John & Anne Wiley

2012/03/06

Falling

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:15

I chanced to get this unusual view of Seven Falls that I really like. It’s nearly straight down and might be uncomfortable or confusing to look at, so be warned. If you look at the full-size version (or the larger rotated one on my Photo Page) your mind could be stretched a bit.

0383 Falling

0383 Falling

As you know if you’ve looked at all my blog posts and the entire Photo Page, I love waterfalls. They’re fun on the ground, in the water, and from the air. When I was a hawk I used to swoop down to drink and bathe in pools like this, and slip through the mists of every waterfall in my domain. No surprise I’m exploring waterfalls anew since getting my pilot’s license, so maybe “falling” is an apt verb to describe such activity. This unusual vertical view gives me an illusion of falling into the photo, even though it was taken in a gentle turning descent. As a reward or reassurance for surviving the above pic, here’s a more normal view taken later in the turn as we looked back at the falls.

0388 Seven Falls

0388 Seven Falls

It’s easy to see why this is a very popular spot with hikers able to handle the somewhat strenuous hike in. When it’s hot you’ll often see happy hikers cooling off in the pools or warming up again on the smooth rocks. Though we’ve visited falls like this, hiking to Seven Falls is still on our wish list.

2012/03/05

Fillings

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 21:36

As you may recall, I’ve named this Tooth Rock because the name Cathedral Peak doesn’t seem to fit.

0355 Tooth Rock Revisited

0355 Tooth Rock Revisited

From the western end of town (and certainly from our place), it looks very much like an incisor sitting on a front ridge of the mountain below La Cumbre Peak. As I’ve probably said before, it’s actually a relatively thin slab of upturned sedimentary sandstone as you can see in this pic from behind.

0350 Behind Tooth Tip

0350 Behind Tooth Tip

Just left of center and up from the bottom is the top tip of the Tooth Rock slab, and you can see that compared to the overall size it’s thin rather than conical like it looks from town. I’m also fascinated by the potential it has for human habitation, and on this flight I noticed the acorn grinding holes left in this large boulder close below Tooth Rock.

0352 Tooth Grinder

0352 Tooth Grinder

I imagine people (women?) sitting on the surrounding boulders chatting away with those grinding acorns here for food. Did they also live or at least temporarily camp in the many “view” caves on the face of Tooth Rock? Seems like a natural spot for that, and though most of the caves are shallow they could easily have built floors and roofs over them. In addition to the large cave at the base (see my Photo Page for a closeup of that) these are most of the caves on the upper part below the tip.

0356 Upper Cavities

0356 Upper Cavities

Here’s another pic that shows the ones below this and above the main cave at the base.

0357 Middle Hollows

0357 Middle Hollows

I’ve included the bottom caves from the prior pic at the top of this one for perspective. I’m presuming current visitors to Tooth Rock would not generally visit these caves unless they have climbing gear. I’m also guessing that native peoples would have considerable skills and strategies for climbing such rocks. Sometimes flying over such places I feel a connection with ancient peoples, and with the hawks they watched circling above them.

2012/03/02

First March

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 10:27

To launch March 1st, our sweet Daughter shared video she caught of our delightful Grand-daughter’s first walk. Now it might not seem much to you, but for us this is pure joy. Given the date, her witty Dad dubbed it her First March. You can’t tell much from this still, but when we watch the video our cheeks hurt from smiling. 😀

Luella's First March

Luella's First March

It’s fascinating for us to watch her mental processes as she decides to do it, pauses, continues, then stops at the edge of the carpet where the floor is slippery in her jammies. I love how she holds her hands up, and opens the fingers of her right hand when she stops.

Needless to say, I’ve figured out how to download the video she posted onto my computer to keep forever and show to everyone who will watch it with us. How far technology has come from requiring an expensive and low-quality sound movie camera plus weeks for processing and then an expensive projector to share a moment like this. Now many parents can instantly capture sharp video on a cellphone and share it  across the planet in a few minutes.

Wasn’t it yesterday I watched my Daughter’s first walk? Don’t I wish we had videos of her firsts? Luckily I do have indelible memories that are triggered by watching her with her own daughter.

Life is so very sweet!

2012/02/26

Bright Days

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 19:39

Spring offers some bright days when the mountains beckon us to fly. Usually when the mountains are crisp and clear, there are scenes like this waiting down at Goleta Beach when we take off.

0284 Crisp Colors

0284 Crisp Colors

The air can become almost invisible, and the full brightness of Santa Barbara colors sparkles from sea to peaks. On this day we got a “downwind” departure. That means we did the usual takeoff for small planes, heading out over the water between Goleta Pier and UCSB, but instead of flying further offshore we turned and headed back past the airport to the freeway before turning East toward the harbor. So this puts us closer to the mountains that coaxed us into the clear air.

0288 Mountain View

0288 Mountain View

This view of the mountains, before we reached Hwy.154, has a variety of places we enjoy. At the bottom-right is part of the creek trail from Tucker’s Grove Park up to Hwy.154 where it climbs up to a gravel parking area. Up on the slope above where you can see the highway cutting up toward the left is Painted Cave. Once we reached the harbor, the study in blue that had greeted us at takeoff presented this new panorama.

0315 Wavy Blue

0315 Wavy Blue

The clear air has great powers to clear the mind, briefly lifting the veil between seeing and being.

2012/02/24

Flying Colors

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 06:55

Night flying is fun and interesting, but sunset is far less subtle. The colors of sunset from the air are extremely difficult to photograph, but their impact is easy to remember. I’ve tweaked away at this pic approaching SBA to land, but it pales in comparison to being there even more than most aerial pix.

0271 SBA Sunset Aloft

0271 SBA Sunset Aloft

The exposure range is so wide that the land looks dark, or the sky is overexposed. The color variations in the sky were both more subtle and more extreme, but the land was perfectly clear. Once on the ground, as usual the show had shifted and everything seemed immediately darker the moment we landed.

0280 SBA Sunset

0280 SBA Sunset

The clouds spilling over the mountains were of course part of our view aloft too. I like how the control tower at the bottom-right stands guard against the darkness. Turning to the left I snapped again with UCSB in silhouette.

0282 UCSB Sunset

0282 UCSB Sunset

I’m putting a larger version of that last one on the Photo Page, because the colors approach the subtle riot of colors we saw. So often here sunsets splash a symphony of shapes, textures and colors to herald the night. I like to imagine the birds enjoy it as we do when flying.

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