Time Portal Identification Made Easy

I added this Alley Portal in Menlo Park California

to my own Portal Life List, just last week

Even experienced Time Travelers may have difficulty recognizing a time portal when they encounter one. When is a train not just a train? How does a B.C.E. transporter differ from a run-of-the-mill station house? Which alleys lead to Never Land and which only provide the quickest path to the household garbage cans?

I recently caught up with Biding Mytime, a senior staff member with the well-known time travel service "Portal Pilots". Captain "Bide-a-wee", as she's known to her colleagues, who consider her a woman ahead of her time, was happy to share some of the characteristics that will help even a newbie observer, such as myself, spot a few portals to add their Personal Portal Spotters Life List.

The Captain was just folding up a report from maintenance when I entered the Portal Pilots Millbrae BART Station.

“Now look around you,” the good captain intoned with an expansive gesture. “From the outside, you might guess this place is nothing more than a metro station. But you’d be dead wrong!”

I studied the assorted time travelers waiting in the Comman Era (C.E.) terminal. Clearly this was not the typical Bay Area Rapid Transit station. A Roman matron was dangling a squalling toddler, who’d clearly traveled way beyond his comfort era, over the edge of the escalator hand railing. A medieval monk in the corner was chanting to himself, or maybe into his Blue Tooth device, while a surcoated devotee of Joan of Arc, clearly waiting for the next transport back to the crusades, engaged in a little light-sword practice in the corner. I moved gingerly away from the knights combat-zone-of-choice and offered to buy the captain a beverage.

Over a friendly cappuccino, latte, double foam, hold-the-pease-pottage Captain Bide-a-wee explained some of the spotters tricks she’s picked up over the years.

“It’s like this, Hon. Time friendly transport mechanisms abide by certain rules.” She wiped some foam off her metal breastplate, and took another long thoughtful swallow. “See first off, you gotta remember that time is of the essence.”

I nodded, trying to look like I was understanding the lesson.

Then she pointed to a large digital clock on the wall. “So you might think that would take you some where.”

I nodded again, actually thinking I was getting somewhere with my studies.

“So, is that clock a time portal?”

She snorted and choked on her drink. “Well of course, that thing is no portal.” She studied it for a moment, clearly turning over in her mind, the best techniques for instructing the utterly clueless. “Fair to say there are clocks that’ll get ya’ where you’re going. But that ain’t one of ‘em. And why? Can you tell me?”

I studied the large, ugly gray time piece in a bemused fashion. “No, I suppose it’s not-“

She thwacked one leather covered knee pad. “That’s right, Hon. ‘Cuz after you stare at that awhile, you can’t say you had a lovely time, can you?”

I agreed I could not.

“But this place, “ she pointed to the station walls. “Is a legend in it’s own time. So,” she turned one palm up indicating the obvious, “here we have an obvious portal.”

I took another sip of my own drink and considered her explanation. “I’ve got an old carriage clock at home. It doesn’t run anymore, of course, but I’ve always had a feeling about it.”

She thumped her cup on the counter and gave me a broad grin. “Now you’re thinkin’ straight, girl. That somethin’ that’s stood the test of time.” She unfolded, and spread out, the report she’d tucked into the capricious leather bag, tied belt-like to her waist. Now look-a here at the portal types our gals will be inspecting in the area this week.”

I studied the maintenance engineers list.

bridge

canyon

ladder

path

alley

creek

Standing Stones

cave

trail

painting

mirror

clock

train

station house

“How many Standing Stones do you find in the San Francisco Bay Area?”

She grinned and tapped her nose with a knowing wink. “You’d be surprised!”

I was just about to suggest I buy her another drink when the voice of the gate agent came over the loud speaker, announcing, “Time is ripe.”

The captain jumped suddenly to her feet with a clash of breastplate against the back of the metal counter, that resonated throughout the station. “Well, Hon, there’s no time to lose, time and tide wait for no woman. Good luck with the spotting. Just remember to take your own sweet time.”

