Indolent Piles & Incipient Quinsy

"A Capsicum ointment, or Chilli paste, will almost invariably serve to mitigate the painful stiffness of chronic rheumatism if rubbed in topically for ten minutes at a time with a gloved hand. This paste is to be made with 'capsicin', the oleo-resin of the pods (half an ounce), and sheep's-wool (lanoline), five ounces, melting the latter, and after adding the capsicin letting them be stirred together until cold. Indolent piles which have extruded, and the circulation in which is stagnant, can be stimulated to reduction by the use of this ointment when so diluted as to cause only moderate smarting.
For incipient quinsy, before the tonsillar abscess breaks, a basin of hot gruel well seasoned with Cayenne Pepper, if taken soon enough, will often give ease, and resolve the swelling."
Meals Medicinal W.T.Fernie, M.D.


First chili peppers (Black Hungarian and Jemez) are already forming! Relief is at (gloved) hand.

Dead as a Dodo

I found him/her(?) on the way home. A baby pigeon but you can see the family resemblance.

Committing To The Seedplot

"When you sow your peas, when you sow your beans, when you sow your potatoes, when you sow your carrots, your turnips, your parsnips and other root vegetables, do you do so with punctilio?...


...No, but rapidly you open a trench, a rough and ready line, not quite straight, nor yet quite crooked, or a series of holes, at intervals that do not offend, or offend only for a moment, while the holes are still open, your tired old eye, and let fall the seed, absent in mind, as the priest dust, or ashes, into the grave, and cover it with earth, with the edge of your boot in all probability, knowing that if the seed is to prosper and multiply, ten-fold, fifteen-fold, twenty-fold, twenty-five-fold, thirty-fold, thirty-five-fold, forty-fold, forty-five-fold and even fifty-fold, it will do so, and that if it is not, it will not."

Watt Samuel Beckett