Stripping off the Old

For the past three days I have been stripping old paint from the lounge skirting boards with a heat gun and then cleaning off the thick black, treacle-like, varnish residue ready for them to be painted.  What a lot of work having bird guards fitted to the chimneys has caused!!!  Hopefully we will have another room almost finished after all this work.  The newly plastered walls are drying out nicely so will be ready for painting shortly.

We have rampant squirrels in the garden again.  Like buses ... No sooner is one gone than a load more appear.  Poor greenfinches seem to have succumbed to the horrible disease that prevents them from eating.  One was that ill yesterday that I managed to pick it up.  I did not have the heart to put it out of it's misery so let it go.  I fear it will die a slow and lingering death.

Lots of young robins this year and they have all now started singing their hearts out.  What a joy to hear.

As I have not put hand to needle or pen to sketchbook this week (yet again!!) I am posting some more pages from the Yorkshire Travelling Sketchbooks (EG Travelling Books?) and hope you enjoy them.  These are from March and June 2013 and by the same person.