John & Anne Wiley

2012/10/29

New Light

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:03

Flying SB it’s always fun to see old familiar places in a new light. On another recent clear air flight we enjoyed old favs like the Mission Hills area.

1145 Mission Hills

1145 Mission Hills

From the mission (bottom-right) up to the peaks, this part of town still looks much like it did years ago. The development has been relatively slow above our beloved “Stevens Bridge” towering over Stevens Park at the bottom-left in this pic.

1146 Pale Substitute

1146 Pale Substitute

Sometimes when we can’t fly, driving across that bridge gives us a hint of the vista and the fun of voting for mountains or coast. Lately the coast has won out sometimes, because the islands have been fairly clear. Still, it’s a pale substitute for the vistas we inhale on flights like this. Last up in this batch, another look at the Courthouse.

1152 Popular Spot

1152 Popular Spot

Most people in town know this is a popular spot to take tourists for a great view from atop that clock tower bottom-center. The building and sunken garden lawn beyond is also popular for weddings, including a couple cementing their bond eleven and some years ago in a quiet private ceremony. When we see people enjoying themselves and each other there, we smile. 🙂

2012/10/20

Everywhere

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 20:32

I love flying, especially here in the SB region, which begs the question: where have we flown that I have not enjoyed. After a moment the one place I think of, is out of El Paso headed home from a Big Adventure. I thought 500′ would make it more interesting, but it wasn’t. After a few miles I climbed to 4,000′ or so and then it was fun again. Just as I love flying Everywhere, here in SB it’s fun looking Everywhere.

1083 Hope to Hills

1083 Hope to Hills

No matter which SBA runway we lift off from, or which way we turn, SB is a wonderland of magnificent vistas like this. Often while flying along the coast from runway 15 when ATC will grant us a “left crosswind departure” toward the harbor, I’m looking mostly at the mansions. Some of the most beautiful estates in North America are on the bluffs of Hope Ranch overlooking the Channel out to the islands and beyond. But glancing up on this flight, I enjoyed the line up past Laguna Blanca to the base of the hills where we live and up to the mountains. Maybe because of so many warm memories there, the attractions around Hendry’s Beach (Arroyo Burro) often catches my attention.

1084 Hendry's

1084 Hendry’s

I didn’t notice it during the flight, but on this pic I got curious about writing in the sand at the right edge. Flipped over and cropped from the original, here’s a better look.

1084 Wilcox Wife

1084 Wilcox Wife

Apparently, some enterprising suitor prepared this message in the sand and then proposed from the trail up on the Wilcox (Douglas) preserve. I wonder if the pranksters who changed the “RR” to “BB” had done so before the proposal. I guess we can assume her answer was “Yes” and that she’s soon to be a Wilcox Wife, joining the women before her proposed to or wed there. In this last pic for this post, is another popular proposal and wedding spot.

1085 Shoreline

1085 Shoreline

I know this, because we celebrated our impromptu marriage with a re-enactment for family and friends at Shoreline Park. It’s the sliver of waterfront grass with walking paths and trees right on the bluffs overlooking the water.

Everything about flying is evocative for me. The flying itself resonates with countless dreams, watching birds, and my lifelong fascination with aircraft. The new places I see from the air resonates with my delight in discovery and my enjoyment of views from high places. The familiar places we fly over resonate with memories. Yesterday we were talking about our good fortune in finding a partner who shares our love of flight. In a sense, for us flying is Everything.

2012/10/18

Variety

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:13

Unusual amount of variety for us today! If you live in SB, you know one source of variety. If you live elsewhere, maybe you’re among those whose local news sources reported the evacuation of SB. If so, rest easy because the evacuation was 100 homes in the tiny community of Painted Cave up on the mountain. Here’s an annotated still pic the NBC LA news chopper got over the fire that greeted us this morning, when it was finally knocked down this afternoon with no homes damaged.

Fire Aerial

Fire Aerial

Another source of variety in our day was the new free Android aviation GPS app named Avare that our friend Zubair and I are donating to aviators and app programmers. Anne’s helped too, so it’s added to our daily variety for a month now. We also have a weekly Skype call with our daughter and family, and that’s always a delightful distraction. Today I added several hours’ effort setting up Google Talk in case that’s more reliable for our future video chats. Then there’s looking at pix to share, and I like this one Anne got on our short 10/1 local flight.

