SUPERGLUE THE CURE

One of the side effects of gardening without gloves is kins - splits in the ends of the fingers which is why I am typing, as usual with two fingers, but with the ring finger of the left hand as the thumb and first two fingers are split.
They, of course, will take time to heal but plasters come off, get wet and are pretty useless.
So - use superglue. put a little into the kin and wait for it to dry. A good skin is formed under which the finger can heal. You might need to repeat the application from time to time but it certainly takes the soreness away.
Currently there are other parts of the body aching too as I have been ramming stakes into the ground with my marl - a big metal mallet. When I ordered it I had a choice of weights for the end and picked one that was too heavy - about 14 pounds - 6.35 Kg. (The metric weight is for those of us who have managed to move on to that system.) Hence I ache!
Then our order of 2 cubic metres (!) of logs arrived and needed barrowing to the shed. I was going to do it myself but R came out and moved the lot whilst I stacked them. What a wife! We would have used our willow crop but they need another 10 years and I did not want to chop down one of our own trees.

I have put in a new length of fencing to visually separate the flower beds from the rest of the garden - it does nothing other than act as a demarkation but creates a sense of a room space by the house. There are just uprights and two horizontals.

At this juncture I was going to show you a picture of our surviving frogs - I counted over twenty in the bottom pond this morning from our bedroom window but if I get anywhere near they do a disappearing act. They are so aware - I was walking along the path by the house, 30 yards (about 27.5 metres) above the pond when they must have seen me and submerged.
I contemplated getting out the camera and tripod and remote
control but was distracted by breakfast.

The veg bed picture shows the near half with a heavy mulch of well rotted horse manure. In the far half where the sticks are, a further mulch of extremely well rotted horse manure has been added. This latter application is about 8 years old, beautiful stuff - if muck can be beautiful.
Under the wigwam of sticks a trench was dug and this was also filled with discarded horse stuff. Beans, for instance, are very hungry plants.

I am also in the process of creating a cutting bed for a  mixture of annuals, biennials and perennials - there is something wonderful in a house wrapped in scent, filled with flowers. It only needs a further topdressing of the horsey product and a path made in the middle so the flowers can be harvested without treading on the beds.
We have a vase of flowering currant in the kitchen and vases of snowdrops, primroses and small daffodils - lovely.
The garden continues to be full of surprises - the wonder of spring.

The far dry-stone wall is redolent with moss forming intricate shapes and patterns. This is also an indication of the purity of the air here. After a few days without rain, if I look out over Morecambe Bay towards Lancaster, I can see a blanket of dirty air below me. It seems to reach up about 250 - 300 feet (75-90 metres) from the sands at sea level. We are at 360 feet. (No, work it out yourself.)
Then along comes some rain and washes all this gunge away. This is one reason, I think, I love the northwest coast of Scotland and Ireland - the air is so special.
Yes, use rainwater on the garden - but it might be full of dissolved smog. Also, you might think water filtered through the earth and rock, emerging from springs might be better, perhaps it is, but it has got minerals in it. We have some arsenic in our water supply. (Just a very little.) (Might explain a few things though?)
Soft water, hard water, did not matter last year - just too much water.
It is raining today - soft rain gently soaking the world - none of the downpours we experienced last year.

Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit - sometimes I do go on! (And off).

Time for some more superglue. (No, not the lips.)