17th April 2006:

Oh, I ache all over. It has been at least 18 months without any serious gardening work, and now that I'm back to digging, and planting, and turning over ... there are days when I have ached so much I have been reduced to lying full length on the muddy ground in order to put those last few hundred in.

The worst thing in planting bulbs is that you can see nothing for your effort. Over the past few days I have planted about 4,000 bulbs - there is bare earth to start with and bare earth to finish with (save for a scattering of plant markers) and a lot of pain ... but I guess come spring I will be happy enough.

Landscaping is going okay - I am just sick and tired of the mess and the noise and the mud. Some of the sandstone paths are down, sandstone walls are going up.

The house painters are also here. Can you believe it? The place is crawling with men wielding very loud machinery. The painters have set the house on fire three times, the landscapers have gone through the water pipes. Fortunately not at the same time.