Alan Skeoch

Month: October 2020

  • EPISODE 137 WHERE HAVE ALL THE GARTER SNAKES GONE?



    EPISODE  137   WHERE HAVE ALL OUR SNAKES GONE?

    Alan Skeoch
    Oct. 9, 2020

    Every year of my life I have met snakes in the summer time.  Garter snakes especially and the
    occasional milk snake.  Except this summer.   No one has been found staring at me in the
    barn or green house.   Usually they hide among the thousand flower pots I keep hap hazardly stacked
    but not this  year.

    A snake only scares me when I do not see the creature until I lift a flower pot or move a 
    tool box.  One day a couple of  years ago there were a whole bunch of garter snakes in
    the green house.  Lots of males, smaller than the females, but I was looking in the wrong place.
    I should have looked above my head where she was  stretched out…maybe just inches  from
    my head…watching me.  See if you can  find her here.

    How did garter snakes get their name?   Because they looked  like the garters that men
    once wore to hold their socks up?   Now who would do that.  My socks droop down.  Suppose
    I wrapped a garter snake around my sock just for fun.  Nope.  Cannot do that this year.

    Once I found a snake in my shoe.  Maybe it wanted to be a garter.

    Frogs are in short supply.  Endangered by disease and the Sixth mass extinciton.  With few 
    frogs there will have to be fewer snakes.  Sad bit true.   

    Our grandson, Jack, is a great snake catcher.  He does  not kill them…meets them eye to eye.
    His  dad once said that garter snakes  do not bite.  That was proved false when he caught a
    big one and it latched onto his finger.  Most garter snakes are small but one was once found
    that was five feet long.   

    How many garter snakes  are found in North America.  About one million.  I thought there were
    more.  One year we were visiiing Amherst Island and found garter snake balls in an old house
    foundation.  Garter snakes all wrapped up together for the winter or maybe they were copulating.
    Whups…I should not mention sex I suppose.   

    Our uncle John Skeoch, Saskatchewan  farmer, had to abandon his  stone stone house on the 
    prairies because garter snakes had taken over beginning with the foundation field  stone
    gaps and ending up in the kitchen coffee cups.   Snakes  eye to eye with us in the kitchen.
    Seemed  like more than a million must exist.  But that was forty years ago.  Today there
    seem to be no snakes  in our flower pots.  


    Killing snakes happens.  Especially snakes that carry venom that will kill humans.   Like rattle snakes.  Years  ago, Dr. Norm Patterson, geophysicisit, nearly sent
    me to Arizona on a mining job.  Lots of rattlers down there.  So I read a  couple of snake books.  What should I do  if bitten or if a friend got bitten.
    “Suck out the blood”  Imagine that.  How would I suck out the blood of my own leg?  How much blood?   How could  I do  that to a fellow worker?

    No problem.  The next day Norm said he had changed his mind and sent me to Southern Ireland for the summer.  There are no snakes
    in Ireland.  Another crew was  sent to Arizona.   I said nothing to them about rattle snakes.

    We do  have rattlesnakes in Ontario  They are protected.  Our son Andrew has tried to discourage his son Jack from catching Ontario rattlers.

    That light green grass snake is startling in colour but invisible in the grass.

    Marjorie once caught a big garter snake with an equally large frog halfway down its throat.  She pulled out the frog and it hopped away.  The
    snake was not amused.   Why tell you this?  Because it is Marjorie’s birthday today.  What has her birthday got to do with snakes. Nothing.
    Just making the point that Marjorie, our son Andrew and his  son Jack love snakes.  And that love may save a few snakes  from the snake
    killers.  

    alan skeoch
    Oct. 9, 2020

  • EPISODE 136 THE LITTLE SKEOCH OF1921…IS NEARLY REBUILT…NOW RUNNING

    EPISODE 136     THE LITTLE SKEOCH ABOUT TO BE  REBORN…thanks to a group of men who had a dream
    and the collecive skills to build a lost car.

    alan skeoch
    Oct. 2020

    Thanks to Geoff Allison and his friends the Little Skeoch is about to be reborn.  What a surprise.  Even Covid 19
    cannot stop these fellows.   They have had  help from donors of course but the prize…the little Skeoch…is their’s.

