November is just to keep Halloween and Christmas/Hogmanay apart in Scotland but Broon has his name down for the dominoes. He gets Galahad as a partner, wins the first round then gets beaten by Moneypenny, the banker, and Gillespie. Not beaten, Galahad has a flu' and Broon tries to get the game postponed but Gillespie insists it has to be played by Saturday or they are disqualified and the barman has to conform to the rules. Jinks has lost already and tries to replace Galahad but Gillespie is having none of it. Galahad wants to struggle on but Miss Kirkwood calls the doctor and puts her foot down. Maybe Galahad has been helping Broon at his ploughed field and gets a bad chill. Can the young ones help in the field? It would bring Gordon Lindsay into the story a bit more and make a triangle with Calum and Ger. The minister is also making noises about early flowers in the greenhouse so things are building nicely.

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Halloween

As the young ones make jam, they start to talk of Halloween nd if it should be a fancy dress. Broon thinks maybe he can get a kilt again but the youngsters are all talking about dressing as skeletons and ghosts and he realises this is something he wants to keep well away from. Ger has other ideas, however and arranges for him to go ass a pirate. Now there are two possibilities, Jinks can also be a pirate, ot Gillespie. Either way we want a sword fight with wooden swords on the dance floor. If it is Jinks it can be a bit of fun. If it is with Gillespie, naturally it will get serious and Miss Kirkwood will have to intervene.

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The ploughing match is all very well but, as I mentioned the story needs a lot more incidents to flesh it out. I don't want to go beyond another flower show, so the story needs to cover one year. Ater September the next event would be bramble picking and jam making. That could take Maisie and Broon round the other villages and raise questions about the new form of the show. That would need a committee meeting and bring back some of the old rivalries in new forms with Miss Kirkhope having to calm things down. First the jam and the youngsters upsetting Broon.

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The ploughing match seems to be a good idea to turn over the ground at Broon's field but when Jinks hears about it, his sporting instincts are aroused and he may find himself in financial difficulties. Broon has hardly had time to digest all this when the Flower Show committee demand his attention and the villages round about demand to know what arrangements will be made for the new competition. Broon will try to delegate but Miss Kirkwood may have other ideas.

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At the lunch at Lindsay's farm, the subject of ploughing comes up and Gordon suggests they have have a ploughing match to plough Broon's field. It could even be an annual event and give Broon publicity. Of course, Broon knows nothing about ploughing never mind matches but Maisie thonks it is a grand idea. 'You'll have to have posters and entry forms, John,' Miss Kirkhope says and Broon has the feeling he's in way over his depth again. Dalmighty, it never stops.
The story will need sixteen ideas like that to make 80,000 words. Bernard Cornwell would make it with eight but he's a master and I'm just a country boy.

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There's not only Maisie's reaction to consider, Ger, his daughter will suspect he is trying to match her up with young Gordon Lindsay. Broon is feeling a bit annoyed he ever agreed to go for Sunday lunch at the farm. Then Maisie meets Miss Kirkwood, who will be joining them after church and that puts a different look on the whole thing and Maisie tells Ger to be on her best behavior. This lunch is turning into a major event and JInks will want to make a comment and try to wind Broon up. Since Cedeco are no longer in the picture, someone must arise to become an antagonist. Maybe it will be the other villages, especially the snobbish Cluggie group who want to lay down the law for the flower show.
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Sullatober Dalton

