EPISODE 850 Do you like kittens? Take look at ‘CHELSEA BUN

EPISODE  860     Do you like kittens?  Take look at ‘CHELSEA BUN


alan skeoch
Buy 23 , 2023

Elizabeth Porter and Marjorie got into a discussion at the Porter/Kilner farm sale way back in March…that  was the day  CHELSEA BUN became a family member.  

Today, four months later, Chelsea Bun leapt from the floor to my knee upsetting hot tea on my shirt, pants, underwear and very sensitive 
flesh.  Why did she do it?  Because Elizabeth Porter installed  springs in her back legs. Why did Chelsea do ir?
She wants to be loved by us all including Woody.









TAKE  LOOK AT CHELSEA BUN


Fwd: episode 856 DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE —




EPISODE 856   DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE


Alan skeoch
july 13, 2023



What captures your attention when you look at this 18th century painting??


“Who is the brown skinned lady in this paining?”
“Her name was Dido Elizabeth Belle and she was born in 1761 in the British West Indies.’
“What is startling about her ?”
“Off the top, she is very pretty.”
“And?”
“And she seems totally relaxed with the white  girl…they seem to be good friends.”
“Why is that remarkable?”
“Slaves were expected to defer to their owners in the 18th century,  yet this brown girl
seems to be good friend … certainly not a slave.  I think the girls are sharing conversation.
As a mater of fact, the brown skinned girl named Dido is even more relaxed than the white girl. I would have
expected the reverse in that century.   Seems like they are both sharing a secret conversation.
they are equal, ..I would even go so far as to say the black girl is dominant..so totally
relaxed.  So unlike a slave.”
“Do you know who she was?”
“No”
“Here name was Dido Elizabeth Belle.”


“She was a remarkable young lady…a lucky young lady”
“How so?”
“She may have influenced the abolition of slavery in England.
….her early life was startling.”

HISTORY OF DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE


NOTE:  BELOW  is a short history of this remarkable young lady who was made famous
by the only painting of her which is the lead picture in this episode.  I encourage you
to read more about her.  You will not be disappointed.   Her story complements
my episode about Kenwood House which was sent earlier.  Much has been written 
about Belle…even a movie.  Do a  little searching.


alan

‘her mother, whose name is believed to be Maria Bell, was a slave in the West Indies. The year that Belle’s parents met is not known, nor is it clear that their relationship was consensual. Belle’s baptism records yield no information about her father which indicates she was considered an illegitimate child.

Upon the death of Maria Bell, John Lindsay in 1766 requested that Belle be entrusted to his uncle, Lord Mansfield, who was already raising his young great-niece, Elizabeth Murray, due to her mother passing and her father’s serving the Crown as an ambassador first to Austria and later to France. The addition of Belle to Lord Mansfield’s household provided Elizabeth Murray with a playmate. Belle’s role in the household seemed to have been as Elizabeth’s lady’s companion rather than her lady’s maid.  While in the household she received an education and an annual allowance of £30, several times the wages of a domestic servant. As an adult she managed the estate’s dairy and poultry yards and helped Lord Mansfield with his correspondence, a task normally assigned a male secretary or clerk.

Dido Elizabeth Belle spent nearly three decades at Kenwood House, the home of the Murray family. The best insight into Belle’s life with Lord Mansfield comes from Thomas Hutchinson who visited Kenwood House in 1779 when she was around 18 or 19. While dining with Mansfield, Hutchinson was surprised to see Belle, a woman of black ancestry, sitting with the ladies drinking coffee and later going on a walk with her arm locked with another woman.  An American guest reported, however, that Belle was not allowed to dine with the family.

In 1784, Belle witnessed the death of Lady Mansfield and the following year the marriage of Lady Elizabeth Murray to a distant cousin, George Finch Hatton.  She remained at Kenwood House, however, for nearly another decade, finally leaving the estate upon the death of Lord Mansfield in 1793.

