Portals

Snow would be soooo much more fun if it were warm. Living in a snowglobe like I have been lately is a bizzare, other-worldy experience for someone who grew up on the beach. I tried ordering some Summer online but there seems to be some problem with shipping. Probably backlogged and/or weather related. Oh sure it’s pretty sitting watching it through the studio windows but this weather is the poster child for “This Is Getting Old Fast”.

I sometimes wonder if I have some Egyptian blood because I tend to live in The Land Of Denial when it comes to Winter stuff. Amazingly, my less-than-extensive wardrobe is heavy on shorts and long sleeve t-shorts but a little light on foul weather gear. Go figure. Then once I do dig everything out, it takes a while to get all suited up and ready to face probable death by hypothermia…or at least getting chilled. Once ingeared and braced it’s not like you can drive any place on these streets. Just an icy obstacle course of opportuniteis to embarass yourself with your neighbors. Sort of takes the spontaniety and fun out of going out. (insert heart wrenching whimpers here please)

Needless to say, under these conditions, time isn’t the important thing it was before. It stretches and skips. The mind wanders. It seeks doorways that allow access to Other places and other ideas. One such recent diversion resulted in a series of ideas I call Portals. They flash back to some of the Faery stories I’d hear from Irish Uncles usually prefaced with “some people beleive…”

The Pacific Northwest can have a palpable “other realm” feeling. My wife and I camped regularly and every time the woods seemingly welcomed and wrapped around our Westy. Penrose Point, Anacortes’ Washington Park, and Deception Pass all enveloped us. I’d often pass time by snapping pictures of stumps and trees and shores and scenes that struck me as possible doorways, Portals the Faery might use. The trippiest part is that there’s no end of source material. Within blocks of where I now sit are woods, marshes, and beaches offering up ideas. Within easy reach are forrested places you KNOW no one has ever been. No wonder these Portls went unnoticed. I had pictures my Uncles would have seen and then said “See?” Iamges that want sharing.