John & Anne Wiley

2012/10/09

Big Little

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 09:16

As a kid, I enjoyed pretending I was flying on my bike. The weeds in a vacant lot were trees, and I’d “land” in a clearing to explore a world where ants are the size of dachshunds. Sometimes lying in bed staring at the ceiling, by restricting my view I could make it infinitely far away and then right in front of my nose. Could this be part of why I enjoy flying?

0472 Miniature Diorama

0472 Miniature Diorama

Is this a finely detailed miniature, or the end of Lake Cachuma where the river spills in? I see the big picture, and enjoy the abundant panoramic vistas of Santa Barbara County. At the same time, I notice little details like this thick wavy green “fur” at the feet of shadow-etched branches of oaks.

0476 Green Fur

0476 Green Fur

A lone fallen tree on an overgrown hillside jumps out at me with one story after another on how it fell, and the spiraling impression of the clearing it has magically created.

0478 Spiral Bones

0478 Spiral Bones

As I once found cartoon characters in that childhood textured ceiling, I watch the whimsical fleeting shapes of clouds.

0481 Bushy Cloud Brows

0481 Bushy Cloud Brows

Moments later I see a leaping pod of cloud dolphins cavorting in the sky.

0483 Dolphin Cloud Trick

0483 Dolphin Cloud Trick

On a ridge, the mysterious symbol created by a split road engages the creative and explanatory sides of my brain to whimsically play.

0485 Split Infinitive

0485 Split Infinitive

I love being on the ground, and engaging deeply in relationships. Yet many of my fav pix are of aerial perspectives. Maybe because compared with the relatively brief blissful moments of flying, friends and family (and often strangers) are much more fascinating, valuable, and transformative. So the aerial is more different and unusual, and provides a change of pace.

2012/10/08

Waves

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:51

Life breaks over us, and I like it when we can laugh. Sometimes I’ve wanted the waves of joy, grief, and challenge to stop. But of course, I love Life and so they continue to surprise me. In recent years I laugh more often. But nothing heavy about this post for me. Just more of the delights from our flight along the Five Cities coast, picking up where we left off with this one of my fav manse in Pismo.

0447 Pismo Manse

0447 Pismo Manse

I’d already posted a bigger and different view of this wonderful place on my Photo Page, and someone just sent me info about it that I’ve added in an update there. Nearby I was struck by how similar the offshore rocks are to the Oregon coast we recently enjoyed.

0450 Whitewash

0450 Whitewash

These wear a much thicker coating of accumulated white from years of happy birds though.

0451 Sea Caves

0451 Sea Caves

This stretch of coast also boasts many sea caves like the ones on the Oregon coast. Yet at the Pismo Pier the cliffs give way to broad beaches as the coastline angles South. It’s well worn by ATVs, RVs, and SUVs, yet still offers a great place for one horsepower riding.

 

0459 Beach Riders

0459 Beach Riders

In this last shot I’ll share from that flight you can see our beloved Oceano airport at the upper-right, the beginnings of the vast dunes at the right edge, and I like the hook of water where the estuary meets the sea.

0460 Oceano

0460 Oceano

Wonderful waves of relaxation wash over me looking at these pix. I hope they convey at least a little of that easy peace into your day too.

2012/10/06

Textures of Time

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Inner World,Nature,Random — John @ 00:00

I lived in San Jose (well, the Campbell ‘burb really) during my high school years, so it’s a little magical seeing it from the air these many years later. As if there’s a special texture to the way it sprawls south from the Bay between two mountain ranges. The evening light of our flight back home to SB added a touch of melancholy to this enigmatic vacant section.

0367 Forgotten Dreams?

0367 Forgotten Dreams?

I was curious about this large vacant tract surrounded by houses, and the curved rows of trees. Seems to me it was once a golf course, and now just serves as pasture to a few happy cattle. Since it’s so near the Reid Hillview airport (just on the other side of Cunningham Lake) far across the valley from Campbell, I never saw it when living there. My love of all things aviation did draw me in my youth to the larger SJC airport, where I’d park beneath the approach end, to dream on the wide variety of landing planes. A few miles later I gazed

0368 Hills of Home

0368 Hills of Home

across the rolling brown hills and felt again the warmth of such scenes bring to my soul. For people of different regions, this velvety golden brown holds little appeal. To me, the open vistas and clusters of oak forest bring a contrast of colors and textures that nourish me with variety and perspective. A little later as shadows grew even longer we passed Pinnacles again.

