Alan Skeoch

Month: September 2021

  • EPISODE 434 GARDEN FLOWERS AT THEIR BEST…THE FROST IS COMING SADLY

    EPISODE 434   GARDEN FLOWERS AT THEIR BEST…THE FROST IS COMING


    alan skeoch
    Sept. 21, 2021

    Gardens everywhere are stunning as September fades slowly into October and
    the evening frost hovers somewhere down the time tunnel. .   Makes the flowers Something to cherish.

    But first a task.  See if you can find this little tree frog on the leaves below.





    My oldest friend, Russ Vanstone, cannot understand why gardeners grow giant pumpkins and twisty gourds.  They cannot be eaten.
    Neither can the flowers be eaten.  But Russ would say flowers are beautiful.  So are the giant pumpkins, I might respond.

    I put two tomatoes on the pumpkin skid just to show how huge these pumpkins have become.  The pumpkins are
    so big that they cannot be lifted…just rolled ono a skid for the Bob cat to lift.   What can be done with them?

    Can someone explain how to cook these things.  Are they  a kind of sushi.  I seem to remember wedges being sliced and weighed
    in a market in Switzerland.    I grew them by accident this year.   Are they consumable?  How?  Were they Random seeds…or
    did I get them as tiny plants without a name tag.   I have no idea.   As the story goes, “they just growed!”

  • EPISODE 428 “THE QUIET MAN”…through the mind of a 22 year old Canadian who had never heard of the movie

    EPISODE 428      “THE QUIET MAN”…through the mind of a 22 year old Canadian who had never heard of the movie


    alan skeoch
    sept. 2021




    “Alan, why don’t you go and see “The Quiet Man”? said my Dublin host, Kevin Behan in a Dublin pub one evening.
    “The Quiet Man?”
    “Yes, you have been here in Dublin over a week waiting for your machines to arrive, you need
    a break…and you will learn something more about Ireland.”
    “Who are the lead actors?
    “John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara and Barrie Fitzgerald.”
    “I thought John Wayne only did Western movies.”
    “True.  The Quiet Man was an exception…it is a wonderful movie, Alan.”

    So I went.  The John Ford movie had been running continuously in Dublin since 1953…seven years
    non stop.   Must be good and I had nothing better to do.  So I went.  Turned out to be one of
    the best things I could have done.   John Ford got an academy award as director of The Quiet Man.
    I did not know that.  Lots I did not know about the film.  One thing I did know however was  that
    the film plot and life I was about to lead were congruent.

     The film was so green….John Ford had argued that the movie be made in Technicolor.
    Would the Ireland that I was about to discover be as green as the scenes in The Quiet Man.?










    Would Bonmahon be as real as the imaginary village of Inisfree in The Quiet Man?
    Would there be a pub that served Guinness with people as full of joy as those in The Quiet Man?
    Would the local people like or dislike the sudden visit by a Canadian mining exploration crew?
    Would the hatred and violence that plagued Ireland in Time of the Trouble be apparent today?
    Would Bonmahon be a rural jewel?   Would there be singing?  Would there be abandoned
    castles and ancient fairy circles?   Would Bonmahon change my life?








    The pub in The Quiet Man and Kirwin’s pub in Bonmahon were similar as were the people
    and the pints of Guinness .  Of course I did not know that until I got to Bonmahon but
    I wished it would be so…and it was.


    This cottage is the original used in the movie.   Since 1953 so many people have stolen stones from the
    foundation that is was in danger of collapse so today tourists are directed to a replica.


    Memories of The Quiet Man are preserved in wax…not John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara 

    MY PLAN FOR THE NEXT EPISODE(S)

    I WILL TRY TO PRESENT BONMAHON THROUGH THE PICTURES I TOOK WHILE WORKING THERE IN 1960.
    YOUR JOB?  FIRST , TRY AND FIND THE MOVIE OR THE SCRIPT OR THE SHORT STORY BY WALSH.
    SECOND, YOU WILL SEE THE SIMILARITIES .


    Note:  The plot for The Quiet Man was taken from a short story written by Maurice Walsh   in 1933.  John Ford got the
    rights to the movie for $10 .  It took years for him to persuade Hollywood to make the movie which became
    a hit that is still played and remembered.  The movie was romantic.  The original short story was quite different.

    The Quiet Man and Other Stories

     4.02  ·   Rating details ·  234 ratings  ·  29 reviews
    In the 1930s, Irish novelist Maurice Walsh placed the moors and mountains of Ireland firmly on the literary map with this celebrated collection of stories. Since then, readers have continued to be charmed by these accounts of the simple and common activities of the characters in 1920s rural Ireland. The lives of Hugh Forbes, Paddy Bawn Enright, Archibald MacDonald, Joan Hyland, and Nuala Kierley intermingle as the themes of nationalism, human dignity, honor, and love are given full play. Made famous by John Ford’s Oscar-winning film The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, these remain humorous and poignant tales set against a backdrop of intrigue and Irish civil unrest. (less)

  • Fwd: EPISODE 432 STRANGE LIGHTS IN THE MIDNIGHT SKY


    EPISODE 432   STRANGE LIGHTS IN THE MIDNIGHT SKY


    alan skeoch
    sept. 2021

    Not quite dark enough yet…and looking south where lights can be explained…civilization.

