Guardians of a Time Portal: Fantasy Cat Quilt

Don't think you're gonna paw past MY way

Without a little donation to the gods 

That guard your house

And keep those old mice at bay.

I used to think my kitties were just sleeping their day away in the sun. But just recently I learned that they are actually the guardians of a local time portal. In their case a little donation, of the right sort, will get me farther than just on to my back door without suffering a swipe on the ankle.

It will take me back to times long past.

Just what era would a cat be caring for?

Time Travel: Discover Your Career of the Future (or the Past)

Time Portal: Another Way to Spin Through Time

Click on the illustration above to try a spin with this portal

The Old Rose Cathedral Window 

of Durnsmuir Haugh

Most of yon stained glass winders were taken down in Cromwell's Time.
But there was somethin' about this yer 'un that did foil even the most determined of them Reformers.
They do say as three different Roundheads tried to take her down, and all three died in the trying.
It was a woman who convinced 'em to just leave her be.
The Red Rose of Durnsmuir, folks 'round here call her.


The womenfolk 'round here do say the Red Rose, she's got powers.
Codswallop sez I, tis just an old Rose winder, 
         pretty though she may be when the light shines through her panes,
       especially so on the night of a neaps tide.


And though sometimes when those days do come when there's bare a tick o' difference betwtixt the ebb and flow,
I do think I see the old Red Rose spinning with the wind,
And then, well I just puts that down to the ale at the Swallow and Dove, and I go home by 'tother road.

Time Travelers Spotted?

I don't know their story, but I'm pretty sure this pair aren't totally twenty-first century.

Click on the illustration above to check out these time-travellers yourself.

Spotted while walking past Queen Wilhemina's Windmill in Golden Gate Park this afternoon.

Just Like My Nan Made: On my mind...

OK, here goes. Did I setup the link right? :-)

Just Like My Nan Made: On my mind...

Please click on the illustration above for more tasty details

Entry for  http://justlikemynanmade.blogspot.com/

More to come

Rather Make My Own

Entry for  http://justlikemynanmade.blogspot.com/

More to come

Bug in the Works OR Butterfly Workin'

This Golden Gate Park butterfly doesn't appear to be troubled by problems in her code

Go ahead and click on the picture for a more in-depth view of her world

I've been working away with the Objective-C programming language and the piece of software called Interface Builder.  Those are, of course, the  tools used to write apps for ipads, ipods and iphones. In my case, I'm still learning to do that.

I was up against a particularly nasty little bug in my program and finally, huzzah!, I found it. It reminded me of the  story from the old days, I mean the REALLY old days, kids. It dates back to around World War II. It's the origin of why programmers call problems in the workings of their software, 'bugs'. You all know the old story, right? The engineers had been tussling with some problem that was keeping the huge machine from doing it's thing. My college professor, Harry Huskey remembered those days. He had worked on the EINIAC. "Those vacuum tubes",  Professor Huskey told us. "they were always blowing, and we had to run around that huge room, swapping them out."  

So the problem-solvers on this day had been swapping out vacuum tubes, scratching their heads and dismantling things. Finally after days? hours? (depends on who's telling the story), they found the problem. A dead bug was found deep within the recesses of the machine. The programmers were so happy to find the problem, that they pasted the dead bug into the big ledger in which they noted their progress on the project. "Bug in the works", someone noted.

And of course, ever since then, a programmer works to find the bugs in her works. Because surely the problem couldn't be something SHE did.