4325 Sunset Rush

4325 Sunset Rush

This little boat rushing toward the sunset looks courageous to me somehow, even tho the seas are calm and weather clear. Last up is another view from our local 10/14 flight with Sarah. There was a variety of activities going on at UCSB’s Campus Point, from tide pool exploration and beach strolls to kayaking.

1080 Beach Variety

1080 Beach Variety

I wonder what tomorrow will bring. Maybe a quiet day, so I can post only pix from 10/14’s flight and explore more from that variety of scenes between sea level and our nearby 4,000 foot peaks.

2012/10/15

Generations

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 07:44

We took our sweet and serene Sarah on a short flight in the clear air today, and it began a memorable time together. She’s a recent UCSB grad, so we got permission from ATC for a flight past her old haunts starting with this look East from Devereaux.

1072 To UCSB & Beyond

1072 To UCSB & Beyond

Like her we have many fond memories of that campus, going back years before she was there. We of course also feel fondly about the airport next door. 🙂 Passing the beach, this group of surfers in the clear shallow water (can you see the faint ripples?) took me back to my own youth.

1075 Surfers In Shallows

1075 Surfers In Shallows

When we reached this scene, the contemplative look on Sarah’s face was wonderful to behold.

1079 Looking Back at UCSB

1079 Looking Back at UCSB

After the flight we had dinner together at our place and watched “My Afternoons With Margueritte.” It fit so poignantly with our day, and the love we have experienced with family and friends lately. After the movie we spoke briefly of “Us-ness.” That field of mutuality we experience with kindred souls, that’s not about “me” or “you.” A warm glow of togetherness that transcends personality. It somehow triggered these words in me, as I realized that such moments have always carried forward across the millennia.

May the magic of our Us-ness
Linger in our hearts silent spaces.
May we ever remember
To pass their essence
Onward down the generations.

2012/10/13

Down to Earth

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 03:14

This post is a miscellany of pix bringing us up through 9/26 that has a down to earth feel for me, even though it includes flying and even this item from outer space.

0936 3 Jets, 1 Spaceship

0936 3 Jets, 1 Spaceship

This was on 9/21, the last day of the Shuttle’s CA tour that ended in LA. I’d been trying to find out where it was online, and finally got an update when it flew over VAFB near Lompoc. So I grabbed the camera and went outside to watch it pass offshore. When a small plane passed over heading for SBA to land, I glanced up when the engine revved and saw that the plane was doing an unusual maneuver as if the pilot were straining to look above and to his right. I looked in that direction and much to my surprise, there they were. Normally I’d have fixated on the fighter jet escort, but this combination of the ungainly 747 and shuttle on top was completely irresistible.

0938 Big Bird

0938 Big Bird

A few seconds later I snapped this just after it passed almost directly overhead. It was of course much higher than it looks in this cropped zoom shot, but you could actually make out some detail on the underside of the shuttle wing with the naked eye.

0939 Shuttle Detail

0939 Shuttle Detail

In contrast with the gray in these shuttle pix, we enjoyed a colorful visit from a young friend and her young son. Among the delights was when we took them for a swim.

1000 Student Swimmer

1000 Student Swimmer

Then we took them flying, of course. 🙂

1024 Local Icons

1024 Local Icons

I didn’t take aerial pix of anything but these two local icons. At the bottom is the Santa Barbara County Bowl, where there’s been a recent major construction project I wanted to check out by studying this pic later. The big white building at the top used to be the famous Brooks photography school, where we occasionally toured the ever-changing photographic art on the walls. Last up is this odd pic of our beloved Hass avocado tree.

1033 Mitey Conflict

1033 Mitey Conflict

We’re hoping it’s the scene of a “mitey” conflict. See, the envelope rudely stapled to a leaf contains “predator” mites that will hopefully dine on the parasitic mites that have been munching the leaves. An expert from the Bartlett Tree service said our tree’s fine. We’d called him, worried about the mangy look of the leaves but he assured us it’s doing well. He said if we wanted to help it do even better, we could order a spice shaker with a thousand predator mites. The little plastic jar came UPS wrapped in cold packs in a scary looking “live animals” box, and we had lots of fun dispersing them on the tree in the seven provided envelopes. Since they’re nearly invisible, and we only managed to spot two of them on the tree the next day, maybe the whole exercise is more of a Feel Good strategy. Like when a teen boy buys shiny hubcaps for his first car, even though it’s nearly ready for retirement. 🙂

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