present participle as a parenthesis

For the first sentence in the picture below:

There were times, listening to Arnold and narrowing his eyes in the same heat-struck gaze, when Jack felt turned about. Away from the Bay and its red rocks, away from their gangs, their games, this particular...

what is the function of present participle here? And why is the restrictive relative clause separated from its antecedent? Please help me, thanks!

There were times, [listening to Arnold and narrowing his eyes in the same heat-struck gaze], when Jack felt turned about.

There are two ing-form participles here, "listening" and "narrowing", whose function is that of 'predicator'.

The bracketed element is an adjunct consisting of a coordination of two clauses functioning as a supplement, a loosely attached expression set off by intonation and punctuation, presenting supplementary non-integrated content.

It is possible for a relative clause to occur in postposed position where there is intervening material such as a supplement provided there is no confusion about the intended antecedent. Here, there is no doubt that "times" is the antecedent of "when".