John & Anne Wiley

2011/09/29

Castles

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 08:57

One of the many things I enjoy about flying, is seeing what people do with their homes. Sometimes a business will really stand out from the air, but more often it’s homes that display creativity and/or wealth clearly visible from a quarter mile up. This estate for example.

6199 Montecito Money

6199 Montecito Money

It’s such a magnificent place, and I like the pond in particular. I wouldn’t want to live there, but it’s easy to understand how plenty of people could yearn for that. The setting is great too, close to the amenities of  Montecito Village.

6205 Montecito Village to Ventura

6205 Montecito Village to Ventura

Hope Ranch has some really impressive mansions too of course, but I like how this “village” on the opposite side of Santa Barbara still has some relatively modest homes. People whose families have lived there for generations before it sprouted some estates of the uber rich. If I had unlimited funds and wanted to spend extravagantly on a house, what would I create? Each one is so different, and like admiring beauties like that first one it’s endlessly fascinating for me to watch them being built.

6203 Future Fantasy

6203 Future Fantasy

Adding to our fun flying this part of town was spotting Pierre LaFond where we’d just bought a cookie. It’s nice that we can still afford to buy something in this part of town. 🙂

6207 Fav Cookie

6207 Fav Cookie

Pierre’s is at the top of the pic, and though I prefer Anne’s exceptional oatmeal cookies and Molly’s insanely great chocolate chip, the best store-bought cookies are here. It’s a great place to sit and enjoy a cookie and a cup of coffee when we’re not home with much healthier home-baked goodies. As for my castle, it would have a glass turret and countless other quirky additions but it would all easily fit in the garage of most estates. It would have no more than three bedrooms with small attached bathrooms, and a low maintenance xeriscape yard. After setting aside funds for flying and some travel, the rest would go to making the world a better place. What would you do with the funds of the top one percent?

2011/09/27

Scenes

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Nature,Random,SB Region — John @ 18:39

The seasonal sunsets have begun, and we enjoyed this one from a nearby hill where we paused on a walk to admire the light and color. Noticing the gathering colors as we left the house, we’d talked about bringing a camera. Luckily this cellphone pic came out passably well as a memento of a magical moment together.

9/25 Sunset Phone Pic

9/25 Sunset Phone Pic

Had we brought a better camera, you could get a clearer look at the glowing virga that made this scene extra magical.

Our 9/22 flight included a scene that evokes toy sailboats in a pond. These are the small single-person craft that seem to often gather in a frenetic cluster offshore, but this time they were just outside the harbor.

6184 Toy Boats

6184 Toy Boats

From the air, this tumult of turning boats is great fun to watch. Maybe we should try to get video some time.

2011/09/26

Home Town Colors

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 03:18

We’ve had a few short flights around town, and the colors just seem to keep getting brighter for us. Thursday we wandered over toward Summerland, and enjoyed the San Roque Bridge over Stevens Park anew. That’s the one we love to drive across, looking both ways and then voting. Most often the mountain view wins, but sometimes the coast and islands are just stunning. From up here, the bridge itself adds a lot to the mountain view.

6152 San Roque (Stevens Park) Bridge

6152 San Roque (Stevens Park) Bridge

From a quarter mile up, the other view is also quite often stellar and it’s always delightful to take in the two views simultaneously from our magic carpet Tripp.

6169 Beach & Harbor

6169 Beach & Harbor

Santa Barbara’s beach and harbor are a constant source of joy for us, including the chance to mingle with tourists from around the world. In front of the mission, the rose garden is yet another favorite spot.

6154 Rose Garden

6154 Rose Garden

Before pruning sometimes the flowers are so bountiful they pop even from this far away. Strolling among them during pruning the fragrance is strong as wheelbarrows overflow with ripe blossoms. The color variations on the large lawn tell of activities like picnics, parties, weddings, frisbee, and touch football.

I also enjoy checking up on several long-term projects around town like these new bridges on Hwy.101 at the Milpas offramp. It looks like some colorful graffiti has been painted out on the bridge abutments, and I’m eager to see what blossoms at this intersection once the work is complete and people begin walking and biking more here.

6161 Milpas 101 Overpasses

6161 Milpas 101 Overpasses

2011/09/21

Pain & Gain

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Smiley Adventure — John @ 23:24

Today I’m sitting in our living room looking at the magnificent Santa Barbara “front range” mountains, and the towering thunderstorm safely beyond them in the Northeast. It’s painful to look at good flying weather when there’s no chance we’ll take Tripp and go exploring. A lesser level of pain for me right now is the physical discomfort from dental surgery this morning. Though there is considerable pain involved in the expense because that translates to many joyful hours of flying that the dental surgery could have paid for.

