Just One More Cnidarian, Pulsing On Through To the Cambrian

Some of us just know where we come from. 


This Cnidarian, whom you may have been introduced to as a  "jellyfish", is just pulsing her way on back through time towards one great fandango with her ancestors in the Cambrian Explosion, the fantastic era that was.
     Did you miss your evite to that hot past-times party? It's not too late to locate your own time portal and swim on back yourself. For a little pre-travel cultural encounter planning, check out Plain, Simple, Primitive? Not the Jellyfish.

And if traveling back 540 million years leaves you a little giddy, just drop by Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.


Oh and click on the illustration above to get a little more up close and personal.

Sewing Chronicles of Lady Liz: The Abbots Ghost

There are those who say they've looked out the window 

to see the abbots ghost walk, just before dawn.

I say time spent looking out the window is better spent

sorting thy silks or plying thy needle.

pithy sayings of Lady Margaret Hobey

Secret Diary of a Time Travelling Maide

Welcome to the Planet

Watch Out For That Rose By Any Other Name

Another Time Travel How To

Jennie Strong was the grandmother-in-law that I never knew. She died in the 1930's. But her large photograph is on my dining room wall and on the other side, in the living room, is her 1903 Chickering parlor grand piano. 


McDowell's piano piece, "To a Wild Rose" from Woodland Sketches, was one of the most popular pieces in America during Jennie's young womanhood. From the amount of marked up music I found in her piano bench when we inherited her piano, I'd be willing to bet she played this tune herself many times. 


Sometimes, just before I finish playing this piece, I think I hear somebody singing along, just on the other side of the wall.

Sewing: Blackwork Back in Tudor Times

 
I know my friend Lizbeth must be having a blast back in the Tudor Era, despite her complaints about being tricked into making that little foray back in time. 


Liz loves hand sewing and embroidery. She's always got a handwork project going. Her favorite is blackwork embroidery. You've seen it peeking out of the edges of sleeves and necklines in all the old portraits, right?


I strongly doubt that most women would have taken the time to embroider their smock or undergown to the all over degree in my illustration, though I'm sure Liz might go for it while she's there. 


Usually you saw this type of stitchery on sleeves, stomachers and the perpetual coifs with which respectable women covered their hair in informal situations. Your mama would have said that covering your hair kept you from getting a chill. But of course she also probably thought that loose hair looked a little too sexy. And back in those times, most people's hair was kind of dirty, so you'd really rather people covered it.


Blackwork embroidery was a very popular style of needlework in England, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, "It was worked with a single colour of silk, usually black, but also blue, green or red, on linen. (It might be) embroidered with running stitch. This may be a transition from the repeating geometrical stitches of the 16th century to the subtle speckling stitch of the 17th century, imitating the shading of woodblock prints."

Have Needle Will Time Travel (Co-Published)

     Looks like my friend Lizbeth, over at A Stitche in Time,  will be lost in Tudor Tymes for some tyme to come.

     You can listen in on her time travel adventures "The Sewing Chronicles of Lady Lizbeth: The Secret Diary of a Time Traveling Maide" via my podcasts: Unpolished Performances from The Simple Romantic. The Simple Romantic has, currently, recorded three episodes about Liz. Look for them in the June, July and August edition of "Unpolished Performances"

Download these free audio shows directly from the iTunes store with this link (or search the iTunes store using the search term 'unpolished performances') 

     You can also listen to this show from your computer by following this link http://web.me.com/simpleromantic/Simple_Romantic/Podcast/Podcast.html

* * *

Show Scoop: Our American blogger, Liz, is looking forward to a summer in London, sewing, sightseeing, practicing Bartok on the piano, and developing some great new historical and modern fashion content for her sewing blog.

It’s always a challenge keeping your online journal going when you’re on a trip, but Liz hadn’t counted on that trip extending back to the England of Queen Elzabeth the First.

Does anybody know if there’s a widget for blogging access that remote?

Time Coordination: Saffron Finch

With a little help from a friendly yellow finch in the Rainforest Exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. 

No matter how ultra-sophisticated you are, or how many times you've visited a real live rainforest, the wait in line for this exhibit is still worth it.

My Heart Beats Faster: A Pair of Pointe Shoes

Judy pointed out that having neither the skills, physique, nor training, to pursue my own pair of pointe shoes, I’d be much better off sticking with my cello. Not being really that all interested in learning to plie, pirouette or execute rond de jambes myself, I agreed. She added in her usual practical style that Andy Klepper’s mother had just started him on trumpet lessons, and we could all play in the ballet’s orchestra together.

This month I'm working on the Kindle edition of "My Heart Beats Faster in Past Times", an Imperial Russia-based time-travel romance novella with music and ballet themes.

My Heart Beats Faster: Larisa's Programmes

I had settled down to work in Silicon Valley. After ten years of marriage, it turned out that there was a little more to romance than simply putting on the right outfit, and heading out for a pas-de-deux with my dancing partner, but I learned to be happy on my own. I raised my daughter and joined the small local “Ohlone Symphony” as a low-ranking second cello. I also visited the San Francisco Opera House innumerable times to listen to the professional cellists play the classic compositions, and watch toe-shoes turn on the sprung hard wood stage in performances like Swan Lake, Giselle, Rodeo and – well a whole shelf of my living room bookcase holds my scrapbooks filled with old programmes.

This month I'm working on the Kindle edition of "My Heart Beats Faster in Past Times", an Imperial Russia-based time-travel romance novella with music and ballet themes.

Locating Accessible Time Portals