John & Anne Wiley

2016/04/28

Anacapa Light

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 23:28

The light out at Anacapa Island is often too harsh for our cameras to handle in flight, because we can’t use modern tricks like “HDR” at the high speeds required. So I was pleased to capture at least an impression of the range between shaded dark rock cliffs and the brilliant white on the bird rock arch offshore.

4421 White, Dark & Light

4421 White, Dark & Light

Notice how different the water surface looks between the right and left, due to the ubiquitous wind out there. Wind and waves would make it challenging but I’d love to kayak around the small rock spire, “blade” and arch.

4424 Small Spire, Blade & Arch

4424 Small Spire, Blade & Arch

The larger rock arch is even more fascinating to me, including the small sea cave you can see in the above pic. In this next one you get a sense of how the waves and currents would be affected not just by winds, waves and currents, but the varying depth.

4426 Anacapa Arch

4426 Anacapa Arch

The trusty old Anacapa Lighthouse adds an illusion of safety in these waters that can transform in minutes, from an expansive bucolic calm to a foggy maelstrom or hailing hurricane. update: I found the “MANIC1” weather station online and verified the coordinates as near the light (probably atop that adjacent square tower), so I’ve posted the link for future reference.

4430 Anacapa Lighthouse

4430 Anacapa Lighthouse

That first pic showing all of the arches and rocks plus some smaller rocks off the point, amply demonstrates the good reasons a lighthouse was built there.

 

2016/04/19

Whale Mystery

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:51

It’s unusual to see whales close to shore, but we saw a group perhaps half a mile off Montecito. Much more unusual were these brown blobs behind them.

3569 Whale Blobs

3569 Whale Blobs

I thought at first they were the misty “blows” created when a whale surfaces and exhales strongly. But those are clear mist that looks white in the sun. Could it be blood or darkened breath from some lung ailment? We got closer for a better look.

3562 Brown Water

3562 Brown Water

We still couldn’t tell from the air but closer and at maximum zoom this cropped pic reveals that it was brown water. I’m basing that on the “collar” of brown in the water at the front of where the juvenile whale’s back is out of water. There’s also brownish water behind that whale. We’ve seen several dozen whales, mostly Gray Whales, over the years but never anything like this. Then we saw that it was probably two mothers with juvenile calves, and both calves were doing the brown water thing so probably healthy. Soon we saw all four doing normal clean blows when they surfaced.

3585 Brown Gray Whales

3585 Brown Gray Whales

Since preparing the pix for this post I’ve learned more, and will send a post about it to Edhat tomorrow (use the link in the right column here to see that after they publish it some time 4/19/2016). Meanwhile, here’s a happy ending showing a mother and calf coming up clean with her rainbow blow in the sun that I’ve accentuated by pumping up the color.

3703 Rainbow Whale Blow

3703 Rainbow Whale Blow

2016/04/05

Hope Springs

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 22:41

They say hope springs eternal, and yesterday we saw this beautiful manifestation of that on the hills above Hwy.101 near Ventura. Alongside the burned sticks, wildflowers nourished by recent rains are leaping toward the sun.

2931 Life & Death

2931 Life & Death

Amid our exceptional drought just over three months ago the Solimar Fire devastated these same hills that were already so dry it was difficult to distinguish what had burned from what hadn’t. Now there’s abundant green accented with these multiple other colors of life.

2940 Colors of Hope

2940 Colors of Hope

2016/03/29

Time & Space

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:48

One time I built a small cabin on the cold slope of a mountain. Snow and silence were Winter companions. On occasion the echo of a small plane passing would lift my heart above the trees into an expansive view of imagination. So when Tripp recently transported us to this scene a few minutes’ flight delight from SB, my heart was back in that long ago Northern forest.

7591 Near & Far

7591 Near & Far

This stand of trees huddled among ancient stones draped in dwindling snow are so near our home. Yet to reach them without Tripp would take arduous days putting them far beyond the reach of nearly all our neighbors.

7610 Big Pine

7610 Big Pine

In much of the country Pine Mountain would be big but few on the ground around here ever see it behind our smaller and nearer mountains, themselves tall by U.S. standards. An easy Tripp trip beyond towers massive Mt. Whitney, itself blending with kindred peaks and obscured by smaller cousins at its feet. But on this day after about the time and expense some of our neighbors invested in a lunch downtown, we took this last look and turned back toward our home by the sea, to dream of time and space.

7562 Down to the Sea

7562 Down to the Sea

2016/03/17

Flower Flight

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:07

After years of epic drought our mountains have recently been kissed by a few good rains, and what looked completely dead a couple of months ago is now blushing with color.

2066 West of Fig

2066 West of Fig

The hills West of Figueroa Mountain at the northern edge of Santa Ynez Valley looked promising as we approached. Here’s what we saw closer to that far slice of poppies on the slope of the top-right pic above.

2070 Slope Slice

2070 Slope Poppy Slice

Other years before the drought we’d sometimes see lupines so thick they painted the hills brilliant shades of blue. Still, this is the first time they’ve been thick enough to show blue hints from the air as they frolic in the sun alongside poppies dazzling the wizened oaks.

2093 Frolic of Lupines

2093 Frolic of Lupines

In case you’d like to try finding these patches on the dirt roads, here’s come context looking East toward Figueroa Mountain.

2076 Flowers to Fig

2076 Flowers to Fig

Nearby we also passed what’s left of the late Michael Jackson’s fanciful Neverland Ranch. The name is still tended in flowers and butterflies between foundations of two amusement rides that had been there some years ago. The train tracks bottom-left bring back an impression of the whimsical place he built.

2060 Michael's Neverland Rides

2060 Michael’s Neverland Rides

The iconic train station near the mansions and lake is looking even better, helped by the brilliant green brought forth by the rain. Does the lonely sound of a steam engine whistle ever echo across the narrow valley between these two floral displays?

2033 Neverland Train Station

2033 Neverland Train Station

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.