Month: July 2022

alan skeoch

july 30, 2022

I WAS LATE.

“ALAN, you missed Midnight Hour and three other great R and B songs.”

“Had to get camera battery damnit.

“the guys are great.   Can we dance?”

“Alone?”

“Ain’t no sunshine ….when they’re gone Alan”

“This band looks like the rebirth of the Blues Brothers.”

“Loved them.”

“Midnight Hour lyrics are very suggestive, you know.”

Another ‘midnight’ song…but not part of this evening’s selections.   Could be next year.

MIDNIGHT SPECIAL

EVERYBODY NEEDS SOMEBODY

JANE JANE JANE

MIDNIGHT HOUR

BENARES front porch makes me feel I am privileged to have a special concert just

for my friends on a summer evening.  Perhaps close to one hundred people arrived

July 29, 2022 to hear the Midnight Hour rhythm and blues band bring back memories of

Ray Charles, the Blues Brothers, Wilson Picket…others.  Listeners will correct me

because the band did not play Midnight Special but rather play the sexy Midnight

Hour.  Nor did they play Georgia on my Mind, the Ray Charles R and B favourite.

The band only had a two hour window at Benares…wish it was more.  I kept hollering

Midnight Hour! in the hope they would do an encore.  I did hear the song as I hustled 

across the Benares field with my camera charged and ready.

Perhaps the most powerful of their songs was a rendition of  ‘Ain’t Know Sunshine when she’s Gone’…a song

that really hurts.  As Dean Fulton, lead singer shows below.

WHO WAS RAY CHARLES?

Who Was Ray Charles?

Ray Charles was a legendary musician who pioneered the genre of soul music during the 1950s. Often called the “Father of Soul,” Charles combined blues, gospel and jazz to create groundbreaking hits such as “Unchain My Heart,” “Hit the Road Jack” and “Georgia on My Mind.” He died in 2004, leaving a lasting impression on contemporary music.

Early Life

Ray Charles Robinson was born on September 23, 1930, in Albany, Georgia. His father, a mechanic, and his mother, a sharecropper, moved the family to Greenville, Florida when he was an infant. One of the most traumatic events of his childhood was witnessing the drowning death of his younger brother.

Soon after his brother’s death, Charles gradually began to lose his sight. He was blind by the age of 7, and his mother sent him to a state-sponsored school, the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind in St. Augustine, Florida — where he learned to read, write and arrange music in Braille. He also learned to play piano, organ, sax, clarinet and trumpet. The breadth of his musical interests ranged widely, from gospel to country, to blues.

GEORGIA  ON MY MIND

Georgia, Georgia
The whole day through (the whole day through)
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind (Georgia on my mind)

I said Georgia
Georgia
A song of you (a song of you)
Comes as sweet and clear
As moonlight through the pines

Other arms reach out to me
Other eyes smile tenderly
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to you

I said Georgia
Oh Georgia, no peace I find (no peace I find)
Just an old sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind (Georgia on my mind)

EPISODE 620   FOUR STRONG WINDS… ALBERTA IN SUMMER OF 2022 WHEN JACK BECAME PRIVATE JACKSON

alan skeoch

July 2022

THIS STORY IS BOTH PERSONAL AND UNIVERSAL…DON’T REJECT IT …setting is Alberta in summer 2022.

THE MUSIC KEPT COMING aT ME….”GUESS I’L GO OUT TO ALBERTA, WEATHER’S GOOD THERE IN  THE FALL”

I still sing the song to myself at times…as do most Canadians of  certain age in 1961…and today in 2022 it still resonates. (alan skeoch

Wish you could play the song when you see these pictures.)

(Four Strong Winds was written in or around 1961 by Ian Tyson.

According to Tyson, he was in a bar listening to Bob Dylan sing. He thought, “I can do that”, took out his guitar and started “fooling around”.

In half an hour he had written what has been called the greatest Canadian song of all time.)

---

The words

Chorus

Four strong winds that blow lonely, seven seas that run high
All those things that don’t change come what may
For our good times are all gone and I’m bound for movin’ on
I’ll look for you if I’m ever back this way

Guess I’ll go out to Alberta, weather’s good there in the fall
Got some friends that I can go to workin’ for
Still I wish you’d change your mind if I asked you one more time
But we’ve been through that a hundred times before

Chorus

If I get there before the snow flies and things are goin’ good
You could meet me if I sent you down the fare
But by then it would be winter, not too much for you to do
And the winds sure do blow cold way out there

NOTE: THIS IS REALLY AN IMPRESSION OF CANADA….NICE PLACE TO LIVE, RIGHT?

