John & Anne Wiley

2014/01/13

Totem

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 02:58

I’m not just fascinated by rock formations. I also harbor a fascination with that fascination. Why is it that when flying over areas seldom seen by humans, I’m entranced not just by the beauty of the entire scene?

0369 WildScape

0369 WildScape

Few people wander beyond the thin strand of highway winding from Santa Maria in the distance, through a pass to Cuyama visible out the other window (not in this pic of course). I like the gentle (plenty of flat open landing spots) wildness of it and the fact that just off the road are “totems“ only visible to hikers and aviators.

0371 Totem

0371 Totem

This one is probably visible from the road, because I’ve seen cars parked at the curve apparently enjoying it from afar. A few hardy souls even apparently make the climb up to it because I could see some trails. But beyond it are more totems that may seldom be visited.

0403 Forgotten Totems

0403 Forgotten Totems

Did these formations once have meaning to bands of people or lone explorers wandering this region? How many people know of them now? What about this hidden collection of totems where water seems to have once flowed in abundance?

0406 HandHold Rock

0406 HandHold Rock

That large rock at the bottom even has a row of what look like hand holds carved out. Maybe by hands, maybe by water?

What of this garden where several small boulders rest atop larger ones?

0410 Totems? (click=Larger)

0410 Totems? (click=Larger)

Did people place these in the last few years, centuries, millennia; or were they somehow deposited there by natural forces? Do many of us find such totems evocative of our relationships with self, other, ancestors, and nature? Does my enduring fascination with such things reveal mingling in my nature along with modern and scientific consciousness, some mythopoeic quality?

2014/01/11

Valley of Vines

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 09:15

Santa Rita Valley wineries are both picturesque, and well-reputed for Pinot Noir in particular. The film Sideways features scenes and wineries there. I enjoy flying over it first because even in a dry year like this it’s such a beautiful vista down the river to the sea.

0049 Valley Vista

0049 Valley Vista

Secondly, we enjoy visiting the quaint tasting room at Alma Rosa and we used to be able to afford a bottle of their Pinot occasionally.

0052 Alma Rosa

0052 Alma Rosa

I also enjoy the colors of the river, and how it reminds me of small rivers I’ve kayaked and canoed. Time slows as we’re wordlessly slipping among reeds enjoying sunlight through the leaves, listening to bird song and silence punctuated by a gentle bump of paddle on hull or rippling dip of blade in the smell of slow river.

0062 River of Time

0062 River of Time

2014/01/07

Salt Shapes

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 20:29

Soda Lake is a four or five hour drive from SB, but a happy half hour in Tripp. Rather than have to drive circuitous windy roads around and through the intervening mountain ranges, Tripp simply lifts over them to go direct. Once there, this playground of shapes entertains.

0323 Soda Lake Playground

0323 Soda Lake Playground

Those low mountains are the Temblor Range created by the turmoil on the San Andreas Fault, another attraction of this valley. Speaking of valleys, the hazy one beyond is home to Bakersfield and Fresno, with the Sierras in the distance. Here in the dry lake though, I’m quite drawn to the intricacy of shapes like this frozen lightning bolt.

0329 Intricate Etchings

0329 Intricate Etchings

But my favorite on this flight was a joyful romping reindeer shape.

0328 Romping Reindeer

0328 Romping Reindeer

The delighted leaping shout it makes with stirrups flying, and even a little heart shaped mark by the ear. The beginnings of a unicorn horn, and a wispy beard waggling in the breeze. Yes, this to me is a playful shape any artist could have fun with, especially on such a grand scale.

I wonder how many people ever get to see this perspective, how many of them would see the shapes as I do, and what it is in our psyche that translates natural patterns into art. Perhaps not all children see bunnies and castles in the clouds.

2014/01/06

FreshSnow

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random — John @ 09:02

After a warm holiday with family in the foothills west of San Jose, we flew to Fresno on our way home. Climbing east toward the central valley, we enjoyed the golden rolling hills.

0321 Golden Hills

0321 Golden Hills

People from other places sometimes say this doesn’t appeal to them. For me it’s cozy as an old tan woolen blanket. As a kid riding for miles in our family car I’d often imagine the friendly giant waking. He’d clamber yawning from beneath that blanket and wink at us. But soon on this memorable flight (true, they all are), we approached Fresno.

0322 Fresno Blanket

0322 Fresno Blanket

It lay beneath a different blanket, of acrid haze only a few hundred feet thick. People down there seem to take little notice of what they’re breathing, but as we descended toward the airport only our Molly mission kept us from turning above it and heading straight home to SB. Visually though, I like the sleepy village look it gave to the sprawling city. Even more, I like the contrast it gives to the high Sierras glinting in the sun beyond.

2014/01/05

Rock Art

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

The mountains are overflowing with rock formations sculpted by time and elements. I like how the shapes on this low ridge stand out against the shaded canyon beyond.

0588 Ridge Art

0588 Ridge Art

Some rocks have ancient art on them, put there by people thousands of years ago. Other rocks bear the mark of more recent human activity.

0595 Art, Politics, or...?

0595 Art, Politics, or…?

I wonder who marked this stone high in the mountains, and when. I wonder how many people have seen it, and what their reactions have been. I wonder if the person(s) who put it there have ever gone back, and where they are now.
Followup: I submitted a version of the peace symbol pic and it led to an interesting discussion in Comments there.

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