    Yestereday when I sent out Episode 135 I sent a copy to Geoff but did not expect such a response because
    the newspaper said  Scotland  was in lockdown due to Covid 19.   Well the virus has slowed things down
    but the little Skeoch is now running.  If you read  Geoff’s letter below and follow his instructions  you will
    be able to see the little car zipping from one garage to another.   The men have even been able to 
    determine the lovely deep red colour of the 1920 Skeoch.   

    Geoff has  given me permission to reprint his letter

    April 2019 – First milestone ups the pace

    On Oct 7, 2020, at 7:37 AM, Geoff Allison


    Good morning Alan,


    Sorry to hear of your sad loss, I hope your son is coping especially with the pandemic on top.

    The pandemic closed our Shed in March, and the lockdown rules in Scotland, being the most stringent in the UK, mean that we are unlikely to re-open before April 2021. We are trying to keep our previously active members in touch with each other via email, telephone and video conferencing. We have also managed to move some of the Shed activities to individual’s homes so they can progress their projects within isolation/distancing rules. More than half our members have managed to keep projects such as 3D printing face masks, engraving, bicycle and engine refurbishment alive – and the biggest of these re-locations was the Skeoch. I recommend our Skeoch webpage https://dalbeattiemensshed.co.uk/skeoch to you for a brief history of how the project has progressed. We moved the car and workshop equipment out in June, primarily to improve the health and wellbeing of one of our members with advanced Parkinson’s. Since that time the project has accelerated almost to completion.  Apart from some minor adjustments the vehicle [less hood(canopy) and radiator badge] is finished awaiting space in a paint shop for finish painting – see the September update on our website. I am re-scheming the unveiling of the finished car as our original intentions have been crushed by the pandemic. We were hoping to display the car at the 2021 Scottish Motor Show, 100 years after it’s first exhibition there in February 1921 – but the Show will not run in 2021. Our reserve intention was to display the car in the Glasgow Transport Museum  thus keeping the launch near to where James Skeoch’s daughter resides, and close to an airport for people wishing to fly in – the museums are closed for the foreseeable future too. At present it’s looking like a triple launch: we will display the car in the picture window of Paterson ATV [ https://www.patersonatv.co.uk/] for a couple of weeks after completion for Dalbeattie townsfolk; I am working with the Chief Executive of the Scottish Motor Trade Association [SMTA own the Scottish Motor Show], to put together a multipage article for their trade magazine [https://content.yudu.com/web/fiqy/0A4403c/autoretailerissue02/html/index.html] aiming for the February 2021 edition; and finally I am working with the organisers of the RHS,  Royal Highland Show, [https://www.whatsoninedinburgh.co.uk/event/084117-royal-highland-show-2021/] to see if we can display the Skeoch on the Dumfries & Galloway stand in June 2021. The RHS is held adjacent to Edinburgh airport so is close to Glasgow and James Skeoch’s daughter as well as being convenient for anyone flying in.

    Picking up on a couple of items in your 132-4 newsletters 
    You were chasing Skeoch heritage in Bute. Before our Shed closed for the pandemic we had a visit from a relative of one of our members who has gaelic as is his first language, and the Skeoch name was discussed. The visitor reminded us that in Scots gaelic the root ‘ach’ means from, and Skeoch is probably a corruption of Sgitheanach meaning from Skye! Just a thought.
    I liked your pictures in 132 – I toured NE USA and SE Canada with my daughter in August 2019 and spent some time in Toronto, we enjoyed the scenery but it was not as colorful as your photos. My daughter returned to Toronto with 2 of her colleagues in October 2019 too. My annual break with my daughter this year was Nashville, Memphis, Natchez and New Orleans in September but that was cancelled due to the pandemic.