EDMONTON ALBERTA

Jackson’s army friends…waving once they got  a look at Molly in pink dress.  Find her.

Giant Hogweed GOT here before we did.   The park guide had never heard of it.  Someone will get hurt for sure.

You may wonder how 40 to 70 buffalo escaped capture.  they can be invisible…tae a look at picture  above. There is a buffalo there….just a

few yards away.  Revealed when photo shopped.

“GUESS I’LL GO OU TO ALBERTA

WEATHER’S GOOD THERE IN THE FALL

GOT SOME FRIENDS OUT THERE…”

alan skeoch

July  27, 2022

Note: These are not John Morton’s exact words but they are close.

“Anne! I just got  great idea…FISHY POETRY!”

“John must you always be daft…spouting nonsense.”

“Not so crazy.”

“Out with it then”

“Let’s have Al and Marjorie over for a fish dinner and poetry reading.”

“Do they like fish.”

“I checked…they are omnivorous.”

“John, I think you just want to show off your cooking skills”

“Mussels, salmon, lobster and clams”

“How does poetry fit into this dinner?”

“We will ask them to bring two short poems that they must

read to us after dinner….short poems, really short.”

“Why short?

“Because they also must explain why those two short poems were chosen…

and that will take more time than the readings.”

“What about us? “

“We will do the same.”

Well. the event was a grand success.  John put on an apron and chefs hat…boiled

up the muscles and fried the fish, stuffed the lobster, put one big clam on each plate.

While we all talked with the echoes of our words trailing through the grand old

mansion like house in west Toronto.  The place was vaguely familiar.

“John, my dentist lived near here when I was a kid.  I named him Dr. Murder

which was a very unkind thing to do.  Kids do those things.  His real name

was Dr. Murta and he was a nice old man who even cancelled his appointments

and asked me to show slides of my adventures as a miner in Ireland.  How many

doctors would do that?  I think this was his house back then.”

(truth be told Dr. Murder’s place was two doors north)

Conversation rolled off our tongues like water off a lobsters foot.  Anne  is the

daughter of military parents.   Has seen much of the known world.  John is an

historian who taught st my old high school, Humberside Colleiate.  There

was no place for lulls in the conversation.  We all walked on common ground.

Our grandson, Jack, had just joined the regular army and we were flying 

to Edmonton to celebrate his success as a Private.  Anne understood that

while many Canadians would not.

“Time for poetry!” announced John.  And so the evening changed

direction.  With each poem came a new directions.  Some poems were

serious, some political, some naively charming, some close to doggerel.

All read or spouted from memory.

We were all educated in days when rote memory was common. So some

poems were engraved firmly in the twists and turns of our brains.

My choice

“If you keep your nose to the grindstone rough

and hold it down there long enough

In time you’ll say there’s no such thing

As babbling brooks and birds that sing.”

Edna Jacques

Why chosen?

My grandmother had serious Parkinson’s disease that made her body shake

but she never felt sorry for herself and remained an optimist in all she ever

did.  When I was a young man I worked in remote places all around the world

and always got letters from Grandma Freeman written with a very shaky hand

 Writing was very difficult for her but she did it all the same.

The Freemans were poor eking out a slim living on a 25 acre stone clad farm.

They kept  a side of beef hanging in the dirt floor cellar which they called the dairy.

I always slathered these slices of cold beef with Worcestershire sauce to kill both

appearance and taste.  Grandma always said “Alan loves Worcestrer sauce”

which was true.  She may have known the real reason.  I loved her and granddad

and made an effort to visit as often as possible even by bicycle or by thumb.

She cut out the poems of Edna Jacques from the Toronto Star and included these

gems in her notes to me in godforsaken places.

My second choice was the old chestnut poem Daffodils by William Wordsworth.

Everyone helped me along because everyone there knew the poem by heart

as we were all of that age when rote memory was common.  My reason for

choosing Daffodils was not what might be expected.  That poem was the only

thing my father remembered from his Grade 8 education.  He only servived

a few months in hight school before he was sent home to get his father.

