My calendar informed me that March 8 was the anniversary of the blog. I've now been doing this since 2017, so this is our 4th anniversary. According to the anniversary sites I've looked at, the traditional gift in the US are flowers and fruit. This is because they are symbols of renewal, and sticking together. If you're in the UK, apparently the traditional gifts are linen and silk. In lieu of sending me gifts, go out and buy something for yourself; I'm just generous that way. 😁 If you prefer more modern anniversary traditions, apparently the appropriate gift is an electrical appliance of some sort. So maybe I'll buy an electric paint shaker this month.
Gifting jokes aside, it has been an interesting four years. In that time, I've made 73 posts (not counting this one, of course) that have 45,323 views and have generated 426 comments as of March 7. That is an average of 1.5 posts, 8.8 comments and 944.2 views a month. On average, I almost sound like a responsible blog owner. Loyal readers will know that those average statistics mask a multitude of sins, though. 😬
One thing that is interesting is the sailing ship count. On 3/8/2017 there were 97 completed sailing ships in the collection. As of 3/6/2021, there are 111 completed sailing ships. In four years I've completed 14 ships, or one every 3.42 months. Hmmmm. OK, that number is not as interesting as I first thought it was going to be. 😞 Back then, there were 5 ships under construction. They were USS Pennsylvania, USS North Carolina, a Russian 50, a Russian 46 and a Spanish 74. Currently, there are 6 ships under construction. They are USS Pennsylvania, a Russian 46, a Spanish 74 (not the same one!), a French 74, USS Franklin, and a French 80. Doesn't look like a lot of progress there either, at first. . . .
Several of those under construction ships will be joining the fleet shortly, though. Take a look at this picture of the workbench:
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| That's pretty well organized for my painting desk. |
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| All six sailing ships are in this photo (along with some other projects too). |
The Canberra seen in the background is going to be converted to her Falklands troopship appearance for my Falklands air games that I mentioned in another post. (https://mymodelsailingships.blogspot.com/2020/05/love-in-time-of-coronavirus-part-2.html) She was in Bomb Alley for a couple of days while she offloaded troops, so had the potential to be a target. It will also be a fun conversion, and one that isn't seen very often in the model ship world.
One good thing about these anniversary posts is that they make me go back through the Blogger log, and see which posts I started but never finished. That's how I discovered that I have never taken any pictures of my unrated ships to put on the blog. Expect those in the near future.
There has been one gift to myself that is useful, but I am still less than enthused about. What is that, you ask? Well, it's this:
