Alan Skeoch

Author: terraviva

  • FARMING TUJRNED UPSIDE DONW OR NEARLY SO

    FARMING TURNED UPSIDE DOWN OR NEARLY SO

    Sorry to say this but a number of Ontario farms have fallen into this kind neglect as speculators buy

    up the land in expectation of future growth and huge profits.  No one lives  on the farm anymore.

    And there is  another factor at work.  Farms get rented out to people who really do not give
    a damn about farming.  they can’t even if they wanted to. for great swaths of Ontario farm land
    is now owned or managed by corporate agriculturalists who are interested only in cash cropping.
    So the barns fall down and, in this case, a Ford half ton truck gets posted up on its side so
    some mechanically minded  person can  get at its entrails.

    alan skeoch
    May 2018

  • SO, WHO BELIEVES IN GHOSTS? (FARM ABANDONED ON COLLINGWOOD ROAD)

    “SO, WHO BELIEVES IN GHOSTS?”


    alan skeoch
    May 2018

    The house and barn were abandoned  a long time ago.  People just walked away leaving everything behind…furniture, farm equipment, last mail delivery.  
    I bet some of you noticed the place on the road to Collingwood…west side between Duntroon and Collingwood.   Nearly all gone now.  Buildings sat there forlorn for
    two decades  or longer. Then a couple of years  ago The house was
    demolished but the barn still stands with the ghostly wreck of the giant threshing machine still standing on the threshing floor visible to passersby on the Collingwood  road
    since
    many of the barn siding has been blown off by the winds of time.

    Robert Root and I visited the site…with permission…sort of permission that is to say.

    “Hey, Rooter, let’s ask the farm across the sideroad if we can go in to take some pictures.”
    “Are they the owners?”
    “Don’t rightly know.”

    “Could Rooter and I take some pics of that’d abandoned farm?”
    “We are not the owners.”
    “We won’t touch a thing.”
    “Suppose that is your business…not mine…go ahead.”
    “Why has the place been abandoned…looks like it was once grand…”
    “Dispute over the will…No one quite sure who owns  what so no one can touch nothin’…or so we’ve been told.”
    “Us?  Promise not to touch a thing.  Rooter is a Baptist…honest as the driven snow.”
    “Not my business.”

    So  Rooter and I walked through the tall grass to the house and then out to the barn.  No sign of life but lots
    of evidence of a life that was once lived here.  Books, letters, newspaper collection…phone book.   

    “Hey Rooter, look here.  There’s even a section of the house for the hired man…at the back…separate.”
    “Could be a hired  woman,  Alan.”
    “Reckon?”
    “Barn is full of things…Thresher, fanning mill, single horse plough, root pulper….”
    “And the water pump still works…want a sip…a little brown.”

    And that was an hour that both Rooter and I will never forget.  Sad. Tragic.  Like a love affair gone bad.

    “Did you see any  goats, Alan?”
    “Nope. did you?”
    “Nope…supposed to be ghost here, you know.”

    WE MISSED THE GHOST…HE WAS OUT BACK WITH THE HARNESS…GETTING READY TO HARNESS  UP HORSES…THE GHOST WAS THERE. (scroll down)

    alan skeoch

    May 2018
















  • “MY OWNER COES NOT BELIEVE IN CARS OR TRUCKS.” (DAY I MET A TALKING HORSE)

    “MY OWNER DOES NOT BELIEVE IN CARS OR TRUCKS?”


    ALAN SKEOCH
    May 2018
    (picture taken years ago at a winter farm auction)

    “Hey Bud?”
    “You mean me?”
    “Yes, you with the big coat…scarf and boots and brush cut.”
    “I didn’t know horses  could talk.”
    “We don’t like people to know we can talk.”
    “So?”
    “So, could you slip over to the Women’s Institute food booth and get me a hot chocolate?”
    “I thought horses ate oats and drank water.”
    “On a  day like this  I need a hot chocolate.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Listen Bud, the water is frozen and the oats are as hard as rocks…I want hot chocolate?”
    “Show me the money!”

  • IRISH COUNTRY ROAD …IN 2014

    IRISH COUNTRY ROAD


    When Gabriela, the kids and Marjorie and I toured Southern Ireland a year or so ago, the roads  were empty as the tourist season had not begun.
    This quaint and starkly beautiful road get jammed  in the summer but for us it was a lonely adventure.  I think it is located down in the Southwest
    corner of Ireland…perhaps the Dingle.  No matter, places like this are easy to find.   Just imagine subsisting on potatoes on those tiny fields and then
    suddenly discovering the plants had shrivelled up and died.   That happened in the 1840’s.   Remnants of bad times are easy to find.  But the
    local pubs wash away the grief…or maybe just hide it deeper.

    When I worked  a few miles from here in  1960 sites such as tis were not uncommon around Bunmahon, County Waterford.  No doubt long  gone now for Ireland
    underwent a wave of investment that made a lot of changes.  But not so many that the flavours of the past were all consumed…for this picture was tanned in 2014 I think.

