John & Anne Wiley

2013/08/09

NYC Entry (2)

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random,Relationships — John @ 01:14

So in my continuing review of pix from our Islander Adventure I’ve again reached the point where we entered The City. After a quiet night near the Linden, NJ airport we took the short train ride into Manhattan. Coming up out of Penn Station, the city greets you like an avalanche.

0539 Fun Overwhelm

0539 Fun Overwhelm

Stimulation everywhere. People, sounds, traffic, billboards, colors, movement, aromas. This place is Alive!

We wandered the city a little, then met our wonderful friend Bob at his mid-town office. On the way to join up with his delightful wife Enid at their cozy home in Nyack he took us to another place of overwhelm, named Fairway Market.

0552 Fairway Abundance

0552 Fairway Abundance

If it’s food and you like it, they have it. This pic shows perhaps 1% of the space in this enormous market tucked under a highway bridge along the Hudson River. We took our bags of bounty home, then the four of us enjoyed a walk among the abundance of Spring.

0560 Spring Smiles

0560 Spring Smiles

The spectrum of beauty surrounding their home near the other side of the Hudson is matched by the souls of these two. We walked and talked our way past the towering cliffs and onto the trail cut along the river. Such sweet memories, I sighed deliciously just now typing this. Friends and family add So much to our adventures in life. 🙂

2800 Timeless

2800 Timeless

2013/08/05

Merry Land (2)

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 04:36

Reviewing more Islander pix, I found this mysterious mansion. Is it a resort? A clubhouse for everyone who lives on Bennet Point or maybe just Kilby Point? Here’s a wide shot of the point.

2678 Kilby/Bennet Pt, MD

2678 Kilby/Bennet Pt, MD

What got my attention is the round building with blue “happy face” below it. Here’s a closer look.

2679 Blue Happy Face

2679 Blue Happy Face

So both the square building next to it and the red-roofed one at the left look like resorts. Maybe they’re actually mansions? Judging by the condition of the swimming pool and that blue patio roof (click for larger version), maybe the happy face isn’t so happy lately? Love that little island bridge at the bottom-right, the tiny log cabin right of the “lodge” plus of course the pool and its bridge.

Wonder what the story is. When was it first built and what stories have unfolded there over the years since? How many people have sat at those picnic tables in the shade of the trees above the roundhouse, wearing their own serene happy face. How many marriages and honeymoons might have included time here? My heart and mind are drawn into this scene. So many interesting places like this we’ve noticed along our flying meanders. 🙂

2013/07/30

Twins Flight

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,People,Random — John @ 06:47

It’s fun to go thru pix from our Islander Adventure again, because each time I do it some different images and themes emerge. This time, skipping ahead several days from my last post, it was the flight from Charleston to St. Marys that stood out. In particular these three pix on the theme of twins. First this twin-engine Osprey that was waiting next to the runway as we flew over.

2592 Osprey Waiting

2592 Osprey Waiting

Tho we were fascinated with their airplane, they didn’t even glance up at Tripp. Probably too focused on their training mission from some nearby military base I guess. Fun to see this view of one poised for a leap into the air.

2610 Twin Survivors

2610 Twin Survivors

Out among miles of giant corporate farms, these two trees have somehow managed to survive from the days when a lonely farmer planted them for shade. Maybe the workers driving huge tractors still pull up there for lunch, and have quietly saved them from the plow for that purpose. Then a scene that to me matches this mood and takes it further while also matching the pic of another farm house that I posted last time from this flight, so I can stretch this one to be a twin for today’s theme.

2614 Remains of the Day

2614 Remains of the Day

You might not be able to tell from this small pic (click for larger), but this is all that remains of a farmer’s hand. It too has somehow survived abandoned along with a few trees, a patch of grass, and a few rows where someone apparently grows veggies next to where they park some equipment. Looking out across the expanse I wondered if there had once been dozens of little farms, each with a few buildings and many stories back to when tribes wandered here. So few lives are long remembered, and so many more are soon forgotten.

2013/07/25

Coast To Hartwell

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,Nature,People,Random — John @ 21:04

It’s a tiny bit like flying our Islander Adventure all over again, reviewing our pix in more detail. Some like this one just leap out to me, making it apparent why I chose to snap a particular view.

