Blàs

This is the second in the series of the fictional village of Blàs, set in the North Highlands of Scotland. Life for Stroma (the narrator) and her intergenerational group of female friends is full of whimsical events and local traditions. However, their fragile lifestyle is under threat. Lack of housing jeopardises both the school role and the delicate balance of their population as young families are forced to move away to find jobs and affordable accommodation. An invasion of television tourism and an archaeological find puts further pressure on their community’s existence. Campervans, tour buses, and cars jam the narrow streets. The once clean air is thick with petrol fumes and noise. Strangers crowd their village as locals hide behind their doors. The main characters are having challenges of their own. Auntie Lottie (in her fifties) can’t seem to pick between a dog and a husband whilst her friend and local town crier Maureen may have found a husband everyone else thought she had lost. Mary the oldest of the friends (in her eighties), continues to quietly meddle in everyone’s lives. Yet still, the role of bard and keeper of local folklore and history remains vacant since her husband’s death. Could the position be split between two competing individuals? Ellen, also in her fifties and the first person anyone goes to with a problem to solve, has had to withdraw from her normal role of a fixer of all things. She disappears just when her good advice and work ethic is needed. The local woods enshrined in stories and customs has suddenly come up for sale. What will happen to the villager’s foraging, their access, and to future generation’s right to play there? The new family, the Smiths, soon become heavily involved in its future and join in with the rest of the community to safeguard it forever. As the various situations develop and resolve, the more integrated the Smith family becomes within Blàs and its way of life.Everyday events continue with births, deaths, and marriages taking place as the community struggle together to preserve what they have. Laughter, traditions, celebrations, and ceilidhs are sprinkled throughout the story as life goes on in the beauty that is the Scottish Highlands The story is about acceptance of who we are and the love of community. It is about the delicate balance between the need to make a living and the preserving of a way of life lived in the North Highlands of Scotland. It all hangs together around a women’s friendship group. The age range is from Stroma in her thirties to Mary in her eighties and reflects real-life female friendships, particularly within rural communities.