John & Anne Wiley

2011/01/15

Span

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:05

We have always enjoyed beautiful bridges, both for the metaphor of connection and easy flow and the lines of human art interacting with nature. Over the old stagecoach trail that runs past Cold Spring Tavern, the arch bridge on Highway 154 near the summit is our local fav. It might soon be sporting suicide prevention barriers, so every time we see it there’s an extra urge to really enjoy the magnificent architecture. Our flight past it Wednesday afternoon just after looking at the trees on the ridge was no exception.

4494 Cold Spring Bridge

4494 Cold Spring Bridge

We get quiet thinking about the tragic human stories that have ended in the scrub beneath it. Yet we still thrill to the lean lines and remember the many times we’ve enjoyed unobstructed panoramic views when driving across it.

4500 Graceful Span

4500 Graceful Span

2011/01/14

Going Up

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:09

I’m surprised it’s taking me so long to go through the pix from yesterday’s flight. After posting the snaps of the new copper dome, we got distracted with lots of other stuff. Anyway, just now I looked through the first few and here are some favs from the flight. Just after takeoff UCSB looked especially lovely, and since it was a bit hazy I’d mounted the polarizing filter. The result is both better and worse than without, since it reduces haze but makes colors a bit strange and reduces sharpness a bit. Fun to see it differently, and at least in terms of haze more like how it looks when we’re flying.

4468 UCSB Polarized

4468 UCSB Polarized

Click to see the larger version here, or better yet visit our Photo Page (link in right column) to see an even larger and sharper version. Such a beautiful campus and setting!

We climbed over the ridge West of Painted Cave near what I think is a gun club, and this stand of trees with the island background was captivating.

4486 Huddled Trees On Top

4486 Huddled Trees On Top

I’m hoping to look at and post more pix from the flight tomorrow. Such fun to “re-fly” it via the photos.

2011/01/09

Again

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 01:57

Every evening the sun sets of course. Sometimes we don’t see it due to clouds, but more often it’s uneventful because there aren’t any clouds. Tonight was yet another of those less common SB sunsets with just the right mix of Goldilocks perfection blending clouds and orange-red afterglow. So we went for a short walk. First we paused to check on monkeys for a dear friend.

1248 Monkey Business

1248 Monkey Business

She’d sold her home and moved away, only to discover that these monkeys she’d left behind are wanted by her daughter. So we stopped by to ensure that they are indeed removed to a neighbor’s home to wait for transportation to their new yard.

Reassured, we headed up a small hill to survey the surrounds. I’m happy to report that all’s well, and we were rewarded with some panoramic “air-brushed” SoCal sunset skies.

1252 Soft Sunset

1252 Soft Sunset

The most gentle breeze, a mere waft really, carried the last sounds of the day as we soaked in the warm colors shifting toward indigo darkness. Luckily for this post, Anne had brought along her camera so I borrowed it to snap these pix using manual settings.

1250 Layers of Light

1250 Layers of Light

The dust blotches on Anne’s camera refreshed my temptation to look up the directions I saw online a few months ago, on how to open and clean the internal sensor. Of course, the first time she forgets to keep it out of strong wind and sticks it out of Tripp’s window to capture one of her great photos the sensor will be re-coated with blotches. There’s also some chance of messing it up during the delicate brain surgery. Is it worth the effort and risk, or should we just buy her a new and more “rugged” camera?

2011/01/05

Two in a Row

Filed under: by Anne,Flying,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — Anne @ 08:41

After such a rainy month, we delighted to see clear skies, and treated ourselves to flying two days in a row.  John explained our transponder problem, so Monday we took a quick 15 minutes to check it out.  ATC sent us out over the ocean, so we flew higher and got different views than usual of shore.  I like the clouds sitting in stacks on the mountains:

1208 Clouds Grabbing Hills

1208 Cloud Smoke Stacks

Tuesday we settled on our preferred plan to replace the transponder and headed to San Luis Obispo to purchase and get it installed. On our way I got the snowy background of the Sierra Madres, beyond Cachuma Lake.

1243 Cacuma Lake & Snow

1243 Cacuma Lake & Snow

The sun was setting on our flight home, so soft pink skies and twinkling lights through the green Santa Ynez valley accompanied our flight, made even more pleasant with our new transponder.  I dreamily enjoyed the shimmering SY valley, the ocean view as we came over the mountain, and approaching the city lights of SB.  I felt, as I so often have, so very lucky!  And grateful & inspired that John pursued his dream of flying, and went through the rigors of getting a pilot’s license. I’m glad his dream included flying with me too!

by ~Anne

2011/01/04

Rainbow Halo

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region,Tripp — John @ 03:12

We finally got up for a short flight today, and saw a magical rainbow halo around a little cloud. We climbed high trying to get our transponder to work. That’s a little box that sends an ID number to ATC so they can tell at a glance who we are, to more conveniently distinguish us from the other planes flying around SBA. It was working perfectly since we bought Tripp, but coming home from Christmas in San Diego it decided to stop working when we landed to see friends in LA. Tomorrow we might fly to SLO for a replacement, but today while testing it one last time we got this treat.

4262 Cloud Rainbow Halo

4262 Cloud Rainbow Halo

The cloud was about over Hwy.154 in the Santa Ynez Valley, and rain falling on the slopes beyond made a really cool rainbow behind the little cloud. We’d thought about flying in that direction to see snow on the higher slopes of the Sierra Madre, but as you can see they’re all covered in clouds. Just as well, since without the transponder our preference was to stay closer to home. Sure was nice to fly again, because it’s been more than a week!

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