Little is known about the remainder of her life.  She benefited from small inheritances left by Lord and Lady Mansfield. She did not receive an inheritance from her father, Sir John Lindsay, who died an Admiral in the British Navy in 1788.  On December 5, 1793 she married John Davinier, a French gentleman’s steward.  The couple had three children, twins Charles and John, baptized in 1795, and William Thomas, baptized in 1802.  Dido Elizabeth Belle Davinier died in 1804.  Her approximate age at the time of her death was 43.

EPISODE 862 GOBBLING UP THE LAND FOR A NEW WORLD….MAYBE GOOD, MAYBE NOT SO GOOD ..brain brewery once nearby

EPISODE 862    GOBBLING UP THE LAND FOR A NEW WORLD….MAYBE GOOD, MAYBE NOT SO GOOD  ..brain brewery once nearby


alan skeoch
July 21, 2023



B
picture taken July 20, at 8th Line and Steeles Avenue, Halton County.   That is
my thumb in top corner and my camera in mirror.

way we were brain brewery

Few would think today that the hamlet of Hornby was once the home of a thriving brewery. This image from 1890s pictures employees outside the Brain Brewery. Established in 1845 by local resident John Brain, this local business on ninth line became quite successful employing ten men its day. Image: Esquesing Historical Society Content: Heritage Halton Hills

bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/theifp.ca/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/59/d599fc38-8651-5682-ad77-738a894ec0ad/63de34ed43a5a.image.jpg?resize=200%2C150 200w, bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/theifp.ca/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/59/d599fc38-8651-5682-ad77-738a894ec0ad/63de34ed43a5a.image.jpg?resize=225%2C169 225w, bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/theifp.ca/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/59/d599fc38-8651-5682-ad77-738a894ec0ad/63de34ed43a5a.image.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w, bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/theifp.ca/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/d/59/d599fc38-8651-5682-ad77-738a894ec0ad/63de34ed43a5a.image.jpg?resize=400%2C300 400w” sizes=”100vw” alt=”way we were brain brewery” class=”blur img-responsive true-size” apple-inline=”yes” id=”C901F23F-3F64-4CBF-8DE5-A118F2B478A1″ src=”https://alanskeoch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/63de34ed43a5a.image_-1.jpg”>

Few would think today that the hamlet of Hornby was once the home of a thriving brewery. This image from the 1890s shows employees outside the Brain Brewery. Established in 1845 by local resident John Brain, this local business on Ninth Line became quite successful employing 10 men in its day.

picture courtesy Esquesing Historical Society





In 1845 the Brain Brewery was built near here and farmers were contracted to grow hops
on long poles. Now now the land is being levelled for the Trafalgar road expansion.  The last 
hop barn was recently demolished not far away the fifth line of Halton County.

The Brain Brewery is not even a memory now.   

Change is the only sure thing in life.   Sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

Does anyone know anything about the Brain Brewery?  I doubt it.


Brain Brewery near Hornby

A pen and ink sketch of the Brain Brewery on the 9th Line, Esquesing Township near Hornby. Taken from the 1877 Halton County Atlas. It was established in 1845 and remains can be seen on Lot 2, Concession 9.


EPISODE 860 SUMMERTIME…AND THE LIVIN’ IS EASY (LYRICS BY GEORGE GERSHWIN)





EPISODE 860       SUMMERTIME…AND THE LIVIN’ IS EASY  (LYRICS BY GEORGE GERSHWIN)

alan skeoch
July 20. 2023

TODAY, Woody and I took a drive around our farm.  Hardly a farm any more for we encourage the wilderness
to return. Today was a day to sing because George Gershwin was right  “the living’ is easy”.
A few thoughts in words below….certainly not Gershwin but you’re “going to rise up singing” as I have on
this summer day (July 21, 2063)

“The bees got to humming
And blue is the sky
Marjorie is mowing
I won’t even try

The clover field
will be sweet in the winter
when these fields of green
will be hard to recall”

alan

What is Marjorie holding?   Seems alive…wild…frisky…take a guess.



