Proper sailing again

Everyone has their favourite month, and May is mine

- Marsali Taylor

You southern folk get summer starting in April, I know, but up here April is daffodil month, with maybe the first tulips, and we can still rely on one last blizzard, the 'lambie snaa' in mid-April, to make the newly-born hill lambs cuddle close to their mothers. I can get the boat out and do the cleaning, polishing and antifouling, mast back, electric restored, cabin refurnished, but it's still too cold to go far.

May, though, May is the first summer month, and oh, Shetland is bonny at this time of year. The graceful Arctic terns have returned to chitter in the marina rock wall. There are pairs of fulmars on the cliffs of Papa Little. Every burn is Formica yellow with marsh marigolds, every park a fresh, eye-resting green with new grass. There are daisies and dandelions along the roadsides, the banks are pale yellow with primroses, and the Shetland foals have arrived, unbelievably cute, going in a week from hugging their mother's side to chasing each other around the field and playing 'king of the castle' on hillocks.