Avila Beach!

Avila Beach!

January 2015

After driving around the ranch the day before, (see previous two posts!) we enjoyed some great food and a lot of really nice wine. We had planned to go wine tasting the following day but after sampling all that really nice wine ... wine tasting didn't sound so good, all of the sudden.

New plan. We headed into town, to San Luis Obispo, for a big healthy salad and then a lovely view of the ocean! I'd never been to Avila Beach, and really wanted to see it, after hearing raves from my bosses, at the art studio. They go every summer, on their week off. 

It was a gorgeous January day, just after New Years and a great way to start the year off! Somehow,  I can always breathe better by the ocean. My heart and lungs open, and I have a sense of peace ... and freedom.

Here's some music for the journey ...

Freedom is the oxygen 

of the soul.

~Moshe Dayan

The freedom we are looking for 
is the freedom to be ourselves,
to express ourselves.
~Don Miguel Ruiz

The best freedom
is being yourself.
~Jim Morrison

All good things 

are wild and free.

~Henry David Thoreau

Freedom requires 

that you discover your own inner language

you own life rules-

your own vision.

~Zephyr Bloch Jorgensen 

My friend Tim. Thanks Tim!!!

For to be free

is not merely to cast off 

one's chains,

but to live in a way that respects and enhances

the freedom of others.

~Nelson Mandela

Letting go

gives us freedom, 

and freedom is the only condition for happiness.

If, in our heart, we still cling to anything -

anger, anxiety, or possessions - we cannot be free.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Blessings and light, my friends!

Rustic Beauty and Decay ~ An old Mine ...

There is something so visually interesting to me about something in a state of decay. When there are wonderful textures and vibrant combinations of color, in an ever slowly changing state ... it is even more fantastic! 

These photos were taken up at my friend Tim's ranch up near Santa Maria. On the property there is an old diatomaceous earth mine, which was so fun to photograph!

Just heard this Debussy piece, below, at the Disney Hall last month and somehow I thought of it, to go with this post! Please press play. ;)

Through that open spot in the photo above ... this is the view inside of the diatomaceous earth, left behind.

Life is one long decay, no?

There's a lot of beauty in it.

Like the patina in an old city.

~Urs Fischer

Love creating abstracts from the crazy colors and shapes and beautiful textures ... the rust and the blue below. Gotta love those complimentary colors! ;)

There is no such thing as death.

In nature nothing dies.

From each sad remnant of decay,

some forms of life arise.

~Charles Mackay

This, below, might be my favorite ...

I have always looked on decay as being 

just as wonderful 

and rich an expression of life

as growth.

~Henry Miller

If you don't know what Diatomaceous earth is, you can read this. What is cool, is that it consists of fossilized diatoms ... a type of hard-shelled algae! 

Hope you are having a beautiful March!

Blessings and light!

Rancho Punta de la Laguna

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread,

places to play in and pray in,

where nature may heal 

and give strength

to body and soul.

~John Muir

Rancho Punta de la Laguna

So my friend Tim, who I have known since high school (we even went to a prom and were roommates with two other friends, down in San Diego, in 1988!) moved from San Luis Obispo, out near Santa Maria and Orcutt. This is where I was headed on the train! (previous post)

He owns this land with his sister and about 30 cousins! There is a house on the property, that was lived in for ages by a caretaker couple, but they retired and moved off the property ... and Tim moved in. I headed up there right after New Years, to get out of the city, and see what he was up to!

Climb the Mountains

and get their good tidings.

~John Muir

Looking out toward Santa Maria and Orcutt. (I think!) There are our shadows!

In the presence of eternity,

the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

~Robert Green Ingersoll

We took a couple of beers up to the top, to enjoy the view ...

(note to self ... do not store a half open beer on lap when off roading!)

I figured we would reroute, when we came upon this big hole, (see photo below) but Tim was determined. He filled enough of the hole to get around it. (I removed myself from the vehicle beforehand, just to make sure!)

Victory!

How gorgeous is this tree? Reminds me of a Caspar David Friedrich painting. I might have to pull out the oil paints for this one!

Below, Jeep selfie.

In the canvas of life,
a flat landscape would be pretty boring.
It is the valleys and the mountains
that help us to appreciate the flatlands.
It is the dark that makes us appreciate the light
and the cold that makes us appreciate the warm.
~Anne Copeland

It was pretty cold but beautiful, that evening, and we had a delicious dinner at the famous Hitching Post, nearby. SO good. Fabulous wine, lamb and the most tender scallops I've ever eaten!

Nature always wears the 
colors of the spirit.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

To see my 2010 visit to San Luis with Tim, click here.

Happy March!
Blessings and light!

Next up, beautiful Avila Beach!