Old bones.

 

The policeman arrives to look at the bronze age burial site. He sits on a lobster creel, peers at a piece of thigh bone sticking out of the soil, furrows his brow and gives his informed opinion.  'Aye. Those bones are old '. He then adds ' Nae need for me to be hanging around. I'll call the archaeologists'. He pronounces the word  ark-ee-oll-oh-jist slowly and in a tone of voice that suggests they're the bane of his life. With that he heads back up the hill to the warmth of his Skoda 4x4 and disappears. His 4x4 has the words 'Police' and  'Poileas Alba' spelt out in  large green letters on the bonnet and tailgate. Angus, briefly, thinks of asking how many law breaking gaelic speakers the police come across in Fife  but thinks better of it. 

Mid-morning the archaeologists arrive. A young American couple. I wonder what professional twists of fate have brought them to this out of the way place.  The young woman is very enthusiastic and chatty. Her companion less so .... on both counts. He treats us with slight suspicion as if we might be ageing robbers with a specialist sideline in bronze age bones. When he does talk he sounds just like John Wayne. I'm guessing the thought of spending a day in a recently ploughed field exposed to the excoriating North Sea wind isn't the young mans idea of heaven. They set off from the top of the raised beach to the shore carrying a variety of shovels and GPS equipment. They also carry with them the largest thermos we've ever seen.

This morning the farmers wife informs us that her husband  has unearthed another burial plot by the pond where the herons roost. The curse of the new deep ploughing tractor strikes again. All the graves are facing east so , if true, it's almost certainly early Christian and not pagan.  Is another meeting with the unhappy policeman in store ? Will the archaeologists be asked to record this new site ? Or, will this latest discovery be kept quiet ?

The builders wife, out walking her labrador , is alarmed that a new series of 'Outlander' is in the works. We've never seen 'Outlander'. The plot as outlined by the builders wife  sounds improbable - something to do with Scotland, time travel and an American nurse . The production company wants to use the village kirk and the Druids den in the new series. They might even want to film down on the shore. The general feeling amongst our neighbours is that after Netflix and 'The Crown' we don't want to be bothered by any more Hollywood types and certainly - heaven forbid ! - don't want visitors. There is to be a village council meeting .