John & Anne Wiley

2013/12/18

Lizard’s Mouth

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 04:06

Right now for some reason the name somehow evokes the smell of recently eaten insects on the breath of some reptile. But in fact Lizard’s Mouth is one of our young Sarah’s fav local hangouts. Several times she’s wanted to take us there for a hike and scramble among the rocks. Now we better understand why.

7465 Lizard's Mouth

7465 Lizard’s Mouth

In the hour before sunset people were gathering for the show, which is surely spectacular there. This whole area of the mountainside is strewn with fascinating rock formations, and we’re enjoying looking thru the pix we snapped as we glided quietly by angling down toward SB. A mile or two East is another “rock garden” area with many silent stone sculptures.

7442 Another Rock Garden

7442 Another Rock Garden

My fav rock garden is actually several miles west of Lizard Rock, with another good rock garden between (so many rocks, so little time). But on this particular passage by this one, one clump of boulders caught my attention.

7441 Holey Rocks

7441 Holey Rocks

Unlike many “holey rocks” in our hills, these don’t seem to have been carved out by native peoples pounding acorns centuries ago. Instead my guess is these holes were carved by natural forces. Perhaps when they were on the sea floor, or as they rose thousands of feet along with what are now our mountains and were perhaps in a river for a time. Or maybe just soft areas in the sandstone yielded to the relatively light rainfall here over millennia. Sometimes taking in sculptures like these I imagine a time-lapse view of how features emerged in the ebb and flow of terrain and flickering surges of life between flashes of fire to etch textures of time on stone.

2013/12/16

Winter Sky

Filed under: Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,SB Region — John @ 22:20

We seem to be flying more the past week, taking brief flights almost every day (I’ll probably post some aerial pix soon). Partly it’s the wonderful Winter air. Like all planes, Tripp loves cool air. Like many aviators, we like the light this time of year. Like many Santa Barbarian spectators, we’re also enjoying the season’s colorful sunsets. Last night I snapped these during our walk.

7601 Mystery Moon

7601 Mystery Moon

Because it’s not quite full, the moon rose before sunset and was well above the mountains when the colors found their way through openings on the horizon to paint shapes here and there.

7602 Nearly Full

7602 Nearly Full

Over neighborhood windows illuminated in the flickering TV blue, this silent show played briefly outside. So many miracles around us go unnoticed.

As we walked up a nearby hill, the sun’s last flash of red from beyond the horizon hung over holiday lights in cloud strokes painted by invisible fingers of air.

7607 Cloud Flame

7607 Cloud Flame

Then red softened to allow subtler tones back into the sky as all color began to drain toward a Winter’s night dotted with holiday displays tilting hearts from the afterglow of 2013 toward another year.

7612 Wispy Afterglow

7612 Wispy Afterglow

2013/12/10

Night Lights

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,SB Region — John @ 10:34

It’s been a while since we’ve flown the SB night lights, so we set off at sunset and toured the coast to Carp waiting for dark. The cloud show was typically fabulous for this time of year.

6546 Sunset Glory

6546 Sunset Glory

Soon it was dark enough to set off city lights against the fading glow over the mountains. If you click to see the larger version of this pic, you can make out the half dozen or so boats in the Harbor left over from the Parade Of Lights. We saw some seasonal lights too, and I’ve submitted pix of those to Edhat that might show up there Tuesday.

6702 Harbor & State

6702 Harbor & State

After an hour or so of savoring the light show, the airport lights were also colorful of course. But for aviators, the lights of an airport at night color the heart with a warm and welcoming glow.

2013/12/06

Shadows

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 08:53

At the end of a recent flight as we taxied back to Tripp’s parking spot, I was captivated by our shadow.

6372 Tripp Shadow

6372 Tripp Shadow

Looking at it now gets me pondering shadows back into the past. Not just other flights earlier this year when our shadow passed across other people very involved in the different things they were doing, and only a rare few even notice our shadow crossing theirs.

3252 Shadows Crossing

3252 Shadows Crossing

My mind wandered back to childhood when my shadow was first so fascinating, and it crossed paths with the shadow of my departed Dad who also loved to fly. I’m often aware of the shadow his flying lessons cast forward across the decades, increasing my resolve to learn.

50 Past Shadows

50 Past Shadows

Even further back, before I was born my grandfather’s shadow as an aviator often passed across the landscape as mine now does.

36 Grandfather's Shadow

36 Grandfather’s Shadow

As they are cast from yesterday to today and out across tomorrow, how are the people and places our shadows touch, affected by our passing?

2013/11/29

Lightness

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,SB Region — John @ 05:46

I’m not clear on why, but when we fly out to the Point Conception Lighthouse we always seem to return with an expanded “lightness of being.”

5841 Pt. Conception Light

5841 Pt. Conception Light

Of course, we only fly out there on calm days when the air is clear. In other words, very seldom. Usually there’s fog, haze, low clouds or smoke in the air and the wind is gale force as it rounds the point. So maybe the placid seas and expansive views as we approach the Point, conspire to shift us into deeper connection with the lightness we feel during pretty much every flight.

5843 Getting to the Point

5843 Getting to the Point

In the distance on the right is of course another point that’s within the boundaries of Vandenberg Air Force Base, and VAFB hasn’t so far allowed us to fly close enough for good pix of that. Luckily the dunes, rocks, sea caves, and heather here are quite enough to enchant the visitor.

5840 Point Conception

5840 Point Conception Enchantments

A relatively new resident on the beach, just barely visible on the narrow beach in the second pic (#5843) above, is Gingerbread. A lovely lighthearted name for this little sailboat that ended its adventures there.

5845 Gingerbread

5845 Gingerbread

As you can see from the sand that is accumulating in her cockpit and hull, she’s slowly sinking for a second time – into the beach. Yet somehow the sadness I feel in seeing this process further along every time we fly there, is transformed by the expanse of magnificence surrounding her. The dreamers who once pampered this little boat, have now moved on to other expressions of love.

Immersed in the experience of Lightness flying over this magical place, it’s easier to remember that Love is about Letting Go.

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