0372 Pinnacle Panorama

0372 Pinnacle Panorama

This time there was far less smoke and we were lower with a slightly different track through the area. Each time we pass, different formations of stone textured by time leap out to the eye. Like the way this long furrowed ridge dances with the light. Nearby a cluster of outcrops with different weathered faces forms a varied family watching our passage in silent witness.

0377 Silent Witness

0377 Silent Witness

A neighboring low round pillar squats near this angular sharp ridge, as if waiting patiently there to remind us of all the eons invested in achieving the texture we so enjoyed approaching this particular sunset. Appreciating the bones of our planet, perhaps helps us awaken more fully to the memories that have carved our own souls.

0394 Time Tale

0394 Time Tale

2012/10/02

Relativity

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 07:42

Way way back when I was getting my pilots license, seven years ago, flying to an airport more than 50 miles was a Big Adventure. Sure seems like thirty years ago! Now that I’ve landed in every U.S. state and Canadian province, anything less than 300 miles is a relaxing day trip. Such was the case flying from SB to San Jose to visit relatives not long after we’d just flown past it coming home from the AB Joy adventure. The first pic I like from that flight is this hippie house on a hill.

3797 Round House

3797 Round House

OK, you’re right – it’s not a hippie house, or in fact a house of any kind. It is indeed a water tank. But for some reason I’ve always thought it would be cool to live in an old wooden water tower, and put a sun deck on the roof. Anyway I like how the tank, white aerial survey X, and the grass trim shape all interact visually. Next up is a velvety texture.

3817 Velvet Ground

3817 Velvet Ground

I like how the undulations show up, and how they mix with the adjoining vineyard geometry. But I also get a sense of stressed land that’s saturated with salt or something that’s making those whitish areas. This was actually a pretty smokey flight, due to all the fires back then (8/31), so most of the pix didn’t turn out well. Like this muted one of the visually striking Pinnacles.

3834 Hazy Pinnacles

3834 Hazy Pinnacles

Descending into San Jose along the 101 I enjoyed the interplay of wind, water and trees at the small reservoir(s) between 101 and the old Monterey Highway.

3843 Reflections

3843 Reflections

I reflected for a moment on the many times I’d been along one of those roads, and the relatives living and gone who lived nearby. Also the new relative whose birthday we gathered to celebrate. So many changes and milestones between birth and death, yet perhaps relatively few.

0138 Relativity

0138 Relativity

2012/09/30

Last Leg

Filed under: AB Joy Adventure,Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 06:59

I’m feeling it all over again. The way it was knowing that the day we left McBeth would be the last on our wonderful AB Joy adventure. Luckily it was varied and beautiful just like every other day of the trip. We began with a berry good walk under some tall trees to stretch our legs and stain our faces with wild blackberry juice.

3681 Forest Road

3681 Forest Road

Joy’s not in this pic, because she was already foraging. Before long Tripp had lifted us effortlessly above it all again, and I circled back toward the airport to gain altitude.

3699 McBeth

3699 McBeth

The runway is just above the trees at the bottom, and we took off West (to the left). That’s the Klamath River at the left edge, and the rock dike is the gray line just above the runway. Our hotel was near the right end of the town, and Tripp was parked in the small cleared rectangle of cut grass on the far side of the runway about in the middle. It doesn’t look like much from here, but climbing over the 30′ dike and back through brambles and barbed wire carrying some heavy stuff at midnight wasn’t easy. Was fun though. 🙂

3705 White Blanket

3705 White Blanket

I’d initially planned to fly out to the coast and along it like we’d done in Oregon the day before. That white blanket that greeted our takeoff is why I decided to climb near the airport instead. Once we were high enough to see that we didn’t need to leave the coast completely, we turned south and climbed gradually higher within gliding distance of the highway. I’ve already shared a pic of the North Pass Fire, but thought you might like the starkness of this one too.

3712 North Pass Fire

3712 North Pass Fire

It seemed to have skritchy hair on the right, but maybe that’s because of the sleep we had. 🙂

I’ll close this AB Joy recap with a pic from our luxurious stop in Sonoma. We enjoyed a delicious picnic in the park across the street from the Basque Cafe.

3741 Relaxation

3741 Relaxation

Next I’ll start to bring you up to date on some flights we’ve enjoyed since our return. After that maybe I’ll share that we’re contemplating a new Big Adventure to the East Coast. If we decide to spend another big chunk of our savings… 🙂

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