    Good to hear from you again, stay well

    Geoff




    A piece of software discovered by Dave Higginbottom designed to colourise old monochrome photos has revealed more detail on a profile picture of the Skeoch (see image) and revises our understanding of the tyre and coachwork finishes.

    William Kennedy offered to share the proceeds of his 9th June 2019 Orroland Gardens open day earlier this year, giving us a target date for having a rolling chassis to display. Planning this event has galvanised fundraising, procurement and build activity.

    Both the engine and gearbox restorations have been completed to the limit of parts available, along with a part 1920s B&B carburettor donated by Keith Dennison. This puts pressure on procuring springs and wheels which, as major cost items, in turn puts pressure on fundraising.

    The second tranche of Dalbeattie Rotary’s donation gives us the confidence to order springs from Jones Springs (Engineering) Ltd of Wednesbury, and wheels from Barrie Brown of Windygates, Fife.

    Later in the month Keith and Chris Dennison visit to donate a beautifully restored magneto. Work on the chassis concentrates on finishing, dressing, mounting and aligning the pedal, brake and countershafts.


    Good old-fashioned fabrication skills resolved two of the our ongoing build difficulties – a new hand built starting handle & support bracket is now robust enough for repeated use; and a process of hand beating long louvres into bonnet side panels was developed using a profiled concave die machined by Donald. Coachwork progressed with the fabrication of rear wings and front wings (inner and outer). Work started on the upholstery, rubber flooring and windscreen support frame.

    An oil leak appeared during tuning and adjusting engine controls which will probably require engine removal and rebuild to resolve. We are still looking for a better carburettor which is configured so that the fuel supply line doesn’t run too close to the exhaust.


    The full story is unfolding step by step.  I hope you feel the same escitement we feel.  It is almost too hard to believe.

    July 2020 – Two steps forward, one step back






  • EPISODE 134: THE LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR … LIVED FOR ONE GLORIOUS YEAR…1920





    EPISODE 134:  ONCE UPON A  TIME THERE WAS  A MOTOR CAR CALLED  THE LITTLE SKEOCH

    (also called  The Skeoch Motorcycle  Car)

    alan  skeoch
    Nov. 27. 2018

         REVISED OCT. 2020 (slightly)

    It has  now been  two years since I touched base with the men rebuilding The Litle Skeoch Motor Car

    in Scotland.  It is a daunting task.  We had planned on a  visit to their workshop but sad events
    got in the way…and  Covid 19 makes such visits difficult today.  How the world has changed.
    Maybe I can get a progress report from Scotland.  Meanwhile I feel this story should be part
    of the Episodes (#134) just in case it gets lost.

    alan


    Maybe we should bring back the LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR.   It was small,, cheap and  simple…sort of  a  4 wheel bicycle  seating two people with a chain drive and  small

    motorcycle  engine.  So small that only two very slim people could  ride in it since the

    car was  only 31 inches  wide and a  little over 8 feet long.  

    Some of  you may think this  is some kind  of joke.  Wrong.  In 1920, James Skeoch built his first Little Skeoch, then entered it in a Scottish auto show and sold it
    in ten minutes.   All  told less than a dozen Little Skeoch’s  were built in his small factory.  Ten  were quickly purchased at that auto show. Price?  180 pounds…which was the cheapest car in the show.  None have survived.   Sadly in 1921 a fire  consumed  his little factory and as  a  result the Burnside Motor Company in Dalbeattie,  Scotland, ceased to exist.




    Skeoch utility car




    The original Skeoch Utility Car.


    Skeoch Utility car advertisement






    Burnside Motorworks

    Pictures of the Skeoch production line were retrieved from Skeoch  family albums.   Not exactly an automated  factory.
    But the LITTLE SKEOCHS were real mini cars and seemed about to make a big splash in the booming car market of the 1920’s
    until  fire ended  the enterprise.  Everything became a  blackened  pile  of scrap  iron.

