SOMETHING ALIVE IS IN THERE! YUCK!
(Oposums are here to stay…Climate Change)
alan Skeoch
august 2018
“Yikes, there’s something alive in the watering can.”
“Never!”
“I touched fur…and it moved.”
“Whatever it is, looks dead to me…curled up ball of yucky fur.”
Monarch Butterfly sightings, life cycle
MONARCH BUTTERFLY:
HOW DOES THE FOURTH GENERATION KNOW IT MUST FLY TO MEXICO?
(A MYSTERY)
alan skeoch
August 2018
MONARCH BUTTERFLY REPORT
OUR HOPE FOR SURVIVAL RESTS WITH THE FOURTH GENERATION
Alan skeoch
August 20, 2018
The world is in trouble. We all know that. And the trouble is right before our eyes. No frogs, No snakes, No bobolinks, No leeches, No Killdeers. Let me change that. yes, I did find
a couple of Leopard frogs in our 7 acres of ponds this year (2018). No doubt there are more but decades ago there were hundreds, thousands maybe. And last year we had garter snakes
procreating in our green house. The big female had lots of suitors…seemed to be in every crate of flower pots. None so far this year. And the ponds had lots of leeches. None for past few years. Have not seen
a bobolink or a killdeer for decades. What to do ? What to do? Are we really in the midst of the sixth extinction of life on our planet? Will the polar regions melt and raise the oceans high enough
to drown our ocean cities. Will the climate change so radically that lives of little creatures will be lost forever? Is it true that 95% of the living creatures on earth are human beings and their domestic animals. The wild creatures have been reduced to 5%.
FIND ME…A GAME INVENTED TODAY…perhaps some in bad taste
Dateline London , England, july 2018
THERE are people who hate London. The Traffic…the traffic! Unbearable. So most of the pictures below are designed to feed the anti-London appetite.
But let’s make it fun.
HORSES AT FRITH MANOR (including BEANIE)
HORSES AT FRITH MANOR ON A SUMMER DAY IN 2018
(If you love horses, you will love these pics and stories)
FOUR STORIES … INCOMPLETE STORIES
alan Skeoch
August 2018
Our granddaughter Nolan Skeoch is a horsewoman. Proven by the great swaths of time she spends at Frith Manor grooming, riding, jumping, bedding, wheeling carts of horse manure, talking to horses (and occasionally people).
“HORSES NEED SHOES”” Story of Josh Twomey, Farrier
HORSES NEED SHOES JUST LIKE YOU DO
(Josh Twomey…FARRIER)
alan skeoch
august 2018
No good reason why a city bred person would want to read this story. Unless the reader is curious and likes to see and read something extraordinary.
This is a story about Josh Twomey…a farrier. Josh spends his days motoring from horse stable to horse stable across Southern England in his truck which is loaded with brand new shoes for horses. And he has a tub full of cast off horseshoes which he gives to kids who watch him. Blacksmith are supposed to be older men with big beards and tobacco stained teeth, gnarled hands, perhaps bad limps. Limping caused a kick from a horse who did not like nails pounded into his or her foot. Surprise. Josh is 24 years old and has been shoeing horses since he was sixteen. He has a smile that goes from ear to ear. And the confidence that horses understand. He does not limp.
On a hot July afternoon, we watched Josh at work as he shod Nolan Skeoch’s horse , Mello.
Josh Twomeys…Farrier (Blacksmith)
THERE’S A HOLEIN THE FENCE.” Graveyard … Strangest wilderness ever St. Pancras…
“THERE’S A HOLE IN THE FENCE…”
STRANGEST GRAVEYARD I HAVE EVER SEEN
(Worth a read. Really. Strangest place in North London with a history going back to the Roman Emperor Diocletian )
alan skeoch
August 2018
“LOOK, there’s a hole in the fence.”
“Seems creepy.”
“Come on, see where it leads.”
“Gravestones covered in Ivy.”
“It’s a graveyard…a forgotten graveyard.”
“Creepy, Alan, a place where weirdo’s could hide.”
“No sign of a living person.”
HOW TO MAKE GUM…FIRST INVEST $200,000 IN A GOOD COMBINE HARVESTER
RECIPE: HOW TO MAKE GUM
(First, buy a $200,000 combine harvester then read my instructions below)
alan skeoch
August 2, 2018
“Want of make your own gum, Marjorie?”
“Better things to do with my time…like cleaning house.”
“Sit down, I’ll show you how to make good gum.”
“Sometimes I wonder about your sanity, Alan.”
‘Best gum is home made gum.”
“Gum?”
“Just pay attention…this is a lost art…something that every farm girl and boy new how to do years ago….making their own Gum. Do not lose this historic moment.
Silent combat on a Boeing 777
SILENT COMBAT ON A BOEING 777
alan skeoch
July 24, 2018
“Our seats are in there?”
“Fine, let me get up.”
Two matronly looking British ladies would be my seat mates from London, England to Toronto, Ontario…a 7 hour flight. Marjorie and I had aisle seats. The plane was packed, every seat taken…up to 400 people can be crammed into the Air Canada Boeing 777. Certainly more than 300 on board today, Hence the term ‘flying sardine can’ has been a popular moniker for the
Air Canada Boeing 777. Would our trip be crowded but pleasant…or crowded and living hell?
Certainly crowded.
EUREKA! ONE LONE LEOPARD FROG FOUND JULY 8, 2018
EUJREKA! ONE LONE LEOPARD FROG! JLY 8, 2018,
(farm pond, fifth line, erin twp. wellington county)
VERY hot today. Should be a good day for frogs to get out of the farm pond
and limber up there tongues for fly catching. That would assume there are
any frogs left in our 9 acres of ponds. There were none visible last week
although there was thing of pollywog movement beneath the floating corpses
of last years bull rushes.
Not much sign of life as I circled the pond, and then there it was … a quite
mature leopard front. Not moving. Watching me with a single bulbous
eyes. But alive and healthy.
I hope he or she is not spotted by the eagle eyes of blue heron whose stiletto beak spears frogs and fish and anything that moves.
HUGE WALNUT TREE: PLANTED BY ALAN SKEOCH (supposedly)
OUR GRAND WALNUT TREE
LOCATION. location, location. the driving force in real estate valuation. Location was also the driving force in the success of this walnut tree on fifth line of Erin Two.
My grandmother, Louisa Freeman, always said that this walnut tree was planted by me (alan skeoch). In terms of achievements
in life, the walnut tree stands out. It was located right beside the old farm back house and about 30 feet from the hand dug well. You can see the well pump handle just to the left of our truck. The back house was located in the shadowy area and was quite a pleasant reading room because grandma decorated it with old calendars and news clippings.
Granddad, Edward Freeman, had a huge rhubarb patch exactly where the truck sits. From that patch he made gallons and gallons of rhubarb wine much to the chagrin of his Temperance neighbours. After he died, Eric and I tried to replicate the wine but ended up with a soupy mess of wormy barm which when bottled took a few weeks to gather enough pressure to detonate.
BAM! BAM! BAM! Shards of glass and foam and worms and goop all over our cellar.
What an unholy mess that was.
The walnut tree now massively overshadows the rhubarb patch.