Alan Skeoch

Category: Uncategorized

  • EPISODE 515 WINTER STORM JANUARY 17,2022

    EPISODE 515   WINTER STORM JANUARY 17, 2022


    alan skeoch
    Jan. 17,2022

    We woke up this morning to find 50 to 60 cm of snow blocking front and back doors.
    Disaster on highways…closure  of Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway.  Trucks,
    busses, cars in pile ups.  Health care workers…grocery store clerks…all bravely trying
    to get to work.  Admirable people.  For some it was tough.

    Two persons loved it though…Marjorie and Woody (woody is a person)

    I am sure everyone in the Toronto area had similar experiences some of which must have
    been unpleasant.   But I bet none of you had butterflies!!

    alan

  • EPISODE 513 DID LANDSCAPE ARTISTS OF 17TH CENTURY PUT IDEAS INTO CAPABILITY BROWN’S HEAD?

    EPISODE 513    DID LANDSCAPE ARTISTS OF 17TH CENTURY PUT IDEAS INTO CAPABILITY BROWN’S HEAD?


    alan skeoch
    Jan. 2022

    Where did Capability Brown get his landscaping ideas from?   Many places I suppose.
    One source may be the landscape paintings of 17th century artists like Poussin.
    In other words some of his ides may have not come directly from nature but rather from landscape paintings that hung in the great country houses
    Capability visited.  Just a thought.  Poussin is mentioned as influencing head gardeners in the
     ph.d. thesis of Ms. Greener, University of  Exeter, England.  

    The painting below was done by the 17th century  artist Poussin.  When this painting is put side by  side
    with an artists impression of Chatsworth landscape as changed by Capability Brown, I was struck by the similarities. 



    File:Poussin, Nicolas - Landscape with Diogenes - c. 1647.jpg - Wikimedia Commons


    LANDSCAPE WITH DIOGENES, 1647  by Poussin
    (Diogenes was a Greek philosopher known for his brutal honesty)


    Lancelot Brown

    CHATSWORTH LANDSCAPE, 17 TH CENTURY (Artistic impression)



    “What do you think of that idea, Capability?”
    “I would say, Alan, that it has ‘capabilities?

    ALAN


  • EPISODE 511 GHOST SHIP AND WINTER ICE (RIDGETOWN)

    EPISODE 511   THE RIDGETOWN AND WINTER ICE


    alan skeoch
    jan. 2022


    Fire and Ice 

    Some say the world will end in fire,
    Some say in ice.
    From what I’ve tasted of desire
    I hold with those who favor fire.
    But if it had to perish twice,
    I think I know enough of hate
    To say that for destruction ice
    Is also great
    And would suffice.

    “Remember that poem Marjorie?”
    “Yes, today seems like the world will end in ice”
    “Metaphor for hate…lots of that around below our border”

    “Good day for ghost ships on Lake Ontario.”
    “Fog snd dark sky”
    “Everything in black snd grey.”
    “And white and slippery”





    “I will give you five bucks if you play hop scotch out to the end of those slabs.”
    “Madness surfacing in a twisted mind.”



    “Look, a ghost ship coming out of the fog.”



    “I am going to slip and slide my way out on the slabs to get a good picture.”
    “You Fathead.”
    “Need s story for today’s episode.”
    “What dimwit..no one reads your stories.”
    “They must.”
    “Why?”
    “Nothing else to do.”


    “Holy smoke….the ghost ship is getting close.



    “It’s turning.”
    “Heading for you Alan…get off those rocks and lets get out of here.”


    “I slipped…ghost ship is getting closer.”
    “Get up, Alan…!!”
    “Can’t my foot is caught…doomed”


    “Ghost ship is turning.”
    “I can read the name.”
    “It’s the Ridgetown.”
    “Couldn’t be the Ridgetown.”
    “Why not?”
    “The Ridgetown was scrapped 7o  or 80 years ago…
    filled with cement and boulders…rest on the bottom of
    Lake Ontario now.”

    “That’s right but today it has come back to life.”


    ‘




  • EPISODE 507 CAPABILITY BROWN (1715 – 1783)


    note:  This was a difficult Episode…an important episode…so why did I use

    first person dialogue?  Because it seemed the most efficient way to cover

    a difficult subject.  If, at the end, you are intrigued by Capability Brown then
    I have succeeded.



    EPISODE 507   CAPABLITY BROWN


    alan skeoch
    Jan. 7 2022


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  • PRELUDE TO EPISODE 519: A MYSTERIOUS GRAPH … LOOKS LIKE INCIDENCE OF PLAGUE OR PANDEMIC

    PRELUDE TO  EPISODE  510:   CAPABILITY BROWN…triggers a new disease called G———G

    JUST in case you need some relief from all the frightening media mentions

    of the pandemic…” growing and growing”…scaring the pants of people…

    Just in case you need relief, I came across this graph which
    should provide relief for shattered nerves.

    What is it?

    Someone did  a search for the word GARDENING as mentioned in 18th century textbooks.
    In 1700 the word is hardly mentioned.  By 1800 the word is heading into the stratosphere.
    Was Capability Brown responsible for the new disease called GARDENING?


         Figure 1 Appearance of the term gardening in British texts during the 18th Century