    James Skeoch moved on.   His skills were valued.  He had a  long successful career and  died  in 1954.
    Not many people, by 1954, were even  aware that there was  such a  car as the SKEOCH.   Memories are short especially since 
    none of the Little Skeochs  survived.   Gone  Gone Gone.    

    Well, not quite.

    POSSIBLE REBIRTH OF THE LITTLE SKEOCH

    HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON THE WALL

    HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD  A GREAT FALL
    ALL THE KING’S HORSES
    AND ALL THE KING’S MEN
    COULDN’T PUT HUMPTY TOGETHER AGAIN.

    …Then  along came GEORGE ALLISON and his men from Dalbeattie, Scotland…who
    plan to put Humpty togehter again.




    P.S.   BELOW IS AN ARICLE  ON THE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR WRITTEN
    FOR BBC  SCOTLAND NEWS ,  Feb. 27, 2018

    Drive to rebuild ‘forgotten’ early car

    By Nichola Rutherford
    BBC Scotland News

    Published
    27 February 2018

    IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
    image captionThe Skeoch Utility Car was built using parts normally used to manufacture motorcycles
    When James Skeoch designed and built one of Scotland’s firstaffordable cars, he must have dreamed of huge success. 
    With a price-tag of just £180, the first Skeoch Utility Car was the cheapest on display at the Scottish Motor Show in 1921. 
    It sold within 10 minutes and a further nine were quickly snapped up by customers keen to join the automobile revolution. 
    But within months Skeoch’s business was in ruins. His uninsured workshop in Dalbeattie, Dumfries and Galloway, burned to the ground. 
    Since then the Skeoch Utility Car has been largely forgotten by all but keen historians of Scotland’s motor industry. 
    Now, almost 100 years later, plans are are being drawn up to recreate the so-called “cycle car” in the town where it was manufactured. 

    IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
    image captionThe Skeoch car was the cheapest on show at the Scottish Motor Show in 1921 and apparently sold within 10 minutes
    The ambitious project has been taken on by a group of mainly retired local men, known as Dalbeattie Men’s Shed. 
    Using some of the original parts and working from the original drawings, they hope to build a working Skeoch car in time to mark its centenary. 
    Motoring enthusiast Martin Shelley approached the Men’s Shed with the idea for the project after reading about the group on the BBC Scotland website last year. 

    IMAGE COPYRIGHTDALBEATTIE MUSEUM
    image captionBurnside Motor Works in Dalbeattie, where the Skeoch was manufactured, was devastated by fire in December 1921
    The group, which meets in a workshop in Dalbeattie twice a week, was named Shed of the Year for its efforts to “help as many local people as possible”.
    “Using the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed’s energy, enthusiasm and skills to recreate the car seemed like a match made in heaven,” Mr Shelley said.
    He said “cycle cars” were first invented in the early 1900s and they got their name after using motorcycle engines and wheels. 
    They became increasingly popular after World War One, when soldiers returned home from the front line, having become used to driving. 
    Skeoch radiator badgeichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 320w, ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 480w, ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 624w, ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg 800w” src=”https://c.files.bbci.co.uk/4D35/production/_100156791_skeochbadge.jpg” width=”976″ height=”549″ loading=”lazy” class=”css-evoj7m-Image ee0ct7c0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; width: 800px; height: 450px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; -webkit-box-pack: center; justify-content: center; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; object-fit: cover;”>
    image captionThe Skeoch radiator badge was among the original parts found in the home of Mr Skeoch’s son following his death last year

