John & Anne Wiley

2012/01/15

Scale

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,SB Region — John @ 21:10

I was looking thru the rest of my pix from the Avila flight and decided to share this one of the little rocks shooting up from a pasture between Diablo nuke plant and the lighthouse at Avila.

9309 Tiny Giants

9309 Tiny Giants

I hadn’t realized how tall they are until looking at the pic full size (click it to enlarge) and noticing the cows grazing to the left of the top rock for scale. If the cows are 4½’ tall, that rock is about 80′ high. I wonder what processes formed and exposed them (volcanic?), and how many people have climbed them over the eons.

Interface

For many years the interface between computers and people has been very interesting to me. Even in today’s cutting edge technology it can often feel as if we’re pounding our “wetware” (brains) against an unyielding machine. Even if the machine can now be carried in our pocket.

Whether due to being a California native or due to another aspect of interface fascination, I’m drawn to the places where things and people meet. Like the base of Morro Rock, where the sea relentlessly carves out caves from the solid stone.

9189 Morro Rock Cave

9189 Morro Rock Cave

Back toward the South, Montaña De Oro harbors an interface of grass and sand, air and water, waves and stone, in a symphony of Life. Every time I look at this next photo, my heart rate slows and breathing deepens. The quiet mood evoked by timeless beauty fills my soul with the misty distant throb of surf.

9223 Meeting Place

9223 Meeting Place

Families interfacing children and elders stroll and scramble these soft and hard shapes, and lone souls find solace. The abundance of life you can see thrives atop layers of unseen life slowly digesting the stone and absorbing the sand. I see parts of that story written in this slab of sandstone being pounded for millennia by earthquakes and peeled away by the prying waves of sea and life of all sizes and sorts.

9229 Tablet Computer

9229 Tablet Computer

This stone tablet stores the tale and computes the story of this place, the perfect interface.

2012/01/13

More ‘O Morro

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:16

Morro Rock has fascinated me since childhood, so after riding the cute trolley from Avila and then bus from Pismo back to Oceano, we hopped into Tripp for the quick flight up to visit The Rock.

9139 Morro Rock

9139 Morro Rock

Looking at the pix that evening, I noticed what appear to be several rock cairns on top.

9141 Markers

9141 Markers

As you may have seen on my Edhat post (click link in right column here to see it), people commented about the various people who place such markers. Some back into prehistoric times, apparently, but I don’t know if it was a”guy thing” then too. Something I did notice from the air this time is a feature on the West face you might call Birdshit Falls. Looks like the roosting birds produce runoff that joins a seasonal waterfall. It lands in some very lush vegetation at the bottom that are probably very happy plants with all those processed fish nutrients.

9143 Dropping Falls

9143 Dropping Falls

2012/01/11

Relaxing

I enjoyed a deep breath just now, remembering how relaxing our morning in Avila Beach was. Great conversation with friends and family, strolling the town and waterfront, and this scene riding the trolley back to Tripp.

9122 Trolley Tour

9122 Trolley Tour

Looking to the right into the sun, the peaceful bay deepened the relaxation.

9131 Warm Bay

9131 Warm Bay

Not much more than an hour later we were flying past the same spots on our way to circle familiar Morro Rock, when I snapped this view of the bay with the sun behind us.

9316 Tripp Tour

9316 Tripp Tour

Relaxing and fun as the trolley tour was, this Tripp Tour went far beyond relaxing into the realm of enchanting refreshment. At the point of the bay, this old lighthouse (now apparently without Fresnel lens) stands as a beacon for tourists.

9326 Avila Light

9326 Avila Light

The calm bay and Avila Beach Pier evoke stillness in my soul again, capturing in this pic the quiet I felt suspended in calm late afternoon air after the memorial we attended there the evening before.

9360 Inner Quiet

9360 Inner Quiet

When I leave this plane, maybe I can soar silently and effortlessly again over scenes such as this.

2012/01/10

Time

Often flying will emphasize different aspects of time. Whether recalling childhood dreams and events or keeping one eye on a clock, flying enhances not just the vertical dimension but also the temporal. On our flight to Avila Beach, I happened to snap this scene on the way there and again on the way back. It’s an area on the South side of the mountains that we pass on that route. Like the other aspects of time, familiar things can appear to us quite different.

9072 Timing is Everything

9072 Timing is Everything

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