Blackford, Brownies and Book Aid

A few months ago I got an email from one of the leaders of the Blackford Brownies and Rainbows. It said:

"As part of Girlguiding UK's Centenary celebrations, all the girls are taking part in a "Changing the World" project. Our girls have chosen to raise some money for a charity called Book Aid International, who help to bring free books to people living in some of the poorest parts of the world.
They have decided to hold a book themed "Coffee Afternoon" in the village hall in Blackford on Saturday 16 May from 2:00-4:00. To add a bit more excitement for the girls, we decided to approach some local authors to see if they would be willing to come along and possibly read a bit from some of their books. You would also have the opportunity to sell some of your books and maybe speak to the girls and other people attending. The Brownies and Rainbows are aged 5-10, but the event would be open to all."

Since I love being thought of as adding excitement to anyone's day, I went along - well, Book Aid International is obviously also an excellent thing to support, and Brownies and Rainbows are of course right up there with motherhood and fruit scones - but, let's face it, the flattery helped.

It was a good afternoon - I got to meet another author, Alex Nye - I got to sell some books and do a bit of a reading to the kids - I got to stock up on some excellent home-baking, compare twin notes, chat to folk generally, and be well impressed with the facepainting abilities of one of the mothers (over the years I've seen a fair old wack of facepainting and this was certainly into another league) - and, just so we know that irony is alive and well and living in Perthshire, the man who wouldn't buy Seventh Tide because he didn't read books (though he did buy a book for his daughter, so I'm not really complaining) won a prize in the raffle which was ... a BUNDLE OF BOOKS. Excellent.

Then I came home, had two scones and some marble cake, and fell asleep for an hour and a half ... which is what happens when I add excitement to my day.