    image captionDalbeattie Men’s Shed have also been given an original engine and gearbox with which to build a Skeoch car
    Mr Shelley said: “After World War One, the ordinary working man was much more used to the idea of riding a motorcycle or driving a car so they knew about the technology and now they wanted to try and build their own cars. 
    “In the early 20s, there was a huge flowering of people making these cars. As it turned out, Skeoch in Dalbeattie were the only people in Scotland to ever attempt to make these things commercially.”
    The original drawings and parts – including the radiator badge – were found in the Wishaw home of Ron Skeoch, James Skeoch’s son, after he died last year. 
    Mr Shelley said he hoped they could be used to capture the “spirit” of the 1920s vehicle. 
    “You could make a replica of the car which would pass muster, using a modern engine and a modern gear box and using modern parts. But the spirit of the car is very much based on the parts that were available in 1920,” he said. 
    “This project will be very like the original car and that to me is what the joy of the whole thing is.”

    image captionFiona Sinclair hopes to be able to sit in one of her grandfather’s cars

    image caption“It’s going to be something for posterity,” said Geoff Allison of Dalbeattie Men’s Shed
    The granddaughter of James Skeoch, Fiona Sinclair, is also involved in the project. 
    She never knew her grandfather – he died in 1954 – but she hopes that her mother – Skeoch’s daughter – will get the chance to ride in one his cars.
    “I think it’s going to mean a lot to my family,” she said. “It’s tragic that the fire put an end to his ambition. 
    “I’m actually rather hoping I can physically get to sit in the car, I’m not quite sure I could be trusted with driving it. 
    “It’s only got two gears apparently but I think it would be rather wonderful. What I really hope is that my mother gets the opportunity to actually sit in the car as well.” 
    The project is “immensely exciting”, said Geoff Allison, the secretary of the Dalbeattie Men’s Shed, which has members with engineering and mechanical skills. 
    “It’s engineering-rich, it’s Dalbeattie-rich, it’s community-rich, it fills so many of our requirements,” he added. 
    “It’s big, it’s going to be eye-catching, it’s going to be something for posterity. It’s got a lot to recommend it.”




  • EPISODE 133 SKEOCH WOOD (ROTHSEY, ISLE OF BUTE, SCOTLAND)

    EPISODE 133    SKEOCH WOOD, (ISLE of Bute, Scotland)


    SKEOCH WOOD … north side of  ROTHESY, ISLE  OF BUTE, SCOTLAND


    SKEOCH  WOOD
    SKEOCH WOOD, CIRCA 1900
    alan skeoch
    Oct. 2020

    “Can I help you, lad?”
    “Yes, do you have an empty prison cell?”
    “Why, son…looking for a place to sleep?”
    “Yes.”
    “No need to sleep in jail…let me see what I can find.”

    It was early September, 1960, and  I had just got off the Scottish  ferry to Rothesay on the
    Isle of Bute.  My money was almost gone but I dearly wanted to see the Skeoch Wood, a
    forest on the northern edge of the holiday town of Rothsey.  Somewhere I had  read
    that local police stations could provide emergency  shelter.  

    Just getting to Rothsey was a shot in the dark as the expression  goes.  My job doing a mining
    geophysical survey  on the south coast of  Ireland was over and I was  slowly making my way
    to Prestwick Airport for the flight home to Canada.  This  was a grand  adventure for a 22 year
    old Canadian so I tried  to cram in as much family history as possible.  Mom told me she
    found the Skeoch Wood  on an old post cart.  

    Was this forest connected  in any way with our family name?  I thought so.  But how do I
    interview a tree?   Actually I felt lost when I found the Skeoch Wood.  It was not the forest
    I expected. 

    “Got a place for you … just down the street, very reasonable
    bed and breakfast.  Better than a jail cell.”

    “Too bad about the forest…One hundred years ago you could get lost…could
    hide in there.”
    “What happened?”
     “Two World Wars and  The Great Depression… removed a lot of trees.”

