John & Anne Wiley

2011/02/13

Green Memories

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region,White North Adventure — John @ 05:53

One of the first photos after our 2/7 takeoff from SBA was this private airstrip in the greening hills of Santa Ynez Valley near Neverland Ranch. With all the snow (and in this unseasonably warm heat wave, slush) here it’s fun to take a few minutes for looking through the photos from our flight that I’d only had time to glance at and file for moments like this. I’m smiling now, both from the great day’s visit with family and from this snap from only a few daze ago that brings a faint smell of Summer grass.

5278 Private Airport

5278 Private Airport

Maybe when the wildflowers bloom we can get permission to land on this beautiful airstrip. We could walk to the edge and stand in nature next to Tripp, to smell the flowers and notice small critters like we did in North Dakota last Summer on the way to Oshkosh. sigh… 🙂

2011/02/10

Into White

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,White North Adventure — John @ 05:29

OK, Tripp’s happy in a heated hangar and we’re cozy in a nice new Lethbridge hotel, sated with especially tasty food, and ready to share some pix from our new adventure. This is the first time we’ve flown into hard Winter and it’s a whole new beautiful. But first a few snaps from SBA to RHV (San Jose).

For example, here’s a Barbie version of what we were leaving. Mid-70s, sunny, calm and bucolic. Easy to take.

5271 Villa Barbie

5271 Villa Barbie

The view, though pathetic compared with the panorama we were taking in a quarter mile above, must be rather remarkable for ground level. The little red car looks so like a toy to me, the whole scene takes on the quality of a Barbie dream set.

After a fuel stop in SLO, Morro Rock looked magical as usual but this time with a “volcano” top.

5282 Misty Morro

5282 Misty Morro

After a leisurely landing at RHV, as Anne rummaged for something packed in Tripp I strolled toward the terminal to look at a murder of crows. They were sitting quietly in the tree enjoying the cooling evening breeze. Well, not completely quietly. OK, they were raising a horrific raucous din cackling and trumpeting in their loudest grating harsh voices.

5310 Crow Congretation

5310 Crow Congretation

Now you may know I’m sometimes impish, prankish and annoying. So of course I had to “humiliate” (my niece’s term for it) the poor gentle crows. Suddenly raising my hands from my sides as if to take off, I made a loud “Caw!!”

5312 Fear and Loathing

5312 Fear and Loathing

There was a varied and unmelodious response as they first startled into flight, then realized I was vastly too fat to fly as they so easily do sans airplane, and they began to diverge. Some flew directly away giving alarm calls. Others seemed almost embarrassed to have been tricked and formed a scold choir. A few left the flock to fly a little closer, perhaps to examine this idiotic creature or maybe to memorize me as enemy of their murder. One of these days I must learn to speak crow, and possibly also some avian manners. As it stands though, I quite enjoyed the exercise and pretend it was artistically motivated to get an interesting photo. Am I bad? 🙂

2011/01/31

Mountain Glow

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 00:46

I was outside puttering on something for Tripp when Anne brought me the camera and said, “Look at that.”

5104 Cloud, Mountain, Colors

5104 Cloud, Mountain, Colors

The spectacle was almost unbelievable. I like the way the end of the rainbow hangs in the air, and how the variations in rain make vertical bands of varied intensity. The whole show blew along the ridge toward the right (East), and I kept snapping. I’ve put some on my Photo Page, and sent others to Edhat. My personal fav is when a hawk was circling in the blustery winds opposite the lit side of the show.

5110 Light Hawk

5110 Light Hawk

Anne’s fav is the end of the show, when it touched down in front of Gibraltar.

5116 Touchdown

5116 Touchdown

2011/01/29

Other Window

Filed under: by Anne,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 10:19

Sometimes we’re so absorbed in looking at what’s on our side of the plane, we don’t notice what each other are looking at. Of course, I’m also flying the plane so it’s more often that Anne’s enjoying something and I don’t find out about it until looking at her pix back on the ground. On a recent flight she was captivated by bare trees and their shadows, and since I couldn’t coax her to post one of her snaps here’s my fav of the set.

1259 Herd of Trees

1259 Herd of Trees

I like how she caught sunlight in the creek, how the road winds across it, and a powerful illusion that the trees are grazing along the grassy terrain in a slow moving herd.

2011/01/20

Green Mountains

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:27

Our flight on the 17th took us over Gaviota Pass, and the mountains there were even more beautiful than usual. The intricate rock formations on the East side of the pass stood out brilliantly against the lush green of all the new growth from the recent rains.

4826 Gav Pass East Side Peaks

4826 Gav Pass East Side Peaks

You can make out highway 101 snaking from left to upper right beyond the foreground mountains, and the smaller road that branches off to Lompoc at the left. We were flying along the coast looking northward, and wondering which of these peaks has trails people climb from near the 101 tunnel. It’s fun to imagine how this area will look when the wildflowers start to bloom!

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