John & Anne Wiley

2014/03/21

Quiet Town

I started looking back thru pix from recent flights and decided to share a few of my faves. This set reminds me how beautiful Our Town is from the air. Such a bucolic and peaceful look, with lots of trees and parks compared with most cities this size we’ve flown over.

1207 Quiet Town

1207 Quiet Town

From the spire of the Arlington Theater along State toward the beach is the heart of downtown, and even there you see lots of trees and at the lower-left the edge of the large and stately 3-park complex we all enjoy. There’s also the way Our Town is nestled among our Four Attractions.

1212 City, Forest, Sea, Mountain

1212 City, Forest, Sea, Mountain

This last pic captures some of the easy essence as our eye is drawn down State and out to the deep blue sea.

1197 Easy Calm

1197 Easy Calm

2014/03/16

Coasting

Flying the coast is always fun. Friday we saw oil painting on water, as natural offshore seeps decorated the kelp forest crown.

3604 Kelp Crown

3604 Kelp Crown

We saw the sand stripped from a private beach where grassy bluffs stand huddled against the wind.

3587 Grassy Knolls

3587 Grassy Knolls

We cruised cliffs scalloped with shallow caves along layered sandstone beneath pasture struggling to green before the recent rains have dried into Summer.

3593 Scalloped Stone

3593 Scalloped Stone

We passed the line where oil, blue sea and storm muddied surf mingle around bird platforms where derricks once stood.

3601 Four Perches

3601 Four Perches

And we saw youth setting sail on the ocean of life before them, playfully coaxing a surfer to tow them further into the blue beyond.

3613 Rafting Voyagers

3613 Rafting Voyagers

2014/03/07

Up & Way Up

We went up today for a short flight just as winds were picking up. Bumpy, but very clear and very Fun. 🙂

8736 Boat B Gone

8736 Boat B Gone

Where once two boats had ended their last sail, now there was one graffiti tagged boat and this hole with a small crowd of people.

8742 Dream's End

8742 Dream’s End

Two stories that began with dreams of sailing and large investments of time and money, are transforming into only impressions on the beach. Soon there will be no trace left behind, like love letters from a summer romance.

Then the magic of night visited. As a friend left after we enjoyed an enchanted chat and divine chocolate cake she made, she shouted at this sight.

3317 Moon Magic

3317 Moon Magic

Though this looks strange, what we saw was even more freaky looking than the camera could capture. I also like how it looks turned upside down as the cloud dissipated, flipped into some bizarre moon launch.

3332 Space Shot

3332 Space Shot

In this life, we are treated to countless shining moments that merge into the tide of time.

2014/03/05

Contrasts

This pic from Feb.10 has us itching to fly over and have a look at Lake Cachuma. It was fun to tour the lake when it was so dry, with scenes like this I call The Squiggle.

1817 The Squiggle

1817 The Squiggle

The dry grass was tall in places, creating artistic shapes and textures like these tuft islands on the edge of what was apparently the shoreline for a time.

1822 Tufts

1822 Tufts

Also on that day, our delightful Edmonton gal discovered the thrill of what for her was warm water. Staying very close to Dad at first, she’d run out after the receding foam and then turn to race for shore when he prompted her. Life is so beautiful.

1798 Meeting Waves

1798 Meeting Waves

2014/03/03

Falling

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 23:26

When it stopped raining and the clouds lifted yesterday we went “falling” (flying along the hills enjoying waterfalls). The air was hazy and light was low due to the still heavy clouds above, so the pix didn’t come out as I’d most like. But I did manage to catch some of the freshening falls with these pix.

2781 Private Wonder

2781 Private Wonder

This first one perhaps two miles from SBA is pretty amazing, but I’ve been told it’s on private property. The amount of water in it is far more than any of the others we saw yesterday, and it has at least three levels with pools. What a glorious place this would be on a summer day! Here’s an overhead view.

2793 Down Fall

2793 Down Fall

We saw several “slit” falls like this, with little water but fascinating rock work from millennia of water and rocks carving the groove as they passed this way toward the sea far below.

2803 Groovy Falls

2803 Groovy Falls

Here’s another with a similar yet quite different look, lower down the mountain where more rivulets have joined the stream that built it. So near the city, yet it seems likely that very few people have ever stood here in the song of splash and gazed out to the islands as a hawk circled in the rising air.

2806 Notch Falls

2806 Notch Falls

Many of these small falls have cut deeply into the rock, and some have little round pools like this probably carved by small boulders swirling in the current. How many people have enjoyed a serene bath in this tub?

2810 Tiny Tub

2810 Tiny Tub

Another tub is carved at the bottom of this steep ravine where more plants have managed to gain a foothold in the notch. I am here in this water garden, silently aware of life surrounding and within.

2814 Green Tub

2814 Green Tub

There were other falls we wanted to check on, but the clouds were too low. Some of them are larger collections of various tributary creeks and springs. But down in the foothills where we saw this last one, not many waterfalls were visible because they’d all collected into creeks covered by lush tree canopies. Even though this is but a trickle, the bare rock shows how much water flows here in heavy rains that carry boulders scouring away the soil and brush.

2813 Trickle

2813 Trickle

While our hearts take wing over the beauty of our planet, our feet yearn to hear and smell the living planet. So after we tied Tripp’s stout wings to the ground, we hiked up the San Antonio Creek Trail to move in wonder among the ancient oaks beside dancing waters where only days before we’d stood on dry sand.

3054 Wet Wonderland

3054 Wet Wonderland

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