A woman ahead of her time indeed! A few minutes later she disappeared through the doorway marked Time Flies, Staff Only. I was a little disappointed not to spend more time with Captain Bidingtime, but time, after all, is money.

Rank Sentimentality: Making Time Stand Still

Please click on the picture to enjoy the details

Thanks to http://barefootliam.deviantart.com/

for making this vintage clock face available in the public domain

Evening Music: Owls

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The owls are always nearby on our regular post supper walk. We hardly ever see them, but we know them by their voices. I sometimes wonder what notice they take of us.

City Bound: Angels and Crocodiles (Part 4)

Please click on the picture for more San Francisco charm and Blue Angel Flight detail.

I wonder if everybody have one animal that really scares them, but secretly they find it kinda intriguing. For me, it's crocodiles. Crocodiles seem like a much bigger deal than alligators, which are equally deadly. l hunt crocs out at the zoo, the aquarium, and I tried to find one when I went to Costa Rica.

I pick up any any book or magazine with a nature story showing a picture of an innocent flamingo fluttering down, looking for her shrimp. You know the next picture, SNAP! My favorite Number One Ladies Detective Agency story is the one where M'ma Ramotswe - hey wait a minute. Maybe you haven't read that one yet. Go straight to your library and look up Alexander McCall Smith. Then sit down with a big cup of red bush tea and don't expect to get up until you finish the first book.

Where was I? Oh yeah, crocodiles.

The same urge that draws me to crocodiles likewise interests me in cities - not something I really want to be close to, yet so intriguing. As you may recall from the previous three episodes *, I took a day off and rode my bike to the train station and on up to San Francisco. From there I biked along The Embarcadero and eventually went on out to Fort Mason. The road from Fisherman's Wharf, past Ghirardeli Square, up and over the hill, was crowded with people visiting for Fleet Week. This event is a demonstration of the United States naval power, and an excellent military recruitment tool. Everybody had their noses turned skywards as The Blue Angels demonstrated their prowess. No doubt about it, their skills are awesome.

I thought about crocodiles a lot while I was watching those pilots.

* City Bound: Car Free to San Francisco (Part 1)

City Bound: Biking The Embarcadero (Part 2)

City Bound: The Ferry Building (Part 3)

City Bound:The Ferry Building (Part 3)

Pedaling up and around the Embarcadero took me to the Ferry Building. You can have your Coit Tower or Fisherman’s Wharf, this place represents San Francisco for me. There was a wooden Ferry House here since 1875. This building dates from 1898. It’s where people who worked in the city crossed on ferries from Oakland and Marin, to get to work each day. It’s also the place where anyone traveling across the country by train ended up. A few people still commute in by boat these days, but most drive.

When I stopped and locked up my bike here, I could hear some of the ferry goers from another era scrambling up from their benches and rushing through the doors to crossover the Embarcadero, out onto Market Street to work. A group of women walk past me, laughing and talking. The dark-haired one, Emily, is a telegrapher. Later on this morning, she’ll be in touch with her fellow op’ in Chicago, my Great Aunt Mabel. Once they finish their business with the transfers, they’ll chat on the wire about Mabel’s handsome new male-friend. Then Emily will instruct her chum to make the next move in that ongoing chess game they’ve been playing for a few weeks.

If ever there was a natural Time Portal, it’s this building.

Please click on the picture above to enjoy the beautiful details

To Be Continued

(Final Episode is Angels and Crocodiles)

City Bound:Biking the Embarcadero (part 2)

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It's got a reputation for hills, but San Francisco still has a good stretch of flat, bike'able streets. I swung out of the train station at 4'th and Townsend and headed out around behind the baseball stadium. From there I merged onto the Embarcadero. The old piers are on the water side, many of them have been gussied up as businesses and shops. Across from the water is the intensely downtown business district.

This guy thinks he’s working hard on his cell phone, but I see what I see.* This place has always reminded me of Toon Town.

Go ahead and click on the picture to take in a few more details. See what you think.