Summertime
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high
Oh, your daddy’s rich
And your ma is good-lookin’
So hush, little baby
Don’t you cry

[Verse 2]
One of these mornings
You’re going to rise up singing
Then you’ll spread your wings
And you’ll take the sky
But ’til that morning
There’s a’nothing can harm you
With daddy and mammy standing by

Note: The song was written for the play Porgy and Bess but, to all of us…you, me and the bedpost…Summertime is here today
so I expect you to sing.  

alan

EPISODE 855 KENWOOD ART COLLECTION OF OLD MASTERS…INCLUDING IMAGE OF DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE




EPISODE 855   KENWOOD ART COLLECTION OF OLD MASTERS…INCLUDING IMAGE OF DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE

Alan skeoch
June 2023

The art collection at Kenwood is wonderful.  Every visit to England is not complete without a visit to the Kenwood Gallery
I am sure you agree.   Just who is Dido Elizabeth Belle?   Now she deserves an extra Episode….coming next.



What is an arm chair on wheels doing in the Elmwod collection of fine art?  It is an anomaly from the inventor.  A GOUT CHAIR!   Invented by
John Joseph Merlin in the 18th century.



AND JUST WHY IS A PAINTING OF THIS LADY  HANGING IN THE GALLERY.  AN D WHY IS THE  FAMOUS PAINTING OF DIDO BELLE HANGING IN
A GRAND HOME IN SCOTLAND.   SHE LIVED HERE IN KENWOOD FOR MOST OF HER LIFE. AND WHO IS SHE ANYWAY?



ARTIST IMPRESSION OF DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE

EPISODE 852 DIXIELAND MUSIC IN MISSISAUGA at BENARES

EPISODE  852    DIXIELAND MUSIC  IN MISSISAUGA at BENARES


alan skeoch
July 7, 2023

Every Friday evening for the rest of the summer there will be CONCERTS—‘Sit on the Grass or Bring Your lawn chair” —concerts
in Mississauga.   Last night (JULY 7, 2023) featured a Dixieland brass band 


WHERE?   AT BENARES HISTORIC HOUSE ON CLARKSON ROAD, MISSISSAUGA

THE BLUES WITH  WITH A DIXIELAND TWIST  
(DIFFERENT MUSICAL GROUPS EVERY FRIDAY NIGHT AT 7 P,M
VOLUNTARY DONATIONS

BASIN STREET BLUES
Now won’t you come along with meTo the Mississippi?We’ll take a trip to the land of dreamsBlowing down the river, down to New Orleans
The band is there to meet usOld friends to greet usThat’s where the line and the dark folks meetA heaven on earth, they call it Basin Street
I said, Basin Street, Basin StreetWhere the elite always meetDown in New Orleans, the land of dreamsYou’ll never know how nice it seems
Or just how much it really meansJust to be, yes, siree, in New OrleansThe land of dreams where I can loseMy Basin Street blues
Now, you’re glad you came with meDown the MississippiWe took a trip in a land of dreamsAnd floated down the river down to New Orleans
Where to, Basin Street, Basin StreetWhere the elite always meetDown in New Orleans, the land of dreamsYou’ll never know how, how much it seems
Or just how much it really meansJust to be, yes, siree, yeah, New OrleansThe land of dreams where I can loseMy Basin Street blues
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Spencer Williams
Basin Street Blues lyrics © Campbell Connelly And Co. Ltd.





NOW tell m how many music halls are dog freaky.?   I think this is the only one.


WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN

Oh, when the saints go marchin’ in,Oh, when the saints go marchin’ in,Lord, I want to be in that numberWhen the saints go marchin’ in.
And when the sun, begins to shine,And when the sun, begins to shine,Oh, how I want to be in that numberWhen the sun begins to shine.
Oh, when the trumpet, sounds its callOh, when the trumpet, sounds its call,Lord, how I want to be in that numberWhen the trumpet sounds its call.
Oh, when the saints go marchin’ in,Oh, when the saints go marchin’ in,Lord, how I want to be in that numberWhen the saints go marchin’ in.