Dad did not go home.  He continued west to Saskatchewan from Fergus, Ontario

and joined the working class of the 1920’s as a tire builder.  He loved life and

horse racing.  Why was he thrown out of school?   There was a good reason which

I put down to adolescent exuberance which, when I taught high school, was

easy to forgive. I  Never sent a kid home nor did I ever send a student to

the office because he or she told me to Fuck Off.  Instead I thought of Dad.

The reason dad was sent home to get his father??  I will not tell you unless you invite me to a poetry reading as

did Anne and John Morton.   

When all at once I saw a crowd

A host of golden daffodils.”

  (Wordsworth 1802)

alan skeoch

July 15, 2022

alan skeoch

july 2022

Most Ontario barns also had wheels high up on the high beams.  Why ?

This was time when barns also used teams of horses , lots of long ropes,  pulleys attached 

to the floor and lots of two and three pronged forks.  About now, end of July, those wheels were moving

as were the horses, ropes and pulleys….and the pitch forks..   Why?

Begin forwarded message:

From: ALAN SKEOCH <alan.skeoch@rogers.com>

Subject: EPISODE 617 A HOSTA GARDEN IN A FOREST … WITH CURIOSITIES JULY 26,2022

Date: July 26, 2022 at 1:23:14 PM EDT

To: john.t.wardle@gmail.com, Marjorie Skeoch <marjorieskeoch@gmail.com>, Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch1@gmail.com>, askeoch@bellnet.ca, National Hunt <nationalhunt@hotmail.com>

episode 617   JANE’S HOSTA GARDEN IN SUMMER TIME…WITH FOLK ART ACCENTS,  JULY 27,2022

THIS is Jane….and you are about to see her garden…she loves HOSTA PLANTS, BIRD HOUSES, SHAPELY ROCKS AND SHADE

EPISODE 617   A HOSTA GARDEN IN SUMMER TIME….WITH FOLK ART ACCENTS

alan skeoch

July 26, 2022

This was the key clue …. “Find a Gardener”, was the task…note nails.

Once upon a time this garden was part of a climax forest.  Jane has kept the forest in mind

as she placed mored than 150 Hosta plants beneath the spreading foliage of  ancient oaks and

maples.

Find the gardener. Actually they are all gardeners although only one, Jane, has green toenails.  This is her garden.

EPISODE 616    just try and get by me..buffalo block road Elk Island

EPISODE 615     TRAVEL … NO JOY IN MUDVILLE

alan skeoch

July 23, 2022

Five of uS….therefore five ‘carry on’ bags…no bIg luggage.  I forgot my jammies and

bathing suit.   But I now agree with our sons….”All you need is a carry on.”

Here Marjorie and Julie are on guard while the rest of our party sought washrooms.

Marjorie and I get rubbed and touched with the magic wand.

Even my brayses clips were suspect.  And Marjorie has two

metal knees that made the wand sing. There were hundreds of travellers

anxious to get the wand.  All in a long line.

Today the Toronto Star ran an article on the front page saying

that Pearson Airport is now one of the worst in the world.

I hate to say that.   I don’t like to bad mouth ‘my airport’/

But there is some truth there.

When we flew to Edmonton last saturday the lineup to get 

through security snaked its way through the whole departures

building… huge line.   People on edge. Angry.  Fortunately

I had my cane as my knee can get painful.  An Air Canada

agent spotted my cane and shuffled us forward much to

the displeasure of hundreds of people without canes.

Still clearance was slow.   Marjorie and I had only our carry on

luggage.  We had been forewarned that big bags may get lost

and could mean more lineups.

Here Andrew tries to do the near impossible…close a carry on after a search was demanded.

we were all searched.  Really searched.  And I include

my crotch.  and other parts of the body.   “Are you having a good time?

I asked, much to the amusement of my wand carrying security guard.

He took my cane and looked for hollow places where explosives could

be hidden.  He was thorough.  I was glad…amused even.

Julie was not so fortunate because she had cosmetics.  Her bag

was opened’”  hard to close. The woman in front her, however,

had a zillion cosmetic containers each of which had to 

be cleared.   Getting through security was tough.

Then there was the mask issue.  We had to wear masks in the

terminal and on the flight except when drinking and eating. 

That was tough.    My mask, an el cheapo black thing, refused

to give me enough air.   Or that seemed to be the case.   For

6 to 7 hours I wished for a mouthful of fresh air.  Almost 

a panic situation.’’

It would be worse if Covid 19 valiant or Monkeypox got through

the mask.  Far worse.   I would have to spend 5 days in isolation…

somewhere.   But where?   And how much would that cost?

Costs?   I had forgotten that travel costs money.  the car cost $600 

for four days, food cost between $150 to $200 every time the five

of us ate.  By the end I was ordering toast and jam.   I had forgotten how 

restaurants can make something as ordinary as breakfast  sound

as sumptuous as a five star experience.  One breakfast was memorable…..

pile of toast, pile of waffles, two fried eggs, two sausages, two slabs of ham, special coffee….

maybe a yogurt…cost was around $30 dollars then an 18%  to 30% tip

which was part of the invoice.  My fault entirely,  I did not need

  all that food. Travel is for the fortunate.

This was the worst breakfast that I ordered.  My fault entirely.  I did not need to gorge. I am not

sure why there were two pots…one with ketchup and the other with corn syrup.  

Beer was  necessary even at $9.50 a pint plus tip.

You may have not seen the pint of beer … distracted by Molly’s joyful face.  

Please forgive my remarks….we really had a good time…really good once

we got to Edmonton.   If I Told you about the good times, would you have read this?

alan

EPISODE 613   ELK ISLAND NATIONAL PARK, ALBERTA   JULY 20, 2022

alan skeoch

july 22, 2022

“What can we do while waiting for Jack to be welcomed into 

the Canadian army?”

“Visit Elk Island National Park.”

Pictures taken by Marjorie skeoch with her iPhone

“Alan, how did buffalo like this one get to live in Elk Island National Park?

‘That’s a buffalo?

“Stop being stupid.  How did that buffalo get here?”

“Fascinating history.”

“Do you want the short or long version.?”

“Short version…, Dad.” 

 The federal government had bought buffalo

from an American park then did not know where to put them   …They decided to use this park as a temporary holding ground for the buffalo before

shipping them to Wood Buffalo National Park. …when the time came to move them a bunch…40 to 70…

could not be found. “

“How could these huge animals be missed?”

“Elk Island is huge…194 square kilometres….75 square miles.”

“But open prairie…”

“not open…great swaths of aspen and boreal forest…miles and miles of water.Sometimes a buffalo

looks like a rock…invisible.”

“So they stayed”

“Yes and Elk Island is now a famous buffalo breeding ground…bison is a better word.”

“How many buffalo now?”

“somewhere around us are 300 wood bison and 400 plains bison.  The population is

kept around that figure.”

“How?”

“By selling buffalo to small holding  grounds around North America and the world.  One herd

was even sold to Russia.   The Park officials…veterinarians ….believe small herds could

prevent extinction should an outbreak bovine  tuberculosis strike again.”

“Extinction?”

“Disease almost finished off the buffalo after European sport hunters nearly slaughtered the plains buffalo into extinction.  Actual historians thought the plains  buffalo were gone

until a small herd was found in Wood Buffalo Park.  They were moved here and live in the south part

of Elk Island.”

ELK ISLAND NATIONAL PARK

“How could 40 to 170 buffalo be missed?”

“I know it’s hard to belleve.”

“But we nearly missed a buffalo who was sleeping at the side of the road

in the shade of an aspen grove.”

“Elk Island National Park remains a wilderness.”

Pictures by Marjorie Skeoch

We spent two days in Elk Island National Park and managed to see 5 buffalo.   There are hundreds there.  The park is immense.  Lots of room for buffalo.

“How are wood buffalo different from plains buffalo?

“You tell me….look at the pictures.  Darn similar to my eyes.”

Where once there were no surviving beaver,there ere are now 1,000

“Thajt’s Andrew trying to get a picture of two buffalo way in the distance.”

“If they charge Andrew, can you outrun them?”

“No, but I am no worried.”

“Why not?”

“Because I know I can outrun you. dad.”

alan skeoch

July 22, 2022

Note:  This short story only touches on the history of the buffalo in Canada.    The herds were once so large

that 40,000 wolves preyed on them.  Yes, 40,000 wolves.  To kill the wolves a few buffalo were shot and 

their corpses loaded with strychnine poison.  The wolves were then skinned.  The buffalo were expendable

in early Canadian history.  Sometimes all that was taken were the tongues.  Piles of buffalo bones once dotted the

prairies to be grand up into fertilizer for farmers.  The history of the buffalo is not a pretty story.