To Be Continued

* What's that you say? You suspect Photoshop CS4 had a hand in his headgear? Bite your tongue!

City Bound: Car Free to San Francisco (part 1)

Go ahead and click on the photo to fully enjoy the details of the rails. The bike car's the first car on the train and commands the best view looking north to the city.

I took Thursday off and biked over to the local train station to catch the 10:14. Like most romantics, my heart doesn't yearn for city sights. And at the same time, there's something awfully intriguing about the pace of totally urban life, for which I get a tremendous craving every once in a while.

I don't enjoy city driving. And there's no point in it when I've got a lovely wide tired, three-speed bike to companion me, and a train station that's a five minute ride from my house -ten if I stop and talk to a few neighbors along the way. Which I usually do.

Peggy had a bag of lemons out, so of course I stopped at her house too. One of those will come in handy when I make my London Loaf this week.

I made the San Francisco train with the necessary extra five minutes to convince the ticket machine it should accept my debit card, popped my pink cruiser bike on board, and settled into the bike car to listen to the clackety-clack back beat of the train starting up.

to be continued

Signs of Fall:Pixel Paintin' Pumpkins

I spent much of my day working on creating and debugging self-review exercises in my quest to learn Objective-C. I really like writing and debugging code, but it's hard teaching yourself a new programming language. Over the last few weeks, I've figured out a way to make my self-imposed homework fun, by linking them to my art-journal. I've shared my experiences in this online piece, Reviewing Concepts: Time Travel for the Masses, a piece I wrote at my self-education blog.

I also took a little time to create another fantasy quilt and stencil an imaginary pumpkin just like Martha Stewart, or one of her hard-working staff, would. My pumpkin, however, is one I plucked off one of my old photos with the help of Photoshop. And of course every pumpkin needs a quilt of it's own.

As always, if you click on the picture above, you'll see a lot more beautiful detail.

First Signs of Fall:Quilts, Squirrels, Fighting the Good Fight at the Polls

Please click on this quilt picture for more beautiful details.

I wish I had this fall beauty to toss on the bed. It's a lot quicker stitching up a new quilt in Photoshop than on my machine. When I did make quilts, I loved appliqueing designs on top of other patterns.

It really is getting cool enough here in the San Francisco Bay Area for an extra light quilt. As romantic as chilly fall weather sounds in books, I don't actually miss it. Or the snow that can go with it. Our summer crops are all harvested - all three apples worth. My neighbors little boy ate the other five while they were still somewhat green. And he was quite welcome to them. He clearly found the idea that edible food was just hanging there within reach of his fingers fascinating, and it was a pleasure to see him munching them. According to his mother, they never made him sick.

The squirrels weren't too happy when those few apples disappeared. They had to content themselves with harvesting our cherry tree during the summer. We've never yet managed to beat the squirrels to the cherries, but we have options they don't have. We're fighting higher density building in our area. Where are the birds and squirrels going to forage then? I guess that's what happens when you don't get to vote. I'm going to reread those city council platforms really carefully before I go to the polls.

Present: Bridgeport Frog

My husband couldn't have brought home a better present than this* after ten days of field work in Bridgeport, about thirty miles from Mono Lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Please click on the picture above to enjoy all the details

* He brought home the original photo, not the frog

First Signs of Fall:Feed The Birds

Super duper,

ORGANIC

bird feeders

100% guaranteed

Long Lasting

Hurry! Resources are Disappearing Fast

Please click on the picture to view more details of this amazing, offer

My Kinda Commute

Timeout in Oz

In order to see the clues closeup, you'll need to click on the photo

First Signs of Fall: Forage 'Ye Fennel Will Ye May

Been eyeing this lovely spot of wild fennel by the edge of the train tracks on my walking route back from the Atherton Library, for a month or more now. I know Californians who forage for this floral treat. The bulb, seeds, flowers and pollen are all fodder for the native gourmet's kitchen. I'm not ready to take the chance on roadside produce. The creek below is sprayed for mosquito larve and there's also the potential that some other, toxic, little plant might creep in with the greenery. I'm better off sticking with the Sunday Farmer's Market downtown.