    And no one  I spoke  to Knew anything about the name Skeoch.  Someone must know but
    I had no luck.  Rather a disappointment but the Skeoch Wood was a kind of
    namesake.  Maybe  Skeoch is both a place name…and a family name.  The best 
    meaning I got for the name was Geilic for “Hawthorne” or that a Skeoch was “a hawthorne
    branch thrown across a field opening as a gate.  Who knows if that is true. Does relate to
    trees though. So I left
    Rothsay, caught a bus to Prestwick and flew home to Toronto.  End of story.

    Well not quite.  By pure chance in 1998 I came across THE TENTERS OF BUTE, an article
    written by Jenny Chaplin in The Scots  Magazine (Vol. 148, N.1, January 1998).  It was
    the subheading that caught my eye:



    “SKEOCH WOOD was  home to hundreds of  men, women and  children who, through
    no fault of their own, had no roof over their heads.”

    Rothesay once had  four large cotton mills that employed a lot of workers…perhaps hundreds.
    Cotton processing boomed in Rothesay until 1835 when the market collapsed and all the
    workers were suddenly unemployed.   There was  no safety net.  The workers could not pay
    rent … could barely feed themselves and stooped to stealing turnips and whatever else was
    near at hand.   So, from 1835 until the  1920’s,  nearly a century, these industrial workers
    and their children retreated into the Skeoch Wood.  Hidden.  They became known as
    the Tenters of Bute because they lived in makeshift tents and hovels.  No running water, 
    no toilets.   The  Skeoch Wood became  a desperate  place.

    “The trek to the Skeoch  Wood had begun (in 1835). And throughout the  1800’s and
    on into the early  years of  1900, the Skeoch Wood was home to hundreds of men, women
    and children who, through no fault of their own, had no roof over their heads.”  (Jenny Chaplin)

    It might be expected that the occasional visitor to Rothesay, as I was in 1960, might take
    a nap in the Skeoch Wood to save a bit of money.  But it must have been startling to stroll 
    through the Skeoch  Wood in 1835 or 1855 or 1895 and find hundreds of poverty stricken
    families sleeping … living …deep in the forest.  

    They were not even allowed to beg unless the had a “Begger’s Badge”…only 26 such
    badges were issued.

    One elderly woman walked barefoot (I assume) to the Rothesay police station in hope
    of getting  shoes. When she  admitted she  was 69 rather than  70 she  was sent away
    “with tears streaming down  her face.”

    THE police in Rothsey turned this old lady away when she  needed shoes badly.
    The  police  in Rothsey, in 1960, found me a plae to sleep  other than a jail cell.
    These  stories just do not fit well.




    Selling cockles and whelks earned a little money but when  too many tried to sell
    this low level  food they were rounded up and moved away from town.  Rag picking
    was another way to try to make a living. 

    Some  Local residents of  Rothesay referred to the Tenters as “The dregs of humanity”…and
    that was in 1899 when they were offered a trip to the poorhouse in Greenock which
    they refused.  Better to live  in a rag tent in the Skeoch Wood than enter a British
    Poor House.  Earlier, in 1878, The Society For  Assisting Poor Wives in Their Time
    of Need …that was the full name, imagine that…the  assistance was to “Lend”
    a bagful of clothing for one  month.  Lend.  not Give.

    Sympathy was felt by some…rejection by others…all focused on the Skeoch Wood.

     1885, a Plea for the Poor:

       “Hard times are at our door…
       We never saw before
      Such deep distress through poverty
      As many do deplore.”

    When  did it end?  When were the Tenters of Skeoch Wood dispersed?  There was
    no specific time.  They disappeared in dribs and  grabs.  A  goodly number left
    in the immigrant boats heading to South Africa, Australia, Canada, etc.  How  
    could they afford to do so?   Local people held bazaars, antique and  collectable sales
    as they do today.  It was in the interest of Rothesay to do so.  Rothesay had become
    a tourists town.  Tourists liked to stroll through the Skeoch Wood I imagine.

    The police officer that I met in 1960 must have been amused.  Maybe, later,
    afer he had  found me a room rather than a jail cell, he had a pint with
    friends in a Rothsey Pub and  said.