More pictures to come.

episode 612    PRIVATE JACKSON SKEOCH SHOWS US HOW TO MAKE A CANADIAN ARMY BED

alan skeoch

July 14, 2022

“Please just whisper…the GIANT HOGWEED might hear us and then try

to get us….deadly plant.  I wonder if John Wyndham used giant hogweed  

when he wrote Day of the Triffids? Hush!”

Quite pretty when in full floor stage.

Charlotte McLeod wrote a book with Giant  hogweed in mind.  The book

jacket cover says it all.

RETURN OF THE GIANT HOGWEED

“Marjorie, The GIANT HOGWEED is back..now ten feet tall.”

“Where?”

“Same place where we thought it had been killed.”

“How come, Andrew put on overalls and mask and spent a day

cutting and bagging the cursed plant…then he poured poison down

the throat of the roots…the giant hoqwwed seemed gone for the

last couple of years.”

“Well the cursed plant fooled us.   Hid for a couple of years. Now it 

is back worse than ever.”

“Some say the hogweed plant can hide for 15 years then pop up.”

Giant hogweed can blend in to its surroundings until it reaches full flowering stage.

Hogweed plants are now higher than our ATV.  Seems we just noticed the plants.  But “Vroooom!” ….plants are ten  feet high.

the hogweed patch is on the far left…hardly noticeable right now..July 14, 2022.  Those gloves are not

enough protection.  Need full body armour!

The return of Gint Hogweed was a mystery until I found a short note saying the seeds of giant hogweed can remain dormant for years and

then suddenly germinate.   The giant hogweed patch in the farm fencerow cannot be ignored for as much as 15 years.   Yesterday these picture were taken and

the plants are higher than ten feet already.  That growth happened fast.  So fast that we did not notice until now.  Now 10 feet high…may grow to

15 feet and even higher.  Getting rid of the plants

is not easy….need to cover all flesh so that no sap gets access to flesh.  Particular danger to the eyes.  Do not try to be heroic when destroying

the plant.  Hogweed will get you before you will get hogweed.

WHERE DID GIANT HOGWEED ORIGINATE?

Giant Hogweed was a natural plant in the Caucasus Mountain region of Asia.  Victorian gardeners and scientists brought the seeds to Kew

gardens in the early 19th century.  From there seed companies began selling the seeds as curiosities. It took some time before the

danger was noticed.  Now considered one of the most dangerous plants on earth.

Biology

Seeds may take several years to germinate and are viable in the soil for up to 15 years. During the first year, the plant produces a rosette of leaves up to one metre high. After 2 to 5 years the plant produces flowers. As it grows a large root, thick hollow stems and large lobed leaves are formed. The stems of the plant are covered with reddish-purple flecks and stiff hairs filled with sap. Sap may also collect in the hollow stem bases. Giant hogweed flowers once in its lifetime, unless the flower clusters are damaged before opening. Once the plant produces seeds it dies. Each plant can produce up to 120,000 winged seeds (typically 50,000). Seeds dropped in streams can float for three days. They can move long distances via water in ditches and streams. Seeds can also be spread up to 10 metres by the wind.

Photo courtesy of Ron Black, NDMNRF

Natural resource impacts

There is evidence that Giant hogweed can shade out native plants, although scientists have not done extensive research on its impact in Ontario or Canada. In the United Kingdom it grows in areas bordering lakes, streams, and wetlands and causes rocks, soil and other material on stream banks to fall into streams. This threatens salmon spawning sites. Similar impacts may occur in Ontario.

Health concerns

The clear watery sap of Giant hogweed contains toxins that can cause severe dermatitis (inflammation of the skin). You can get severe burns if you get the sap on your skin and the skin is then exposed to sunlight. Symptoms occur within 48 hours and consist of painful blisters. Purplish scars may form that last for many years. Eye contact with the sap has been reported (in the media and by various web sites) to cause temporary or permanent blindness. However, evidence of permanent blindness linked to exposure to Giant hogweed cannot be substantiated by any existing research. Coming in contact with Cow parsnip and Wild parsnip can cause similar reactions.