John & Anne Wiley

2012/12/04

Meditation

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 21:20

We’ve enjoyed some day and weekend meditation retreats. So nourishing for the soul, bringing that relaxed and serene spirit back to daily life. That’s how we felt yesterday after half an hour flying along the mountains above town. The recent rains have made it all lush, and myriad waterfalls are leaping with delight.

1896 Twin Falls

1896 Twin Falls

Quiet pools carved from the rocks are again bathed in soothing mist, and looking down at seldom visited places like this transports our souls there in an instant.

1893 Ion Pool

1893 Ion Pool

After these few healing minutes aloft, as we turned away from the mist-capped hills above Montecito to begin the quiet descent back to SBA I turned to Anne and said yet again, “I Love this!”

1925 Misty Moment

1925 Misty Moment

2012/12/03

Closer Look

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 20:23

Speaking of stones, sometimes when I’m looking at pix from a flight something new will come to light. Like these folds in sandstone. I’m trying to figure out what would create something like this.

1633 Stone Skin

1633 Stone Skin

Grooves could be cut by wheels, as in the prior post about a sandstone outcrop. But what would account for a raised area with a groove down the middle, as at the top-right? At the bottom of this same large outcrop is another area with grooves.

 

1633 Groovy

1633 Groovy

So many places where a raised “fold” has a groove cut at the top. A raised area would seem to get more so as runoff was directed to the adjoining lower area. What could erode a channel right along the raised area?

From the air I didn’t notice any of this. Just a rock outcrop that somehow moved me to snap a pic.

1633 Glance

1633 Glance

Maybe this distant glance at the outcrop was interesting because of the unusual texture created by the sunset-angled light on those grooves.

2012/11/30

Stones Sunset Tour

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 22:13

No, I don’t have pix of the Rolling Stones on their geriatric world tour. This is about my fascination with the rock outcrops sprinkled along our majestic mountains. Flying the hills at sunset this time of year, the shadows etch features and textures complemented by splashes of glowing orange light.

1622 Weathered Face

1622 Weathered Face

Faces like this tell such a tale of the ages. All the story that went into creating the stone, accented by the carving of weather and other forces. The variety is visually pleasing to me in an artistic sense too, like this enormous impression of alligator skin.

1627 Tough Skin

1627 Tough Skin

Then there are the stones with signs of humans who passed long ago, like this area where local historian Neal Graffy pointed out ruts made by steel-rimmed wooden wheels.

1632 Slippery Slope

1632 Slippery Slope

If you click to see the larger version, on the left ridge you can make out he deepest parallel ruts. This dry scene somehow evokes an image of a stagecoach full of terrified passengers gasping at each lurch and bump as they imagine tumbling down into the ravine on a dark and rainy night with whip cracking at steaming horses straining up the hill. Scariest on such a night though, would be coming down as the brakes smoked and wheels slid while digging those ruts.

So many impressions come to me while taking a leisurely sunset stones tour…

2012/11/27

More Points

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:08

Here’s a quick post of more pix from our flight out to Point Conception. First this cropped shot at maximum zoom on our closest pass. Hope we can get permission to fly around it some time, because I’d like to see the caves on the other side (saw them once when a kindly guy on ATC cleared us to fly past going home to SBA).

1704 Point Conception Light

1704 Point Conception Light

I like the wiki for the light, and it has one of my 2009 photos at the bottom. The boat that’s been moored near there every time we’ve gone out, looked like it was being towed by a bunch of seals in an inner tube.

1736 Pt. C. Illusion #1

1736 Pt. C. Illusion #1

They weren’t. Another illusion pic from the flight is one I took of the rocky shore. Maybe it looks normal to you, but when I look at it sometimes it “flips” as if we were flying “upside down.”

1732 Pt. C. Illusion #2

1732 Pt. C. Illusion #2

We weren’t. The native peoples called this the Western Gate, ascribing powerful energy to this area. It was an especially magical flight. Maybe the energy there affected us, making these pix even more enchanting for me than they seem to you?

2012/11/25

Toward the Light

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 04:29

There’s a magnificent lighthouse out at Point Conception, and I’ve been waiting for a good day to fly out and snap it with my new camera. I wasn’t able to get ATC clearance to enter the restricted area just on the other side of the light to snap that angle and the cool sea caves out there. Maybe some day. I’ll probably post more pix after I’ve looked thru them, but wanted to at least share this one.

1709 Pt. Conception Light

1709 Pt. Conception Light

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