Spring

 I have many happy memories of cycling around Ireland in the company of good friends, many of them Americans with Irish roots. As one of them was brusquely reminded by her grandmother when enthusing about how green the country was  "There is a reason it is so green, and that's why I couldn't wait to get away from it" Having been wetter than in an swimming pool on some of our trips I can understand that sentiment.

As I write this we appear, after a dry but cold April, to be on course for the wettest May in many years. It is a miserable sort of wetness. A dreary day in day out sort of month. Even the chickens are roosting an hour earlier than I would expect at this time of year, and Issy and I aren't far behind them. According to Alexa the weather forecast has been "More of the Same" for days.

Spring is relentless though. This week, the hawthorn, and do we have a lot of hawthorn or do we have a lot of hawthorn, has started to flower.  The grass is as green as in Ireland, and the dawn chorus now begins at 4.10am. I know that because it wakes me up every morning.

It also means the natural daylight in the studio is a lot better.. I've mentioned before that I'm not one of those Winter modellers. I like natural light. I've even managed to start tidying up the workbench.

One incentive to do so is to find a home for a birthday present, a spray booth.  It is only a relatively cheap Chinese made model, but the absence of one has always put me off using an airbrush. It is a reluctance that goes back to university days and a year sharing a house with a chemist. Since then I've always been worried about the health issues linked to our hobby.