EPISODE 850 KNEE PAIN…MOBILE SOLUTION…A BIT EMBARRASING

EPISODE 850     KNEE PAIN…MOBILE SOLUTION…A BIT EMBARRASING 

alan skeoch
june 2023’england



HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN?

I Would not describe myself as mighty but the general idea fits.  I had been too proud to admit my knee gives me 
a lot of pain.  So bluff.   Stagger is a better word.. That ploy did not last long.

“Dad, I have renter a scooter for you all week.”
“No goddam way am I going to use a scooter”
“Delivery coming up lane now.”
“Makes me look like an old fool.”
“True…but sometimes you look that way without the scooter.   Get on
it.  Easy to use.”

(Too easy … soon everybody wanted my scooter.   Then they began regarding
the scooter as a bag truck….piled all the groceries on, even a bag with two watermelons
that rolled away and a little kid helped me catch them.  That was a waste of time the watermelons
were past the due date…spongy.  Should have given them to my little helper who swiped
a plastic bucket from a stack of them.)
Strange how a big man on a little scooter was totally ignored by the Morris dancers which
allowed me to zip in and out as they jumped about.



Nolan told the horses….
“Grandpa will be buzzing around.  Do not get alarmed.  Do not laugh at him.  He is super sensitive.”

Under all these bags is a scooter and two watermelons. They are rolling out of the scooter.  “I will get them” announced a helper with  big plastic pail.

Morgan and the dogs liked to zip around…


“Hey, Dad, I am going  to buy one of these scooters to get back and forth to the horse stables”

MY EMBARASMENT (sp) WAS SOON FORGOTTEN.

POST SCRIPT

When I began using a cane due to knee pain, I suddenly became aware of 
so many other lame people with canes.  Some of us nodded  to each other.
When I graduated to this scooter the same thing happened….nodding to each other.
‘Birds of a father flock together”, comes to mind although the analogy is
not accurate.   Birds fly…we stumble.  I have decided to get my knee fixed…surgery.
If all goes well does that mean I can no loner nod at those with canes…no longer
grin a t those with scooters.  I fear I will join the arrogant majority once more.

EPISODE 849 MORRIS DANCERS…why do they jump about?

EPISODE  849   MORRIS DANCERS…why do they jump about?

alan skeoch

june 2023


Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers.


WE MEET A BUNCH OF MORRIS DANCERS , june 2023

The village of St. Albans had closed off its main street for a bunch of senior
citizens in odd costumes…with bells on their ankles and either hitting each other with sticks
or leaping in the air and waving white handkerchiefs all in time with a violin and an accordion.
Big crowd had gathered.

Strange to see men leaping in unison while waving a white  nose cloth.  Even stranger to see 
two rows of women in green dress trying to hit each other hunks of wood….while dancing .

“What’s happening?”
“I think these are Morris dancers?”
The name came to me although I had never seen such dancers before.
“Strangest dancers I’ve ever seen.   Big men and big women acting as if they are light  feathers.”
“Could you do it?”
“Not with my bad knee.”
“These dancers are 60 to 90 years old.”
“How do you  know that?”
“By their haircolor or lack of hair.”

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MORRIS DANCING?

“’Seems to have begun as a fertility thing way back in the 15th century.”
“Fertlility?”
“”Villagers wishing that their neighbours would get pregnant.”
“Did they not know the real facts of life,?
“Sex?”
“Yes.  Getting pregnant and having healthy children is a matter of chance….it does not 
happen that easily.”
“Are Morris dancers encouraging sexual activity?”
“Seems so….although the dancing could be a harvest wish……good crops?”
“Do you know what I  really think?”
“Morris dancing is not a fertility blessing or a  wish for good harvest….then what?’
“I think Morris dancing is just an excuse to have a good time with friends.”
“Now that makes sense.”