I'm not sure what Maisie's reception to news that she has been invited to the farm for a meal will be. The weather will be turning cold and possibly rain, so, she will have reservations but Lindsay is a partner in the market garden, so, she will feel obliged to go. What must she wear, you'll need a suit, John, she tells him.
'For Farmer Lindsay! He goes about  with his trousers tied with a bit of string below the knee.'
'His wife is always well turned out and I'll not have you shaming me,' Maisie tells him.
'Maybe I should rent that kilt again,' Broon grumbles.
'Don't start, John Brown. You'll wear your Sunday suit and look respectable.'
What do I need from this get together?
Lindsay's wife doesn't really get on with Lindsay's aunt Miss Kirkwood, so thins will be a bit frosty for a start. Gentile but frosty.
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Broon was standing looking at the field when Lindsay drove up in his tractor.
'How much do ye want ploughed this year, Broon? One acre or two?'
'As far as I can mind, an acre is the size of a football pitch and that will be more than we can cope with for a start. We can put tatties in all right but I'd like a wee space for some other things. If the acre was ploughed , Andrew and I could maybe clear a bit for ...'
'A flower or two that the missus might get for the house, maybe. She's already askin' if there was any chance.'
'Dalmighty! I'm just trying to see where would be the best place to start, no searchin' catalogues for flowers.'
'Keep yer hair on Broon. Ye'll do what ye can, I understand that, I only mentioned it to make conversation. What I really wanted to ask was if ye and the family would like to come for a bite o' lunch at the farm after you've heard the meenister on Sunday?'
Broon was startled and several things sped through his mind. He could bring Ger and Lindsay's son would be there. What would Maisie think of it? She didn't ken Lindsay's wife. What shift was he on?
'If ye don't want to come, just say that, Broon.'
'No, no, I was just thinkin' what shift I was on but the worst would be night-shift. What time would we come?'
'After the meenister's reminded ye ye're goin' to Hell. The wife goes for a reminder on a Sunday but comes straight back.'
'Is this your idea, or does your missus ken?' Broon asked.
'Would you invite me and the missus without Maisie's sayin' you could?'

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This is fine but I need to get some feeling for later.

While Maisie was busy with her views and the early ideas about a house Broon kept glancing at the field and wondering how tough the grass would be to dig in but Maisie's constant commenting and asking for his opinion kept him occupied and he followed her down the hill home with only a hazy idea of the situation. 

He was afternoons next day and told Maisie he'd go for the paper. 

Maisie looked at him.

'What?' 

'Take Ger's camera with you and you can study that field at your leisure,' she told him.

'Ach, I don't ken how it works, Maisie. I'll maybe get her to go up and take some photos for us. I'd better ask Lindsay and make sure he doesnae mind.'

Maisie looked at him again.

'What?'

'And maybe get his son to help?'

'Aye, if he's a  mind to,' Broon told her defiently.  

'She's going to bring Calum round this week.'

'When I'm at the mine and can't object, I suppose.'

'Now, John, you said if he was coming about, you'd have to be careful. But you meant he could come.'

'I'm away for my paper,' was the best retort Broon could think of.

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As I've written out Vernon Brill's tale up to and after Bismark, I've realised - this works for me. I normally write out a general story line, flesh it out, fessh that out several times before doing a detail scene by scene summary and then adding sights, sounds, smells and atmosphere but I enjoyed doing Brilley's experience and I want to try it on the sequel to Best in Show.
Broon, not having won Best in Show had behaved himself and was fairly fresh on Sunday morning. At breakfast, he was thinking about clearing and tidying the garden when Maisie offered him another cup and he could tell by the way she poured that she had something on her mind.
'Maybe we should go and look at that bramble patch, John,' she suggested.
'I was thinking of clearing the garden,' Broon mentioned.
'Let Andrew and Ger do it,' Maisie suggested. 'I'd like to see that site again. Maybe the brambles will be ready and we could make some jam.'
Broon agreed and they went off up the hill.
The brambles weren't ready, almost but not yet juicy and sweet but Maisie turned to look across the Cairndhu valley, then back at the brambles, then back across the valley. 'I think I'd like to see this view, John,' Maisie said.
Dalmighty! She's planning the house and the garden no' even started, Broon thought, looking back to the clumps of grass that covered the field where he had to start making a market garden.

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The village flower show was always held in the school and going back, it seems incredible that there were eight classrooms in that little building. Even elderly people find it hard to believe that in the first class we had slates to write on. The slates had a wooden rim and some were adorned with the initials out parents had carved into them. We wrote with a slate pencil, a thin round piece of slate which made pale grey marks on the slate. If you made a mistake, all you had to do was wet your finger and rub.
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