, we’re watching the festivities online and TV here at home with some green soup (homemade split pea) with our dear friend BD.

BD St. Pat's

BD St. Pat's

Bette Delores (her real name) has been wearing seasonal flourishes since I got her started on it with a santa hat at the end of 2010. Yes, that’s a Portofino poster behind her, that we bought on our glorious visit there with family. When we led a tour on a different trip to Europe, we enjoyed weeks of Ireland culminating in a transformational retreat with the late John O’Donohue whose skills as a naturalist, scholar, philosopher and poet infused us with a deep draught of Irish and Celtic consciousness.

But this year, Anne tried to help BD discover jauntier ways of wearing a green scarf.

BD Scarf Experiment

BD Scarf Experiment

Happily, they decided against that look. To me it’s evocative of a burka. Or perhaps WWI-era head wound dressing.

2011/03/17

New Day

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 02:24

We were up early and walked outside to enjoy the sunrise. As I stood there watching clouds wash over the mountains, a realization also dawned.

6192 Cloud Surge

6192 Cloud Surge

Short sleeves and sandals in the warm gusty air, and the way this fluffy tsunami evaporated as it sped down-slope all conspired to wake me up.

6193 Ripe Bounty

6193 Ripe Bounty

Turning to admire the orange tree next to me, I reached out and plucked a ripe ball of juicy bright color to enjoy with breakfast. Looking back toward the mountains, I admired the brilliant yellow of some delicious lemons and smelled the sweet bloom of the various citrus flowers.

6194 Lofty Lemons

6194 Lofty Lemons

Some of my neighbors might feel guilty, living in such a remarkably bucolic place. Others might dread the inevitable quakes and possibly even tsunamis, the wild fires, floods, mudslides, and other potential perils of this place. I’ve recently stood in barren snowy sub-zero air in Canada. I’ve sweltered in my youth on the edge of the desert. I’ve walked alone on a sleepless morning with no warm place to go.

On such a beautiful new day as this with Anne by my side, all I could do is enjoy as if for all life on the planet.

2011/03/16

Alligator landscapes?

Filed under: Aviation,by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,Nature,SB Region — Anne @ 06:55

Here are a couple of shots I took from our recent delightful flight.  The first is at the east end of Santa Rosa at the Channel Islands. I have another view where the beach has the shape of an alligator head so maybe you can imagine that.  I chose this because it shows more shapes on the island.

1770 Rosa Tip

1770 Rosa Tip

On our way home we flew higher than usual and so I got Ojai in the background and a wider view of Lake Casitas than usual, with again more shapes visible.  The land shapes slithering into the lake from the left, maybe influenced by my thoughts above, are now reminding me of a mama and baby alligator.  Do you see them?

1833 Lake Casitas

1833 Lake Casitas

~by Anne

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