But I haven't found that sharp anise scent at the agricultural stalls. Last summer I cropped a big bunch and brought it home for a bouquet, which I plumped down outside in a big old aluminum watering pot, a la "Country Living Magazine". My husband, a much more orderly person than I am, was seriously displeased. It was a sticky, messy visitor, and he traded me some favor (not dishes - he already does a good deal of the housework around here!) to get me to pitch the pots contents after a couple of days on our outdoor supper table on the patio.

But this year I'd spied it again. Just as yellow and just as strong-scented. Ever since I first spotted it, I'd been considering the possibility of a bouquet to decorate the driveway. I was returning a stack of well-read books two days ago, when I saw the road crew pull up with shovels and rakes.

"Are you going take out the yellow flowers?" I cried.

They admitted the 'yellow flowers' were indeed their goal. When I returned with my camera in hand, fifteen minutes later, they'd already made inroads on my photo-bouquet. While I snapped my pictures, they were already bundling the branches into shocks, and leaning them against the metal fence for the guy with the truck. Meanwhile the seeds rained down on the heavy, adobe soil.

The fennel, in all it's strong-scented, sticky, yellow glory will be back next summer.

Take a better peek at this altered mass of yellow glory, by clicking on the picture above. If you're a regular reader of this journal, you might recognize some of the visitors I've added.

First Signs of Fall: Sour Grass in my Knish?

My new friend Marcia, from piano class, says she uses sour-grass to flavor her homemade knish recipe. Hummmm... check with somebody who knows more than me first, ok? Your local medical provider, maybe. If you've got one.

And don't use this much-altered picture of sour-grass to identify oxalis. I've altered it to make it arty. While you're looking, why don't you click on the picture to see the lovely details?

Time Travel: Blast Off From Millbrae

Engaged on an exploratory walk in suburban Millbrae last Friday, I was surprised to find that not all Time Portals sport that vintage look.

Clicking on the picture above, may be useful to you, if there's a short, efficient time-hop in your plans.

Signs of Fall: Legumes Setting Seed

My hyacinth beans (Lablab purpurea) are setting pods. It's time to watch for the seeds that will mean springtime resurrection for these delicately flowered purple ladies.

Please CLICK ON THE PICTURE above to see the really lovely details of this collage.

The lace I riffed/altered for this Photoshop collage, is from a pattern at Obsidian Dawn,and confirms to the appropriate terms of use, as I understand them from their page

SLO Time - Travel

You’ll find Las Pilitas Road in San Luis Obispo County when you get off the 101 freeway, going south, just before you head over the grade . It’s quite a ways down to the old Las Pilitas Railroad bridge. You have to drive SLO, and watch out for animals that might stray across the road.

Go ahead, park the car and, walk across. You just may find more than a view of the creek on the other side.

Take your chances in 1917. You’ve got a guide waiting, after all. What’s her story?

Click on the picture above, to get the details.

New Girl In Town:Eight Legs And Takin' Over

It's been a really spider'y summer, and I've gotten a kick out of every different eight-legged visitor I've managed to photograph. At this age I don't shriek like I used to. OK, I admit I talk to them as I pop the container on top, slide the old piece of postcard stock underneath and carry them out on a move to the garden.

I've had a lot of spider visitors in my bathroom. Maybe their running short on toothpaste.

My new girl has baffled the crew at spideridentification.org. I like to think she's special, but it may simply be that she was unhappy about being photographed and I didn't manage the kind of record that's needed to properly id her. Possibilities so far have included the thought that she's a Hacklemesh Weaver or a descendent of the Corinnidae family.

Dreaming of Nirvana

How good do I have to be, to be reincarnated as an orchid bloom next time around?

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Please click on this picture to see more lucious details

altered photo

Cattleya, Brookside Orchids, near Stanford University on Alpine Road.