    Turning around and looking Northwest, we did once see strange lights above the horizon where no lights should be.

           LIGHTS THAT COULD NOT EXPLAINED IN THE MIDNIGHT SKY


    “When it gets really dark, let’s stroll the beach and look for those strange lights in the midnight sky.”
    ‘Sounds a bit wacko”
    “You saw them a couple of years ago, did you not?”
    “I did…but there must be an explanation other than alien spacecraft.”
    “But lights out there in the empty vastness of Georgian Bay…in the midnight sky…where
    nothing exists in daylight…how is that explained?”
    “Some screwball out there with a flashlight.”
    “More than one light,remember…and well above the horizon”
    “A screwball with friends in helicopters”
    “Alan, sometimes you can be irritating.”
    “OK, Penny, I did see those strange lights.”
    “And other people have seen them…remember the person we interviewed…she
    took the lights for granted as normal at night.”
    “Let’s just go for a midnight walk in on the beach and keep
    our eyes focused northwest.”

    “No lights out there tonight.”

    “Are there really strange things seen in the sky?”
    “President Jo Biden promises to release UFO sightings recorded by pilots and 
    listed as unexplainable….doing it right nw, this year.”
    “Maybe we can invite Biden to visit Concession 12 for coffee ad a stroll along
    the beach.”
    “Nope”
    “Why not?”
    “American border is crossed only with caution due to Pandemic…the virus…Joe just cannot pop up here.”

    Footnote: UFO sightings can usually be explained as natural phenomena.  One of the
    latest explanations is that drones or sophisticated weather balloons can account for many
    sightings.  Hallucinations also may be factors.  We love to dabble in the unknown
    and then hook explanations to what we do not know or understand.  Best to keep
    our feet on the ground but our minds open.  In our case we have had a lot of
    fun speculating.  Keep it that way.  The Internet is loaded with conspiracy theories
    so be careful.


    A LITTLE BIT OF MYSTERY PUTS SPICE IN OUR COFFEE CUPS

      

        Well, no sightings that night … but a lot of conversation about the night sky and the universe
    and the limitations of our human species.  Years ago I asked my Grade Ten class to predict what the
    world would be like 50 years from 1999.  The results were fascinating.  One boy, however, wrote
    a comment that was very sobering.  “Fifty years from now, sir, we will have explored our solar system
    and beyond using technology unknown today…and we will discover that we are in fact alone.”
    Alone!   Likely so…but then again do not shut the door completely

    Alone!  If  true, then we damn well better take care of our planet.  It is a jewel in the cosmos.

    alan skeoch


       




  • EPISODE 432 THE BIG CHUTE…white water rafting at its best…if you have the guts.

    Note:  I will get back to Ireland once I am sure my computer is working well.
    Meanwhile take a look at what happens to a pond when  the bottom falls out…
    and slip your cabin cruiser on to this dinosaur of engineering.


    EPISODE 432    THE BIG CHUTE…white water rafting at its best…if you have the guts.


    alan skeoch
    sept. 2021



    Just in case you think Canadians are not capable of constructing mega machines
    take a look at this ‘boat carriage’ hidden away near Highway 400 on the Canadian shield.


    So you think you are a white water rafter…





    George and Penny Barr took Marjorie on this short trip from placid Georgian Bay … Mega-trip for the mind.

    This is not a modest piece of engineering.   A short railway line that can carry a whole fleet of boats from a high point to
    a low point.   And it does so with passengers all aboard.
    Watch what happens a placid piece of pond water when it finds a crack in the earth.



  • EPISODE 430 TURQUOISE ARM CHAIRS ON AN EMPTY BEACH

    EPISODE 430    TURQUOISE ARM CHAIRS ON AN EMPTY BEACH


    Alan skeoch
    sept. 3021



    So inviting.  Two empty Muskoka chairs on an empty beach on the east shore
    of Georgian  Bay.  On private property..  Not our chairs.  So tempting.

    “I am going to sit on one of those and contemplate how the universe is unfolding.”
    “Then I will join you,” said our hostess Penny.”

    And George along with Marjorie and our dogs arrived.  A little much.  Very
    nervy invasion .  Squattng on chairs without permission.





    Then along came Dave!   The owner of the chairs….the owner of this part of the beach.
    Not a good sign.  I felt a confrontation coming. 

    But that did not happen.

    “Sit down, no problem.”
    “What magnificent chairs…and the view…wonderful”
    “Yes, we think so too…I was just coming down for my breakfast.”
    “Sorry,we could not resist those chairs.”
    “Precisely how I feel each day here on the beach…so glad you feel the same.”
    “Why is this huge stretch of beach so empty?”
    “Summer nearly over…”
    “Your cottage back there in the forest?”
    “Yes…you can get to the road on our boardwalk if you wish…you will
    find our cottage, and I bet I know which one you will admire most.”







    Dave had a large modern cottage…an artistic structure with many rooms nestled into the forest. But he preserved
    the old cottages as well.  There was a time long ago when these tiny buildings were all there was to cottage life.





    I could say a lot more about our visit but those words would be wasted.  Scroll down…enjoy.