I’m feeling Elvish today. Looking at this pic from a recent hike up from Tucker’s Grove, I remembered the moment. The shape of it, with colorful leaves around it and across the top but bare inside somehow got me imagining a place where Forest Elves might hang out. Maybe the soft rustling sound was just the wind, but I thought for a moment something moved inside. If you click to see the larger version, maybe you’ll see what I mean.
3041 Elvish Hide
Last month as we climbed through the mountains coming out of Palm Springs toward home as sunset approached, we were thrilled by this view off to our left.
1757 Mountain Magic
The air through the pass was moving fairly fast, as you can see from that wisp of cloud lilting over the mountain. Also as you’d expect from the fact that in the valley floor below us near here is one of California’s largest wind farms. Countless giant windmills are churning away any time power is needed for the grid. But even with our progress slowed by the air funneling through this valley, the air was almost smooth. So we had the time to breathe deeply into the mood of this view.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the tree planted by the river,
Which will not be moved.
I, the rock, I the river, I the tree
1702 Oasis
Wandering again through images from our moments wandering in Palm Canyon, Maya‘s words come to mind. The song and dance of the water in perfect harmony with the rustling trees. In this enchanted oasis, gazing into the face of each rock etched with eternity.
1705 Face of Time
Strolling in silence our eyes caress each rooted stone. Safe in the shadows at their feet our hearts are lifted from the water past the trees toward stars beyond the blue.
1713 Pulled Up
Today I revisited our flight with friends out to Santa Cruz Island, and was fascinated by this building I snapped as part of a scene near the southeast end. It’s an old church with cemetery, all but untouched by time.
1552 Island In Time
Each of those grave markers represents a life story that ended here, so near the bustle and constant change of SoCA yet so very far. A time capsule from the previous millennium in some ways, of a very different lifestyle from our Hollywood freeway culture. Moving minutes backward in our own time to the climb West for the crossing, this long look to distant Point Conception carries my mind back even beyond the abandoned buildings by that lighthouse to the Chumash people who inhabited both places.
1513 Looking Back
Though only a couple of minutes before that, our takeoff looking past UCSB to the island seems a lifetime ago.
1512 Further Back
The drought-ravaged wetland next to the airport hints at the marsh once there when a Chumash band lived on a hillock that was once an island.
People sometimes discover totally new fascinations, and the subjects of these fascinations can change. For me flying isn’t a new fascination but as regular visitors to this blog well know, it has triggered several new fascinations. A big one is the rock bands in our mountains. Bands of rock that protrude from the scrub and rubble, revealing sculpted shapes.
1383 Three Splits
Maybe this fascination is new because flying over these shapes provides an immediate 3D sense impossible from these photos, or from the ground. Another reason is probably that many of these sculptures are far from trails and thus invisible to all but the hardiest hikers. Or aviators. How is it the three massive boulders above are each somewhere in a process of splitting right down the middle?
1319 Texture Tales
The texture of this rock band peeking from the garnish of brush tells timeless tales of wind and water, begging to be touched even if only by the eye of a passing pilot. Then what about this fascinating dry waterfall? How many people even know it’s there, and fewer still have ever seen it much less found a way to explore it on foot. Maybe as time and technology continue making it easier to see and even stand in such places, there will be ever fewer unknown fascinations for people to discover.
1402 Fascinating Falls
John & Anne Wiley 
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