    “Guess who asked to be  put in jail today?”
    “Who?”
    “One of the original Skeoch’s from the Skeoch Wood.  A kid.
    He did not even have a tent.”

    alan skeoch
    October 2020


    P.S.. In time,  Some of the marbles began to fit.  Take the LITTLE SKEOCH MOTOR CAR
    of which less than five were built before the factory burned to the ground in
    the 1920’s.  Some car buffs in Scotland are rebuilding that car.  Then there
    is the question of  St. Skeoch.  Who was he…she?  A mystery that still
    remains.  How could  we be offspring of saints?  Wait a second, saints do not
    have to be celibate do they?



    Skeoch is a rather odd surname.  Then again
    there are many odd surnames of people around the world.
    So , being odd, is noting special today.  But back in 1960 when I was  much younger I had the chance
    to look into ur family name…to maybe confirm or reject the legends that circulated through the family.

    THE LAST WORD

    Keep this final note secret between you and me.  Some veterans of World War II told  me
    the Skeoch Wood was a great place for lovemaking.  I have no idea if  that is true.

  • EPISODE 132 CLOUDS …. WHAT DO YOU SEE? Don’t take the world too seriously…have some fun

    EPISODE 132    CLOUDS…WHAT DO  YOU SEE?   


    alan skeoch
    Oct. 2020

    I love reading puffy clouds…seeing things in their shape.  People, animals, atom bomb tests, swimmers, bird houses in shape of one room schools, etc.….
    Doing so can be kind of  fun.  Nobody gets hurt…no image remains in the sky very long.
    And, most amusing, other people see different images.

    Of course reading clouds sounds suspiciously like the Ink Blot Test…Rorschacht test (he was
    a Swiss psychoanalyst looking into mental illness, particularly Schizophrenia ).  Very popular
    in the 20th century…less popular in our new century.  So take it easy.  Do not read too much
    into the images as some kind of pseudoscience.  You do not need to see a psychiatrist…psychologist…crystal  ball reader.

    The reason  I am sending Episode 132 is simple.  Suppose you are trapped  in semi-isolation in
    a single room or small apartment or condo.  You cannot go out because of Covid 19.  And  you are
    bloody well bored to death.  Well, look out the window  and see what you can see in those
    puffy clouds that cover the sky periodically.   Have some fun.  Do not take yourself too seriously.

    To  avoid the charge of  Narcissism ask your partner or  friend to tell you what he or she sees in those
    clouds that are reshaping themselves  all the time.  I will bet you cannot agree.  No  big deal.

    Here are a couple of cloud formations 

    In my mirror I see a woodpecker on the left…or maybe a chicken.  You are not looking at the mirror.  (I was parked by the way)

    Turtle …on the wires near bottom right.


    Here I  see a large man resting on his back with one knee raised…or  big beer belly.


    Here See a person swimming…arms his side, head raised  out of the water… a man….no clearly defined arms…dog paddling maybe
    …I also see an hand with fingers creating image  of a long necked ostrich.

    Here I see  a rock singer with guitar and pants with huge cuffs…circa 1960’s…centre of picture


    Angry clouds…dead centre is a beast with big teeth , head angled  upwards..biting….raised eye sockets…elongated  head  like an
    alligator…that is a stretch  of imagination…disagree….look slightly right of centre…head angled upwards as if biting.
    Far right…could be an atom bomb test…or long necked creature with huge eyes peeking from behind cloud…yes, long necked creature
    peeking from behind a cloud…right side, middle.

    I see Marjorie…”Alan, you can be insufferably stupid “

    I see a birdhouse shaped  like a one room school.

    See a gate to a look alike Roman  Latifundia (joke)…really see nothing

    An atom bomb explosion

    Your turn…I don’t see anything.


    Here  is a swimmer or a diver leaping arms outstretched

    Have some fun.  

    alan skeoch
    Oct. 2020