Snow on the mountain, rain in the valley

Still cold and with all the rain we have another water feature in the garden. Warming up a bit but still a strong wind to deter any plant that was thinking of growing.
Parisian friend for coffee in the morning and then a fire lit in the afternoon. Pottering about in the afternoon before starting a job I have been putting off for ages -mending one of our terrace walls that collapsed over the winter, having done the same the previous winter and been poorly repaired by me.
Always a nightmare to start as one is diggingh away the fallen wall and has to decide where the weall is solid enough to build upon. The temptation is to start rebuilding too soon and, as the parable of building on sand might point out, the wall falls down again the next year. Exactly what happened last year. This time I have taken out more stone and indeed have gone back to the bare earth hoping to build somethng more solid.
The worst thing about this particular wall is that it is home to our prickly pear forest and so as well as the traditional large stone falling on your hand/taking out a chunk of your shin, spines from the prickly pear seem to get stuck into you everywhere. Last year it was my head, this year my back.
How I laughed.