John & Anne Wiley

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

2011/03/14

I Love Airplane Noise

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region,Tripp — John @ 01:41

The title of this post is on a bumper sticker our pilot friend Jo has. I thought of it from watching one of the mini videos from Anne’s compact still camera shot during our “back-taxi” on the Lethbridge runway. The dominant sound on that video is Tripp’s trusty engine, and I noticed in my heart a flood of warm enjoyment of the healthy “noises” made by that reliable Lycoming 0360.

It also got me thinking again about pix from our recent flight out to the Channel Islands, and that in turn moved me to share a few more. This time, of our approach to Ventura on our way to the fun little Santa Paula airport.

6078 High Approaching Ventura

6078 High Approaching Ventura

We were high, in several ways, as we neared Ventura. First in altitude, because though typically we fly there at around 2,000 feet this time we were probably up at 7,000 or so on a very gradual descent from the crossing. When I fly over water, I like to add the extra safety skipped by most pilots, of being high enough that in event of problems I could glide to land. Even though it’s not much of a safety issue where there are so many people, boats and rescue resources nearby and the water is relatively warm, it would break my heart to watch Tripp slipping beneath the waves after we were rescued. Also high of course, on the joys of flying and the particular magnificence of flying over the islands. This time of year when they’re so lush with plant growth and the beaches and water are alive with pinnipeds added a lot to the elevation of our spirits. Flying this high here, Ventura is spread out below and Lake Casitas shimmers in the distance.

Looking down, the harbor shapes and colors make for interesting colors and shapes, and also remind us of being down there enjoying maritime activities and probably not even noticing the music of Tripp’s engine passing above.

6081 Safe Harbor

6081 Safe Harbor

A few minutes later, I enjoyed the textures and shapes created by agriculture mingling with suburban housing tracts.

6085 Land Use Textures

6085 Land Use Textures

Human activity on our planet creates some beautiful quilts that interact with the natural terrain. What did this spot look like to a soaring condor 300 years ago?

2011/03/12

Seal Spotting

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 04:32

I notice we’ve been sharing lots of pix from our brief flight out to the islands, so I hope you find them intriguing too because here are a few more. First another view of western San Miguel.

6048 Pinniped Paradise

6048 Pinniped Paradise

Now this is just the tip of a small island in the Channel Islands group, so the darker beige clumps along the water that are seal and sea lion colonies (and other pinnipeds) are only a small fraction of those using the islands. They scramble well inland, including on the rocky parts like the area at the left in this pic. More are offshore fishing at any given time.

6051 Beach Life

6051 Beach Life

It’s not easy to see what they’re up to while we’re flying, so I like to study the telephoto pix afterward for a closer look. We need to keep some altitude for safety, and there’s an extra height requested to ensure our presence doesn’t disturb the animals (and a few people) on the beaches. I haven’t yet noticed any researchers in this crop of pix, but often I’ll see a few after most flights because some intrepid scientists are often present. The one thing I seem to have a morbid interest in, is finding a shark or killer whale in one of my pix. From the nature shows I’ve seen, my impression is that the colonies are pretty safe on land and in open water. It’s the transition to and from the beach that’s most dangerous. At greatest risk are pinniped pups out for their first swim, unaware of the danger and ill-equipped to avoid it.

6052 Danger Zone

6052 Danger Zone

In one of my pix from this flight there are several things that could be sharks, but are probably just colony members. Could either of the two things I’ve circled be sharks, or perhaps they’re both fleeing from the black shark-shaped thing between and slightly below them in the pic?

Regardless of whether any sharks were there, the overall magnificence of the scenery sure did flood our senses with beauty and our hearts with joy.

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