A big gain from this surgery, beyond long-term prospects for dental health, is that I now have some time to post the last batch of pix from our Smiley Adventure. First of these last is this one of the dunes as we approached Florence, OR.

5280 Slanted Cordouroy Dunes

5280 Slanted Cordouroy Dunes

I’m intrigued by the pattern of dune grasses that are angled from the shore. Guess it has something to do with prevailing winds and waves. Toward the right it seems to morph into a crosshatch pattern with indications of the angled pattern and one parallel to the beach.

After we turned at Gold Beach to follow the Rogue River to Grants Pass, there were several calm sandy beaches where rafters were bedding down in the evening light.

5502 Rogue River Raft Rest

5502 Rogue River Raft Rest

There’s something romantic about this scene for me imagining fireside stories, that distant stare when the group falls into silent reverie, and later dreaming under the stars like countless generations before. In places the river was uniquely transcendent art from this perspective.

5542 Rogue Artist

5542 Rogue Artist

As we began the landing approach, this little lake had me wondering what kinds of vehicles go there (motorcycles?), and whether visitors just zoom by or perhaps most go on foot to camp or fish.

5577 Airport Neighbor

5577 Airport Neighbor

The next day on our way back out to the Southwest hoping for less coastal low cloud, we got more river views that I’m enjoying again today. Like this one that at first glance looks wild.

5617 Nature of Tame

5617 Nature of Tame

After imagining Tom Sawyer exploring that wild island, perhaps you notice the mowed lawn at the left. Then your mind may begin to wonder what all this looks like after periods of unusually long and heavy rain. Like a tooth you had been taking for granted, such a scene could turn suddenly painful. But as we again glance down at a river such thoughts inevitably return to all we’ve gained from forces of nature and fate over the eons.

5638 Reflecting

5638 Reflecting

In the deep pools I reflect on the surges of water that carved them out, and the flood of photos that represent a tiny slice of the glories we see on a flying adventure. Just as the depths would be obscured by raging water, serene clarity emerges as I sit enjoying these photos. I feel more here, and at the same time am more prone to drift back into sweet memories or forward into dreams of another adventure.

2011/09/18

Rain & Shine

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,Smiley Adventure — John @ 04:52

Years spent in the Pacific Northwest brought many joys and indelible memories. One is the epiphany of sunshine. After months of gray and days of drizzle that seemed endless, clouds would open onto brilliant blue sky beyond words. It’s not just the Absolute Clear air, the dewy green fresh smelling forest. Nor the warm rays liberating the spirit of steam from soggy shapes, glinting on pristine waters, and promising to bring color back to all life, including our sheltered skin. Sunshine after months of drear is a transcendent moment beyond description for the hardy souls who Winter there. I felt whispers of that bright moment flying the Oregon coast. Not when leaving Portland for Grants Pass via the coast and noting with disappointment the low clouds that kept us high and onshore at Lincoln City.

5194 Bad News

5194 Bad News

Even though this coastal cling had shown on the satellite before takeoff, I’d been hoping it might clear by the time we got there. Rather than return inland for our flight we decided to carry on, skirting the edge in case there might be a break somewhere along our route to Gold Beach where we’d follow the river inland. I was content to take in scenes like this that would have been missed.

5198 Blue Button

5198 Blue Button

What’s more fun than a giant blue button in a collage of shapes and colors? Maybe by taking notice of that as we flew the edge, a window opened back into my past in this region. Whatever the reasons, when the clouds did open up around Stonefield Beach we dipped down offshore and I felt that old magic of a Seattle sunny day.

5209 Sunshine Moment

5209 Sunshine Moment

As if on cue, a splash of sunlight penetrated an opening in the blowing clouds further offshore to highlight this cave where people have sometimes sat over the ages. In that moment, centuries ago, I was there contemplatively listening to the surf as a large bird slid across the sky, lifting my heart. Though we’ve driven it several times and even flown it before, this stretch of coast was all new for us after the gloom opened to reveal it to us afresh.

5210 New Shore

5210 New Shore

It seemed created for us in this moment, humming slowly and quietly along in our magic bubble. We passed a young couple alone on a wide beach, oblivious in their moment to our delight in discovered nostalgia for a place we have never truly been. An exhilaration akin to sun after rain, and dreams of free flight. There’s no place like Now.

5218 Moment In The Sun

5218 Moment In The Sun

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