“Morris dancers used to be exclusively men for some reason but now both
sexes jump around.”
“I wonder why just men?”
“I have no idea but I bet there was a reason..”
“Find out…..(READERS JOB)

NOTE:  My brother Eric and I did not need Morris Dancers to exlain the facts of life.
We had TINKER who attracted Tom Cats like a magnet does hairpins.   She chose one,
struck an odd posture.  The Tom Cat then crawled on fast and got away fast.  Then
we had kittens….lots o of kittens.  TINKER was a teacher.  Her Tom Cat visitors lined
along the back fence and sang some sexual song in perfect harmony until dad fired 
the bb gun from the kitchen window.





History in England

While the earliest (15th-century) references place the Morris dance in a courtly setting, it appears that the dance became part of performances for the lower classes by the later 16th century; in 1600, the Shakespearean actor William Kempe, Morris danced from London to Norwich, an event chronicled in his Nine Daies Wonder (1600).
Almost nothing is known about the folk dances of England prior to the mid-17th century. While it is possible to speculate on the transition of “Morris dancing” from the courtly to a rural setting, it may have acquired elements of pre-Elizabethan (medieval) folk dance, such proposals will always be based on an argument from silence as there is no direct record of what such elements would have looked like. In the Elizabethan period, there was significant cultural contact between Italy and England, and it has been suggested that much of what is now considered traditional English folk dance, and especially English country dance, is descended from Italian dances imported in the 16th century.
By the mid 17th century, the working peasantry took part in Morris dances, especially at Whitsun. The Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell, however, suppressed Whitsun Ales and other such festivities. When the crown was restored by Charles II, the springtime festivals were restored. In particular, Whitsun Ales came to be celebrated on Whitsunday (Pentecost), as the date coincided with the birthday of Charles II.
Morris dancing continued in popularity until the industrial revolution and its accompanying social changes. Four teams claim a continuous lineage of tradition within their village or town: Abingdon (their Morris team was kept going by the Hemmings family), Bampton, Headington Quarry, and Chipping Campden. Other villages have revived their own traditions, and hundreds of other teams across the globe have adopted (and adapted) these traditions, or have created their own styles from the basic building blocks of Morris stepping and figures.
However by the late 19th century, and in the West Country at least, Morris dancing was fast becoming more a local memory than an activity. D’Arcy Ferris (or de Ferrars), a Cheltenham based singer, music teacher and organiser of pageants, became intrigued by the tradition and sought to revive it. He firstly encountered Morris in Bidford and organised its revival. Over the following years he took the side to several places in the West Country, from Malvern to Bicester and from Redditch to Moreton in Marsh. By 1910, he and Cecil Sharp were in correspondence on the subject.
Several English folklorists were responsible for recording and reviving the tradition in the early 20th century, often from a bare handful of surviving members of mid-19th-century village sides. Among these, the most notable are Cecil Sharp, Maud Karpeles, and Mary Neal.
Boxing Day 1899 is widely regarded as the starting point for the Morris revival. Cecil Sharp was visiting at a friend’s house in Headington, near Oxford, when the Headington Quarry Morris side arrived to perform. Sharp was intrigued by the music and collected several tunes from the side’s musician, William Kimber; not until about a decade later, however, did he begin collecting the dances, spurred and at first assisted by Mary Neal, a founder of the Espérance Club (a dressmaking co-operative and club for young working women in London), and Herbert MacIlwaine, musical director of the Espérance Club. Neal was looking for dances for her girls to perform, and so the first revival performance was by young women in London.
In the first few decades of the 20th century, several men’s sides were formed, and in 1934 the Morris Ring was founded by six revival sides. In the 1950s and especially the 1960s, there was an explosion of new dance teams, some of them women’s or mixed sides. At the time, there was often heated debate over the propriety and even legitimacy of women dancing the Morris, even though there is evidence as far back as the 16th century that there were female Morris dancers. There are now male, female and mixed sides to be found.
Partly because women’s and mixed sides were not eligible for full membership of the Morris Ring, two other national (and international) bodies were formed, the Morris Federation and Open Morris. All three bodies provid