1662 Shadows & Light

1662 Shadows & Light

I love the interplay of shadows and light on water, sand and various sources of green with all softened by haze and the broken clouds above. Most of the Florida and Georgia coast looks like this area just north of St. Augustine, with an ancient yet forever renewed essence.

Soon we passed the Mayport Naval Base, where centuries of human effort have transformed soft curves into angular concrete asserting into the flow of wind and sand.

1667 Mayport Edges

1667 Mayport Edges

Two minutes later we’ve leaped millennia back to the yielding shore, shaped by powerful and inexorable forces in light unseen by human eye.

1671 Now & Then

1671 Now & Then

Soon after that, recent history is reflected in Fort Clinch where armies dwelt in relative peace as wars raged like the storms that have come and gone.

1674 Fort Clinch

1674 Fort Clinch

Many places on this coast have tidal marshes like this, and I seem to find endless fascination in shapes and colors that form the texture of this complex life form.

1687 Life Etching

1687 Life Etching

As shadows begin to lengthen we pass a fisherman’s lonely tree-sheltered outpost on a spit of land in this vast sea of grass.

1690 Sanctuary

1690 Sanctuary

There is to me a slow quiet captured in the boat tied to that dock near the point of a rusty metal roof in the wood. It whispers to me of other days when wind howled, hammering that home and testing the trees while waves chomped on the shore.

After this lazy flight along the edge of the Old South we at last reached the fading glow of Hartwell as sunset played on this small town story at the corner of Carter & Howell.

1729 Hartwell, GA

1729 Hartwell, GA

From the tall spire on an old church at the top this tale passes a proud City Hall, police and fire, to land on the low shape of McDonald’s that much of the town frequents these days as time marches on.

2013/07/21

Diz (2)

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Islander Adventure,People,Random — John @ 05:07

Somehow Summer sneaks up on you sometimes. Seems we’ve been very busy lately, and not posting new words & pix for you here. Well here’s more from our Islander Adventure, this time skipping ahead from our Keys flight until we flew over Disney World. Looking at the pix again, I became fascinated by the “backstage” areas. Take a look at this mountain ride, for example.

6203 Mountain Ride

6203 Mountain Ride

The construction area top-left is out of view to the ride and the walking mall along the water, as is the big building at the bottom and the road beyond. We’re told that these areas are called “backstage” by Diz, and only seen by the “cast members” (who include everyone from trash collectors to movie stars). Another place I saw this “hide” of the backstage from visitors was near our hotel.

6251 Hotel Hide

6251 Hotel Hide

Our room was at the top of this pic, across the lake. We walked along that wide promenade and across the bridge at the bottom of the pic. Just before the bridge we wondered how far the “forest” goes, at the bottom-center. From up here we could see that it’s pretty small, but more surprising to me is the road on the other (left) side. It cuts down into the ground to actually pass thru a tunnel beneath the “river” going to the left where the long boats are. We rode the boat once, but also walked to the left on this side of the bridge, and then across the next bridge in the pic below.

6248 Backstage

6248 Backstage

Never did we suspect that cars and buses were passing beneath us. Nor did we glimpse the large backstage areas clearly visible across the top and at the bottom-right. Somehow it reminds me of that old movie “Truman Show” where it feels like you’re in a large world, but are in fact wandering on a giant stage populated by actors. We watched the fireworks from that little island across the second bridge. We also walked further to the left into this next pic.

6267 Epcot

6267 Epcot

We explored many of the attractions there, including the Epcot dome I’ve wondered about for so long. It houses a ride that reminds me of the old Monsanto ride in L.A.’s Disneyland. It too seemed big (tho much smaller than I had imagined it), but is in fact part of a small world after all. Again, you can see some backstage areas across the bottom. This entire park is really fascinating, and quite an example of what disciplined creativity can accomplish by engaging our imagination. Maybe in some ways our American Life is a much larger and less refined version of this. As with many of my posts, you can see larger versions of these pix by clicking on them. Like me, you may find it interesting to examine details.

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