The death of Neil Armstrong - first man on the moon.

Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the surface of the moon on 20^th July 1969. He has died at the age of 82, leaving the world with one of the most famous phrases which will go down in history.

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

According to those who knew him he was a quiet, humble man in spite of his abilities and achievements, not least of which was being the highly respected commander of Apollo 11.

It is a lovely sentiment which his family have asked for in his memory. Namely when we look up at the moon on a clear night we should remember him and give him a wink. I often look up at the moon and I wonder what he thought when he was back on earth and looking up there. It must have seemed incredible remembering he had actually walked on that distant silver disk which appears to float slowly and gracefully above the clouds. 

Additional Note: About forty years ago Neil Armstrong travelled to Scotland and was made a Freeman of the small town of Langholm, near the Scottish / English Border, the home of his ancestors in the days of the Border Raiders and Reivers. A special pipe tune was composed in his honour called Commander Neil Armstrong's Moon Step 

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The following is a little anecdote passed on to me by Myra Adamson and purported to be true.

In case you didn't know this little tidbit of trivia, on July 20 1969, as Commander of the Apollo 11 lunar module, Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. His first words after stepping on to the moon were,

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,"

They were televised to earth and heard by millions but just before he re-entered the Lander, he made the enigmatic remark -"Good luck, Mr. Gorsky".

Many people at NASA thought it was a casual remark concerning some rival Soviet cosmonaut. However, upon checking, there was no Gorsky in either the Russian or American space programs.

Over the years, many people questioned Armstrong as to what the – “good luck, Mr. Gorsky' statement meant, but Armstrong always just smiled.

On July 5 1995, in Tampa Bay, Florida, while answering questions following a speech, a reporter brought up the 26-year-old question to Armstrong.

This time he finally responded. Mr. Gorsky had died, so Neil Armstrong felt he could now answer the question.

In 1938, when he was a kid in a small mid-western town, he was playing baseball with a friend in the backyard. His friend hit the ball, which landed in his neighbour's yard by their bedroom window. His neighbours were Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky. As he leaned down to pick up the ball, young Armstrong heard Mrs. Gorsky shouting at Mr. Gorsky. "Sex! You want sex? You'll get sex when the kid next door walks on the moon !"

True story. it broke the place up.

MY EARLY EFFORTS AS A WRITER

Apart from  adventure story which I wrote when I was about eleven and an avid reader of Girls Crystal, Lonely is the Valley is the first book I ever wrote. I have been formatting it ready to add to my collection of other digital books on Amazon and Smashwords.

 

Available from Amazon UK

 It has made me reflect on my early efforts as a writer. The first chapter and synopsis, then written under the pseudonym Lynn Granger, was written for a competition run by Women’s Weekly and judged in conjunction with Woman’s Hour and another magazine for women – I forget which. Mine did not win. I think both editors and publishers must have had more patience in those days because Lynda O’Byrne, fiction editor of Women’s Weekly, took time to write to me and say she had liked my entry and she suggested I finish the novel and send it to Robert Hale for their Rainbow Romance Series. Not many busy editors would do that now so I shall always be grateful to her for helping me to get a foot on the writing ladder. I cringe when I remember how ignorant I was about the writing world. I didn’t know any other writers and had never heard of the RNA or even the Writers’ and Artists’ Year Book.

I was a busy wife and mother. Moving house is upheaval enough but we had moved from one farm to another with loads of alterations to be done, over years, not months. There were no computers then and I was not a trained typist. I wrote by hand then slogged away in secret on my little portable typewriter, complete with correction tape. I sent it to Hale. They sent it back. It was too long for their Rainbow Romance Series. I thought that was a polite rejection and stuffed it away. Six months later I had a letter asking if I had completed the alterations yet and would I send off the manuscript as soon as possible. I don’t think publishers would take time or trouble for that these days, except perhaps for someone famous.

Hopefully I have learned and improved my writing since then. See http://www.novelpointsofview.blogspot.com - a blog which five of us share.

My garden plus a free novel download

This is a woodpecker which I managed to snap from my bedroom window, though even when I am indoors he senses the slightest movement and darts away.

The housemartins are not so shy and continually dart from under the eves of my house, returning year after year. 

When I moved from the farmhouse I was supposed to be retired -except for writing novels of course. I didn't think I would want a vegetable garden with only me to tend it and eat the produce. However I missed the fresh vegeatbles and, being diabetic, they are good for me. Here are some of my vegetables in assorted pots. My runner beans are just off the picture beside a trellis. I like my potatoes in large pots so that I only need to use a few at a time. I am pleased with my leeks, carrots and onions as I use a lot of them for soup in colder weather. The large pot - almost a raised bed - was a re-cylced container which my son cut into sections. Next year I may try another as my cauliflower and broccoli are doing well. I also have three large containers of strawberries so that one is replanted each year in rotation. In the corner of my bordes I have a Victoria plum tree with rhubarb beneath. The blossom was early this year and spoiled by a very cold spell, but I also have a small apple tree and it has set a good crop so far. I have a loganberry and a few raspberries canes, while my conservatory has helped me keep myself in summer tomatoes for the past few years.

The book below is fiction but it gives a good account of farmlife during the first world war.

