I've been lucky to know a whole range of characters, including Granny Clarke, and her dog, Ruff. But let me introduce Ruff properly with his own story.

When my youngest uncle, David, he was only eight years older than me, got married and moved out of the house, everyone decided Granny Clarke needed a dog to keep her company.

Granny Clarke put up a stout resistance saying she couldn’t take it out for decent walks and it would get fat. John, her last bachelor son insisted he’d take it walks for her and, since she could deny John very little, someone found a dog called Ruff, a kind of collie all-sorts.

Ruff moved in and began a platonic relationship with Granny. I’ve known many dogs who enjoyed having their heads patted or ruffled but Ruff was too liberated to be treated as a pet.

The rest of my first encounter with Ruff is among the short stories in Bees in my Bonnet but is on its own at - 

sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober/short-stories/ruff-times-in-a-dogs-life/

 A lady said to me the other day that when we first met she thought I was dour, which I can be, but it reminded me of a boilermaker I worked with, Jock Russel. One of the bright young Engineers went to Jock with some plans and explained what he wanted made and how it worked and asked Jock if he could make the thing. Jock said nothing at first but then told the Engineer, 'I'll make it a' right. It'll no' work, but I'll make it. Now that was dour.

Jock taught me to play bowls. I've watched some coaches recently and the spend time explaining how to hold the bowl, how to stand and the elements of a good delivery. In addition the the learner practicing, it takes several one hour sessions and the learner never has any fun. When Jock took me in hand, he told me 'Take the bowl in your hand like this, put your foot on the mat, and don't take it off, then roll your bowl next to that wee white one.' We rolled once up and once down and Jock snapped, 'I said, put it beside the wee white one.' That was it!

Jock and I played in many tournaments, him as skip. He didn't demonstrate, waving his hands to show how the bowl had to come inside this one, and round that one, he just stamped his foot and shouted, 'I want it there.'

So many people talk about how it should be done, Jock told me how it should look when it was finished.

www.sullatoberdalton.com

 The minister from the parish next door to Cairndhu, who was teetotal, went to have a shave at the barbers. As he sat down the barber blinked twice as if mildly confused and when he drew close, the minister noticed he smelled of whisky. The minister said nothing at first but after he had been nicked twice with the razor, felt he had to chastise the barber - 'It's a terrible thing strong drink ...' he began. 'Aye so it is, it thins your skin and makes it tender,' the barber told him.

http://sullatoberdalton.com/pen-

sullatober

 To pursue Sir Walter Scott's stories of the reign of James VI and I - his stories tell more about the stote of the nation than most history books because they deal with people - here is another sample :-

"We have before mentioned, that in those wild days the very children had their deadly feuds, carried weapons, and followed the bloody example of their fathers. ... in September 1595. The scholars of the High School of Edinburgh, having a dispute with their masters about the length of their holidays, resolved to stand out for a longer vacation. Accordingly, they took possession of the school in that most mutinous manner, which in England is known as 'barring out', and resisted the admission of the masters. Such foolish things have often occurred in public schools elsewhere; but what was peculiar to the High School boys of Edinburgh was, that they defended the school with sword and pistol, and when Bailie MacMorrran, one of the magistrates, gave direction to force the entrance, three of the boys fired, and killed him on the spot.There were none of them punished, because it was alleged that it could not be known which of them did the deed; but rather because two of them were gentleman's sons. 

There's not much mileage in that for even a short story  but using it as background can add authenticity to a longer tale, especially if the magistrates son takes revenge on all three of the shooters and provides a serial killer story. What makes that possible is the detail Scott provides.

http://sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Thanks to Robert Burns and Walter Scott, writers are highly regarded in Scotland so, many years ago, almost, Once upon a time, Sandy Russel, editor of the Scotsman, went on holiday in the Highlands and, of course, attended Kirk on Sunday but went fishing on Monday. When the minister heard who his visitor had been he went in search of him and found him fishing. 'I am a fisher too,' the minister told Russel, 'but a fisher of men.' 

'Oh, aye,' Russel answered. I had a look in your kreel yesterday and you didn't seem to have caught much.' 

This is not a Walter Scott or a Cairndhu story but it could easily have been either and there is a fine river flows through the valley in which Cairndhu rests. So far I haven't let Broon or Jinks go near it.

http://sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

At the time the Stuarts were on the throne and fighting with Cromwell a man from Cairndhu was talked into joining the King's side. It was fine marching with the drum but when the fighting started, Jock walked away. He was stopped by the colonel. 'Where do you think you're going?' the colonel asked.
'I'm away home,' was the reply. 'Can ye no' see they're killing one another down there.'

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Keep the peace the Daltons are here

I should really be doing more about 1820 but I'm going to take a breather and think about the next project. I enjoy the village stories in Oakhaven and Cairndhu but need to do a rewrite to get them to flow more easily. I want to do them in short story form so that people can read them on the way to work or listen to them in the car. Something that a retired person can read for half an hour just before putting the light out. I'm drawn to the idea because I so enjoyed the Para Handy and his puffer, the Vital Spark, stories of Neil Munro. You get to know the characters and enjoy half an hour in their company. I think I can do the same with Broon and Jinks and Miss Kirkhope, characters from Best in Show set in Cairndhu. I've written two but they need a bot of work.
What has caused this turn of thought is this latest set of riots and demonstrations which will end up like the 1820 insurrection with a clamp down by those entrusted with keeping the peace. For some reason people are reluctant to accept that the police are a mixture of ordinary people like the rest of us, some lazy and some over zealous but all human and likely to make mistakes. It's the same with doctors, they've read more pages of the medical journal than the rest of us but the journal deals with a kind of average metabolism and none of us is 'average' and might not be in the journal at all. It's this need to find a culprit that is frustrating - I am perfect so it must be someone else's fault is the rule. One of the things I enjoy about being a story teller is that it's always the bad guys fault and I can make sure the goodies win.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober