As it turns out, I really, really like plastering.

Sure, it has downsides: it is tiring. Lime turns my hair into a grey rat's nest. It chaps my hands and dries them into rough, old-person appendages, and makes it so that the slightest of bumps causes my shrunken skin to burst apart into painful scrapes and cuts that fill with stinging plaster. And solo plastering on a sunny day is pretty much impossible.

But, when the circumstances are right, I actually enjoy it. I love watching straw and holes and grossness get covered up with a substance the texture of whipped buttercream. It seems to combine the pleasures of two hobbies I've known and loved for much of my life: ceramics and cake decorating.

And seeing as how I'm chief plasterer from Monday to Friday, it's a good thing I enjoy it!