Family at Fairlyden is free to download from Amazon on Sunday and Monday June 10 & 11th. Follow this link http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Fairlyden-Series-ebook/dp/B00845UK30/

Book 4 - Fairlyden at War

This is the fourth and final book in the Fairlyden Series covering three generations of Scottish farmers.
(Originally published by Headline in hard and paper back). They are all available now for downloading from Amazon

FAIRLYDEN AT WAR - blurb

It is the 1930’s with men desperate for work and food. Fairlyden has survived due to Logan’s skill and his wife’s thrift. Their daughter, Kirsty is proud of her father’s achievements but her brother, Luke is afraid of animals and his fear leads to tragedy.

James MacFarlane has spent his first twenty three years learning all he can from Logan Fairly at Fairlyden. So when he chooses to live with his great-uncle at Nithanvale, the Fairly family’s greatest rival, Kirsty feels betrayed. To make matters worse she is jealous of Mary MacFarlane, who is the last of the MacFarlane line, along with her half cousin.

Kirsty’s responsibilities are heavy when the second world war breaks out and they are increased when evacuees arrive at Fairlyden but her sense of humour sees her through and her determination to keep the farm never wavers in the face of
threats.

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fairlyden-War-Series-ebook/dp/B00875SY9Y/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=13389http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Fairlyden-Series-ebook/dp/B00845UK30/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338989130&sr=1-104987&sr

Book 3 - Family at Fairlyden

I am pleased to say I have now uploaded the third book in the Fairlyden Series.

The Family at Fairlyden – blurb

In 1906, Beth Jamieson, is a little girl of eight, with honey gold curls, blue eyes and the sweetest nature. Her father is Mistress Fairly’s right-hand man and when Nick’s wife dies, Sarah Fairly treats Beth as her own.

Sarah’s daughter Sadie is jealous and does everything she can to prevent the growing relationship between the small girl and Logan, Sadie’s youngest brother: `She’s a labourer’s brat! She’ll never be mistress here! Never!’ she is heard to say. Yet, sharp tongued and vicious though she is, Sadie fails to stop the first childish closeness then, as the years roll by, the encompassing love that draws Logan and Beth together.

Throughout the country, the early years of the century are a time of social change: in London suffragettes chain themselves to railings and the Kaiser visits the King; in the Scottish borders, the Fairlys witness the first motor cars and increasing mechanization on the local farms, while on the far horizons dark clouds of war are massing.

Although Logan would rather breed cows and horses and stay with Beth at Fairlyden, he knows he must fight. As they take their leave beside the burn, one soft autumn day, the lovers cannot foresee the problems, the heartbreak and the joys which the future holds. Or who will inherit Fairlyden.

As the third volume in this magnificent Fairlyden quartet, The Family at Fairlyden takes up the moving love story of Beth and Logan while also chronicling the continuing saga of the Fairly family in this beautiful corner of rural Scotland.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Family-Fairlyden-Series-ebook/dp/B00845UK30/

Book 2 in the Fairlyden Series - Mistress of Fairlyden

I have uploaded this book to Amazon as an E-book.

Mistress of Fairlyden

As Mistress of Fairlyden, and happily married to William Fairly, Sarah feels her life complete. But longing to share the joyful news of her pregnancy with Beatrice Slater, her childhood friend, Sarah defies her husband’s wishes and goes alone to Muircumwell Mill. She could not have foreseen the dreadful consequences which are to haunt her for the rest of her life, and force her to become the sole keeper of a disturbing secret.

At the Mill, she meets Beatrice’s sly and ambitious father, Edward Slater, whose evil jealousy and desire for revenge lead to a frenzied attack upon Sarah. Months later little Alex is born with a deformity of his feet. Sarah blames upon herself. William cannot bear the fact that his son will never be perfect and a rift develops.

Bored with the farm life of Fairlyden, and troubled by his son’s condition, William sets up a precarious business venture with Sir Simon Guillyman. Sarah cautiously welcomes this outside interest, thinking it good for William and their marriage. But when Sir Simon dies unexpectedly, his attractive widow poses a new problem.

With a growing family, financial hardship and the secret burden resulting from Edward Slater’s revelations, Sarah finds herself increasingly drawn to Crispin Bradshaw, owner of a Yorkshire woollen mill.

Mistress of Fairlyden is the moving and evocative second novel in this quartet of life on the land in nineteenth-century Scotland, following Fairlyden.

The Family at Fairlyden and Fairlyden at War will be uploaded in a few weeks time. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Mistress+of+Fairlyden&x=12&y=19

The Grandeur of Trees

During the winter storms two more of our precious trees blew down and another had to be felled for safety. An ash seedling had taken root in the fork of the trunk which had also begun to rot. More than a hundred years to grow and and in less than an hour it lay on the ground. If only trees could talk what wonderful tales they would be able to tell.

Fortunately we planted three copper beeches for our three children when we moved here in 1970 . They were slender saplings then and even after forty years I can span their trunks easily with my arms. It will take another hundred years before they are as big as the ones we have lost. How insignificant our own lives are in comparison. More recently we have planted an oak tree and a white birch, both with special memories. Through time they will help to replace the trees lost in the large farm garden but it saddens me to think no more children will have the joy of collecting conkers from the horse chestnut tree as my children did, nor will they gather beech mast in the autumn.
Many of you will be familiar with the poem below, and even better if you have heard it sung in the rich deep voice of Richard Tauber.

Trees by Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

I think that I shall never see

                                                                                  

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

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