John & Anne Wiley

2012/06/27

Beached Whale

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 05:51

Often it’s an inexplicable impulse that moves me to snap an aerial. Something about this scene, for example, just nudged me to pick up the camera and tap the shutter.

0246 Beached Whale?

0246 Beached Whale?

Back at home looking at pix from the flight, the black thing in the middle looked at first like a beached baby whale. The guy walking toward it, maybe even the green thing some sort of attempted rescue floatation device? Then a deep breath and more careful examination reveals it’s a giant oil blob. An ancient seep from the riven sandstone strata just above the beach. But the fun I had discovering this feature on the popular More Mesa beach reinforces my tendency to go with the impulse to snap when it arises. Same with this one taken a moment earlier.

0245 Rock & Garden

0245 Rock & Garden

The shapes of rock and garden mingle to produce art. I like how the several yards also blend from above, into a complete picture that explodes beyond the square fence. Plus of course the turret on the right, because there’s something so romantic about turrets for me. This last one for today recalls the 1960s California surfing scene, but with an accent of Cannes, with the tidy identical beach umbrellas.

0250 Surfin' USA

0250 Surfin’ USA

It also recalls for me the 70th birthday party we had there on the Hope Ranch private beach for our dearly departed Doris. Seems only yesterday, yet it’s been fourteen years or so. She seemed so much older and wiser, yet soon enough we’ll reach that age. I guess as we age, ever more of our consciousness includes memory. Do the scenes that stand out to us, define our true selves? Am I in some way a beached whale? Are we the past we remember, the future we imagine, or our present consciousness and actions?

2012/06/25

Afterglow

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 05:14

The time just after the Solstice Parade is another highlight of this enchanted Santa Barbarian event. As the parade turns off of “Altered” State street toward Alameda Park, a large and lively crowd is following at the parade’s sedate pace. This pace, the long wait for the parade to pass, and all the excitement blends into something really unique in the park.

0731 Into the Park

0731 Into the Park

Here we add all the attractions I mentioned yesterday, plus everything the grand park itself has to offer, and the magic of mingling creative people with those who appreciate creativity. Even with so many people, it has a relaxed and easy air that whispers Summer.

0732 Easy Summer

0732 Easy Summer

The parade participants relax after their miles long trek up the street, and relish the soft cool grass among their toes.

0741 Relax & Rehydrate

0741 Relax & Rehydrate

They also reconnect with family and support staff who helped make their contribution to the delight of our town possible.

0738 Family Reunion

0738 Family Reunion

They begin a gradual return to normalcy after wearing the personae of performers, and plug into their cellphones

0737 Normalcy

0737 Normalcy

Their friends and family do the same, some using costume pieces for shade in the warm sunshine of Summer Solstice SB.

0740 Fancy Umbrella

0740 Fancy Umbrella

Drummers who were in the parade continue their rhythmic trance in impromptu drum circles inviting free spirits to add their free form dance.

0745 Drum Circle

0745 Drum Circle

I wonder what this is like for the silent trees that have stood for decades spreading their welcome cooling shade and offering shelter from forgotten storms. On the streets around the park, paraders have parked their floats to the delight of kids who pet their favs and adults who study the designs.

0755 Parked Magic

0755 Parked Magic

Nearby are inflatable kids rides in the park that boasts a playground named Kid’s World. Everywhere paraders mingle with admirers, and almost no one could be blue.

0753 Mingling

0753 Mingling

Paraders pose for photographers, appreciating the attention they’ve worked so hard to attract.

0758 Content & Tired

0758 Content & Tired

Even after their exhausting uphill walk with pauses to stand and wait on the hot parade pavement, some are still showing performer enthusiasm in their posing.

0760 Happy Energy

0760 Happy Energy

Leaving the park, even with all the food booths it had, some stood in line for burgers on the quieter edge of the adjoining Keck Gardens park with its duck and turtle pond.

0763 Bus Line

0763 Bus Line

Sure enough, inside Keck on that refreshing lawn, a fairy had crashed to rest up for the ongoing celebration that would last well into the wee hours, her purple wings wilted down against her back.

0592 Fairy Landing

0592 Fairy Landing

Walking several blocks back to our car, the streets seemed like any day. Then a car or pedestrian would pass that prolonged the experience of where we’d just been.

0770 Solstice Lives

0770 Solstice Lives

In front of a large house, the dog statue adorned for events by the owners is wearing Solstice regalia.

0772 Lawn Decor

0772 Lawn Decor

As all know who follow my Edhat contributions, we went for a short flight after all this. Not enough fun for one day. 🙂

0814 Aftermath

0814 Aftermath

Even hours after the parade arrived, the concerts and all the other attractions were still entertaining a large and joyful crowd. Life is so sweet!

2012/06/23

Fun Weekend

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 04:01

Summer Solstice is our fav event in SB. I don’t know if it’s the same every year, but we heard this is also the weekend for the Lomoc Flower Festival. So we flew over for a look. Approaching town over the beautiful Santa Rosa Road we saw several fairly small plots of flowers along the river.

0501 Lompoc Flowers

0501 Lompoc Flowers

Very tame compared with bygone years, but still a lovely complement to the river flowing toward the sea. The festival itself, we discovered a few years ago, is really just kids carnival rides and a giant mercado.

0521 Flower Festival

0521 Flower Festival

No flowers to speak of, though we’d imagined many flower merchants and lots of contests for best posies. Nope. But not far away to the west of town is the loveliest field still blooming in this season.

0523 Lompoc Flowers

0523 Lompoc Flowers

After landing to explore the shopping malls near the airport, we flew home and saw the kickoff concerts for SB Solstice at Alameda Park.

0580 SB Solstice Concert

0580 SB Solstice Concert

Tomorrow our fun weekend expands into the fanciful Summer Solstice Parade, and we’re excited to take it all in! 🙂

2012/06/22

Sigh

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 05:19

Before we flew in small planes more than once every ten years or so, we used to get a Big Sur effect. That’s where we’re driving South along that enchanted road, and one of us suddenly takes an involuntary deep breath. We’d take that drive every few years just for the deep joy of it. The Sighs. Well now it happens pretty much every time we fly. It’s much more frequent than on those drives though. Scenes like this, that would greet airline passengers if they weren’t going so fast and had a panoramic view like ours.

0437 SBA View

0437 SBA View

The new terminal building is lovely, but in this fuller context it really glows. I’ve learned to snap scenes like this without looking, using one hand. I like how they refresh the memory of the moment before that triggered my snap. A camera impulse that goes from eye to shutter finger with minimal thought. Often accompanied by a sigh, both when I snap and when I look at the result back on the ground later. Here’s another:

0438 Pier to Point

0438 Pier to Point

We fly past the Goleta Pier on nearly every flight from SBA, and it seldom passes without a sigh and the snap impulse. I usually suppress the snap because I have so many. Out the other side, Anne is dreamily watching UCSB and the view West. Often a wordless smile passes between us. There’s a sound that sums it up for us better than words: “Sigh…”

2012/06/21

Water

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:23

Water surrounds, sustains, and dwells within us. This is surely among the reasons we love to pause in contemplation at water’s edge. So when we flew out and back into our airport I noticed the traces of water between the airport and UCSB, and the ocean beyond.

0275 Water Traces

0275 Water Traces

At the shiny new airport terminal and on the vast concrete runways it’s easy to forget this is only fairly recently dry land. Whether the ponds are dry in Summer or awash much of the year, the traces are strong. Opposite the ocean is Lake Los Carneros. On the other side of the runway from the creek in the pic above, are these small seasonal ponds on the West end of More Mesa.

0274 Approach Ponds

0274 Approach Ponds

The vast majority of airliners landing at SBA zip right past this quiet scene, and you might glimpse it if sitting on the left side. More likely you’ll miss it, out-competed for your eyeballs by the ocean, islands, and all the transient human traces. But like the sea, these small bodies of water patiently await our return to origins.

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