John & Anne Wiley

2010/12/07

Mist Approach

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 02:28

Instrument practice often involves a “missed approach” called by the pilot, as a way to save time. Basically it means you fly as if in clouds, but instead of taking the time to land and then take off again you do the procedures as if weather were so bad you couldn’t land. Well, approaching SBA after our evening flight today we enjoyed a “mist approach” when noticing the thin mist clinging to this bit of coast.

3872 Misty Coast

3872 Misty Coast

So soft and lovely with the brilliant sunset glow on the bluff. Earlier we’d enjoyed the fuzzy air caressing the undulating hills in northern Santa Ynez Valley on our way to take a fresh peek at Michael Jackson’s Neverland estate.

3842 Blanket of Hills

3842 Blanket of Hills

Reminds me of a rumpled blanket, as if some giant forgot to make his bed. On the way home the quaint village of Los Olivos looked like a movie miniature.

3853 Los Olivos Shadows

3853 Los Olivos Shadows

I’ve sent some pix from this flight to Edhat and also put a few on my Photo Page, so you could use the links in the right column here if you’d like to see more. Tomorrow I might share other views here and on those sites, as I go through the snaps from today.

2010/12/01

Quiet Water Walk

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 22:51

Monday was a full week. After a busy morning and our especially glorious flight, we enjoyed a delightful walk at the beach and slough next to UCSB and then had a busy evening. So much variety, it seemed like much more than a day. The refreshings sights, sounds and smells of Goleta Beach accented the sunset over UCSB.

3770 UCSB Surf Mist Sunset

3770 UCSB Surf Mist Sunset

Turning back toward the airport, we explored the slough along Tecolotito Creek.

3795 Stillness

3795 Stillness

A reverent serenity washed over us in waves, walking, stopping to listen and watch, talking, pausing to contemplate…

2010/11/30

Fly High, Breathe Deep

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 04:17

We used to drive Big Sur at least once a year, and on every trip we involuntarily did The Breath. The first few times we didn’t notice, but soon we began counting and I don’t recall any of our dozen or so drives that didn’t evoke at least half a dozen deep breaths. Few other drives do that for us, but many flights do. Today it would have been easy to hyperventilate. The air was relatively clear and calm, between the recent winds and storms, so we visited Point Conception. See if the full size of this view (or the larger one on my Photo Page) makes you do The Breath.

3630 Point Conception Light

3630 Point Conception Light

It worked for me again just now, but maybe because we had the full sensory overload there a couple of hours ago, and not just this little photo frame. Can you tell I love to fly? 🙂

3652 Spine To SB

3652 Spine To SB

We climbed higher, and the view back toward home looks like the backbone of a giant. Looking the other way, Point Arguello was equally scenic.

3651 Conception to Arguello

3651 Conception to Arguello

Given my recent posts, you know I took lots of rock photos flying the hills back home. No surprise perhaps, that I was also fascinated by the little arroyos and other terrain features like this spot probably familiar to surfers.

3653 Wrinkled Coast

3653 Wrinkled Coast

I’ll share more sometime soon, but want to go post a few larger favs to my Photo Page.

2010/11/29

Rock On

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:29

I’m in a rut on rocks. Can’t get enough, so it makes sense that I can’t “give” enough aerial rock pix here. 🙂

3504 Why?

3504 Why?

I realize you might be asking yourself what’s so fascinating to me about rock formations (or maybe why you’re looking at them and reading this). Take 3504 here for example. I enjoy the shapes along the top, and though you can’t see it in this frame I like the way it pops out of a sea of shrubs. It’s fun for me to imagine the history of human interactions with this spot, the geologic forces that raised it from ocean to mountain, and the more recent erosion that made it look like this. I like how different plants have embraced various parts of it.

3507 Jukebox Rox

3507 Jukebox Rox

Others are more dramatic, like this one that evokes that ’50s jukebox with neon arches at the top. There’s also an impression of stained glass, and I like the arrowhead pointing up from center bottom.

3513 Playground

3513 Playground

How about this one? Might it be fun to scramble over this, and check out that row of small pillars at the back? Maybe flying allows me to scramble there in mind’s eye, clear of any lingering rattlers (though they’re probably all hibernating).

One more try. Do these pillars interest you at all? Are they ancient sculptures from Easter Island, or perhaps a group of giants turned to stone as they lay in the sun admiring the view of our islands? Do you see “faces” (like the thin-faced clown at bottom right) or other shapes in some of them?

3514 Pillars

3514 Pillars

Maybe I don’t lie in the grass and gaze at cloud shapes much anymore, because I’m up among them with an angel by my side making lazy circles in the sun looking down at stony hills where a small boy watched a lizard watching.

2010/11/28

Rock Concert

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 07:54

I love rocks. When we fly, I often take detours to look at rock formations and I have a gazillion photos of them. There’s something about the shapes, colors and textures. Especially nice from the air, because we have total freedom of movement to explore various angles and the pace of movement accentuates the 3D experience.

So are they interesting to you too? Do you hear music in bands of rocks? Does your mind dance with the sculpted and weathered shapes.

3489 Stone Slices

3489 Stone Slices

Do you imagine a snake sunning on the warm stone? Do you see an uplifted sedimentary slab and imagine finding fossils from the epoch when it was ocean floor?

3494 Slab of Seabed

3494 Slab of Seabed

How many years did it take for that sandstone to form, and how many more to lift it into the sky and tilt it at a crazy angle that weather left standing alone? What causes some sections to be hollowed out in circular shapes?

3501 Drilled Face

3501 Drilled Face

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