John & Anne Wiley

2015/09/16

Art Appreciation

Flying over the Sunday arts & crafts walk in our town I snapped at maximum zoom just to see how it might come out. When I opened the photo at full resolution to check the clarity and looked at the center this popped out.

8546 Art For The Birds

8546 Art For The Birds

These colorful giant murals look spectacular to me from this perspective, arrayed as if for the benefit of birds and other aviators, nestled beneath towering palms with intricate shadows. The quality of light brings such magic! As if rekindling memory from a dream.

2015/09/15

Rockin’

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 00:09

I quite enjoy touring the rocks in our mountains, and seem to always find many new favorites and different perspectives on old friends. On this flight my fav newcomer is this one Anne named the witch hat.

9716 Witch Hat Rock

9716 Witch Hat Rock

To me it was an exploding star until she pointed out the pointy black hat with hair trailing off to the right and even an impression of a broomstick. Then I noticed some sort of Bart Simpson cartoon character in this one.

9727 Bart vs. Mouse

9727 Bart vs. Mouse

There’s a black mouse facing right nose to nose with “Bart” who’s facing left. I like the other shapes and textures too, including that dark shape carved deeply into the light colored stone at the top left of the pic. These features are on the slope below Lizard’s Mouth, with Witch in the center of this pic and Bart just off to the lower right.

9724 Rock Array

9724 Rock Array

Then there’s this spot a bit further to the right (East) where I see other shapes. Do you see any?

9736 More Impressions

9736 More Impressions

2015/09/03

Special Day

In recent years every day has been charmed. Today somehow we dialed the enchantment up a notch. This afternoon we flew to the sweet little community around Oceano Airport (aka L52).

8842 L52 Community

8842 L52 Community

This is the sweetest little town! Once we flew there just to pick up a video at that branch of our regional library (we turned it in here at our branch). We did very much want to watch it (whatever it was), but mostly it was an excuse to fly there. As you can see, we can walk from where we park Tripp by the white square building near top-center, left across the bridge over the lovely slough where migrating birds hang out, and in another block we’re on the beach at the bottom-left. This is where people can drive their vast assortment of RVs, ATVs, dirt bikes, bicycles and assorted other vehicles right on the beach and up into the large sand dunes. Straight up off the top of the pic a block is Old Juan’s Cantina.

155523 Old Juan

155523 Old Juan

That gray beard is a reminder that I’m an old Juan, but what we love about this place is their delicious $105 mini-tostadas.

160852 Mini Tostada

160852 Mini Tostada

That’s one in front of Anne in this fuzzy pic. As you can see by the fine crystal water glass, it’s a humble place. As you’ve probably also guessed, these tasty dishes are small $5 treats (plus $100 to fly there). The library’s free, but these meals are an even bigger draw. Another is the sweet shop down by the beach and a couple of other eateries, but even more fun is walking around and taking in things like this that caught Anne’s fancy.

163041 Mini Dune Colors

163041 Mini Dune Colors

There’s sand just beneath the surface everywhere, accented here by the colors and shapes of this ice plant. Back in the air I spotted somewhat similar colors in this pond, apparently polluted from back in the old field days and now fenced off with warning signs.

8766 Christmas Color Pond

8766 Christmas Color Pond

As we approached Vandenberg Air Force Base and turned to leave the coast this jagged point with sea caves captivated us yet again with a garnish of puffy low clouds.

8873 Air, Sand, Rock, Water

8873 Air, Sand, Rock, Water

After myriad other enchantments we joined the coast again at Gaviota where gathering mist in the distance softened our turn along the shore toward home.

8891 Gaviota Into Mist

8891 Gaviota Into Mist

As we rolled into the driveway of our modest home, these “eyelashes” in the clouds provided yet another fleeting delight.

8944 Eyelash Clouds

8944 Eyelash Clouds

To finish the day and greet the night, I made a couple of small margaritas and we went up onto the roof to sit and welcome the fading of colors into shapes in the shades of darkness with mysterious sounds and twinkling lights of the lives around us. May every day be made more special by an Angel near you.

2015/08/30

Next Door

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:35

I found out this cool looking house next door to the Hermitage Museum is also part of the art complex, and home to more enigmatic and playful sculpture. We’ve requested that we be added to the list for a future (rare) tour. 🙂

6856 Art Next Door

6856 Art Next Door

2015/08/23

Barbarians

We love Santa Barbara. Unless you’re new to this blog, you already knew that. But recently I found yet another example that might help explain it.

6843 Barbarian Abode

6843 Barbarian Abode

This relatively modest mansion in our hills exudes creativity and is a great example of our diversity. Many non-homogeneous places like ours struggle to get along even just between political perspectives, but here we do it better than most.  Like some other places we have hardy minimalists living in trackless wilderness near (flying Tripp) massive mansions. Like many other places we have a large homeless population living among billionaires. We have salary workers below the poverty line, artists, and creative people of all sorts including those who’ve grown very rich from their passions. But of all the places we’ve flown in North America, there’s no place like home for mingling such extreme diversity so well.

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