I wanted to reflect how happy childhood had been for me in a Cairndhu type village but as I mentioned there were low points in the life of those villages and those are better reflected in Miss Kirkwood's story in A Land Fit for Heroes, which was written in memory of all those ladies who lost fiancees in WW1 and took to teaching. They gave us such a warm start to our schooldays that I felt they needed someone to recognise their contribution. Don't think it is doom and gloom, village life is always like tartan or a tweed, a healthy mixture. I had hoped to interest a literary agent and one does one's best but life is full of these little disappointments.

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On wet days we played inside. Bob’s parents had a chaise-long in the back room, one of those couches with an arm at only one end that you see Cleopatra lounging on to eat grapes. We tried sliding down the big arm but it was covered in a kind of velvet material and didn’t slip so we looked about for other things of interest.

In a drawer or cupboard, Rob found an officer’s revolver from the Great War but, fortunately, there was no ammunition – sooner or later, we’d have tried a shot, maybe at the farmer’s bull in the empty field behind the houses. How Rob’s dad had acquired it we never found out but his dad had been wounded at the Somme and there was a copy of a newspaper picture of him being guided to the ambulance that I’ve seen in books and on TV now and then.

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Since the market garden was sanctioned and even promoted by Miss Kirkwood, Broon feels he will not be expected to make a major contribution on the Flower Show committee but Miss Kirkwood is determined he will do his duty and continue to be a leading figure in the community. It was he who talked to the other villages about having a premier league competition between the best from each village and they, especially the snobby Cluggie people will not allow him to let things just drift and melt away. Nor is Cluggie, in their opinion an appropriate name. One of the houses is called Dalriada and with several new mansions being built beside it, they feel it reflects the character of the village more appropriately. The locals still remember it being little more than a blacksmith's house and smiddy, or, as the Cluggies refer to it, a smithy.

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During the winter months Broon and Andrew will be digging over a bit of the acre, Lindsay has ploughed over for them to start their market garden project. Frank Scott will be doing the same in the manse. Under pressure from the minister Frank might even have grown some flowers for Christmas in the greenhouse. Chrysanthemums would be the obvious choice but some spring bulbs might also work. There are several relationships that need to develop, or die. Ger and Calum Gillespie is obvious but Ger's friend Unis deserves to get involved. I have an episode I want to include (it is in the website under Short Stories as Tea and Disaster) and that needs a new teacher, or a teaching assistant, a young female, to be involved as well as a lad who is a builder. I can change the builder but the teaching assistant needs to stay. Broon and Maisie will be going round the other villages with the bramble jam. Maybe some of the young ones will help.

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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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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.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1535417188