    See if you can find  one lone cow.

    alan skeoch
    May 2018

  • “WASN.T THAT A PARTY?” MISSISSAUGA ARTS PRE=MARTY PARTY

    “WASN’T THAT A PARTY?”


    alan skeoch
    April 30, 2018

    Jeannette Chau nominated  me for a Marty Award.   Super flattering thing to do, especially since we had really seen each other for around 40 years…way back when I was a teacher of history
    at Parkdale Collegiate Institute and she was a student.   Imagine that.  Please forgive  if this photo essay seems a trifle vain.  The whole affair made us, Marjorie and me, feel good.  So we are sharing.

    What are the Marty Awards, you ask?  Sounds sort of weird, I know, but very simply put the Marty awards  are given to nominated citizens of Mississauga in all the fields of “arts”…music, drama, dance, literature, art, etc.

    We  have lived in Mississauga since 1968 and we have watched the city grow into one of the largest cities in Canada. BUT we have never really captured the diversity of Mississauga until the evening of April 30.

    “Alan,  can you come to the reception we have for Finalists at the Live Restaurant, it will be fun?”

    So Marjorie and I went to the Living Arts Centre on April 30.  What a party.  As diverse as Mississauga.  Bubbling with enthusiasm , perhaps “joyeux de vivre” (sp?) captures the event best/

    NO!  The best way  to describe the event was done by the Irish Rovers and Ricky Nelson.  Remember?

    Rovers Irish – Wasn’t That A Party Lyrics

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    Might’ve been the gin
    Could’ve been the three or four six-packs,
    I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in
    My head is like a football
    I think I’m going to die
    Tell me, me oh, me oh my
    Wasn’t that a party     
    www.lyricsfreak.com/i/txtstripes_large.gif); min-height: 598px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(71, 71, 71);”>(See the full lyrics at the end of this photo essay)
    www.lyricsfreak.com/i/txtstripes_large.gif); min-height: 598px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(71, 71, 71);”>
    www.lyricsfreak.com/i/txtstripes_large.gif); min-height: 598px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(71, 71, 71);”>
    www.lyricsfreak.com/i/txtstripes_large.gif); min-height: 598px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(71, 71, 71);”>Could’ve been the whiskey
    Might’ve been the gin
    Could’ve been the three or four six-packs,
    I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in
    My head is like a football
    I think I’m going to die
    Tell me, me oh, me oh my
    Wasn’t that a party

    Someone took a grapefruit
    Wore it like a hat
    I saw someone under my kitchen table
    Talking to my old tom cat
    They were talking about hockey
    The cat was talking back
    Long about then every-thing went black
    Wasn’t that a party

    I’m sure it’s just my memory
    Playing tricks on me
    But I think I saw my buddy
    Cutting down my neighbour’s tree

    Could’ve been the whiskey
    Might’ve been the gin
    Could’ve been the three or four six-packs,
    I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in
    My head is like a football
    I think I’m going to die
    Tell me, me oh, me oh my
    Wasn’t that a party

    Billy, Joe and Tommy
    Well they went a little far
    They were sittin’ in my back yard, blowing on a sireen
    From somebody’s police car

    So you see, Your Honour
    It was all in fun
    The little bitty track meet down on main street
    Was just to see if the cops could run
    Well they run us in to see you
    In an alcoholic haze
    I sure can use those thirty days
    To re-cover from the party

    Could’ve been the whiskey
    Might’ve been the gin
    Could’ve been the three or four six-packs,
    I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in
    My head is like a football
    I think I’m going to die
    Tell me, me oh, me oh my
    Wasn’t that a party
    www.lyricsfreak.com/i/txtstripes_large.gif); min-height: 598px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(71, 71, 71);”>
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    Rovers Irish – Wasn’t That A Party Lyrics
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    Rovers Irish – Wasn’t That A Party Lyrics

    www.lyricsfreak.com/i/txtstripes_large.gif); min-height: 598px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 30px;”>Could’ve been the whiskey
    Might’ve been the gin
    Could’ve been the three or four six-packs,
    I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in
    My head is like a football
    I think I’m going to die
    Tell me, me oh, me oh my
    Wasn’t that a party

    Someone took a grapefruit
    Wore it like a hat
    I saw someone under my kitchen table
    Talking to my old tom cat
    They were talking about hockey
    The cat was talking back
    Long about then every-thing went black
    Wasn’t that a party

    I’m sure it’s just my memory
    Playing tricks on me
    But I think I saw my buddy
    Cutting down my neighbour’s tree

    Could’ve been the whiskey
    Might’ve been the gin
    Could’ve been the three or four six-packs,
    I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in
    My head is like a football
    I think I’m going to die
    Tell me, me oh, me oh my
    Wasn’t that a party

    Billy, Joe and Tommy
    Well they went a little far
    They were sittin’ in my back yard, blowing on a sireen
    From somebody’s police car

    So you see, Your Honour
    It was all in fun
    The little bitty track meet down on main street
    Was just to see if the cops could run
    Well they run us in to see you
    In an alcoholic haze
    I sure can use those thirty days
    To re-cover from the party

    Could’ve been the whiskey
    Might’ve been the gin
    Could’ve been the three or four six-packs,
    I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in
    My head is like a football
    I think I’m going to die
    Tell me, me oh, me oh my
    Wasn’t that a party

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