Village News.

Low Temp: 6C
Shady High: 11C
Sunnyshine High: C
Weather: Today has been much brighter and a little warmer.

Hello, how are you all doing? Hope you had a good day so far.

Tonights holiday snap is from the west side of Loch Lomond taken at the visitor centre near Tarbet. We stopped here for a while, Vicki went in the visitor centre and I did some more relaxing. I can't be sure but I think the mountain you can see in the distance is Ben Lomond. Loch Lomond is around 24 miles long and 5 miles wide, just so that we are all clear about things, Loch Lomond is the one with a song written about it and not the one with the monster in it, that one is called Loch Ness and is further north near Inverness whereas Loch Lomond is closer to Glasgow.

Today has been another leaf clearing day has have been the last two, and still there are more leaves to be collected. We aren't talking about a quick 10 minute scratch around with a rake either, this is serious non stop stuff, well except for lunch and tea breaks. They're piled so high in places that I don't even bother with the rake or leaf blower I just fork them straight on to the trailer. I'm taking them in to the wood where I have a leaf pile. I empty out the leaves, level them off and then compact them by running up and down the heap with the tractor, the pile now resembles a big leaf wedge, anyone who's seen a silage clamp being made on the farm will have an idea what I mean, anyone else will have to guess as I don't want to compromise security by posting a picture of it on here - I'd hate to go in the morning and find one of you had been and taken them all!!

Last night we got the parish magazine which is one of the highlights of village life. It starts off with the parish council looking in to dog poo in the village. Im thinking they probably read Red Queens post http://redqueen.typepad.com/the_music_of_things_happe/ and having sorted out their women folk are now checking for similar problems in the local dog population. It then finishes off with a warning by the Royal Mail of a postal scam. In between these articles you have someone saying how the parish council have done nothing to resurrect the bus service into town but that's the same old story. Once upon a time there was a shop, post office, butchers, club and bus service but they all closed (and from what the vicar has to say the church is about to follow). One has to ask why did they close, I wasn't here so I don't know but I assume it wasn't from over use. Its no use bitching about this, that and the other not being available to the community anymore, if you'd used it when it was there I'm sure it would still be here today. The truth of the matter is the village is dead and what we have is a group of people pretending. The annoying part is that its the very same sort of people who killed it off in the first place.

Lets see, what else does it have to say? Oh yes here is a funny bit for you.
Two men waiting at the gates of heaven strike up a conversation.
"How did you die?" the first man asks the second.
"I froze to death" says the second.
"That's awful," says the first, "how does it feel to freeze to death?"
"It's very uncomfortable at first," says the second, "but in the end its not too bad. How did you die?"
"I had a heart attack," says the first. "I knew my wife was cheating on me, so I went home unexpectedly. I found her alone in the bedroom doing some knitting. Then I ran all over the house looking for the man, starting in the basement, but just as I got to the attic I had a massive heart attack and died."
The second man shook his head. "That is so ironic," he says, "if you had only stopped to look in the freezer, we'd both still be alive."

I'll just mention one more thing from the magazine. If you remember I told you how the village club has closed, well apparently its due to be opened again shortly. There is to be a pre-launch Christmas Dinner on the 14th, numbers are limited and seats are £15 per head, it finishes off by listing the committee members of which there are 7 with a further 2 waiting to be appointed.