Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' handsome hollies, Today I'll be sharing a few of the more wintry drawings in the found Watling bag of sketch books. But before that, it is with great joy that I can announce... HOUSTON WE HAVE LIFT OFF!!! One of the hyacinth bulbs that mam and I started off in her cold October garage, has this week started to flower. After weeks of roots expansion, and a slowly emerging shoot, the flower rocketed quite quickly and suddenly, at precisely 32 minutes past the hour.   It still yet has to extend its full flower. We think some of the others will not be long behind -   And what of our red-onion-that-escaped-the-soup-pot ? It is looking very Chrismassy on the window ledge in our Snub (home office) back at Long Mizzle -    In my last post here , I wrote about finding sketchbooks by an unknown artist called 'Mr LJ Watling'. Last week I shared the summery landscapes, this week, here are some of the wintry ones - [ Saltsjöbaden (Sweden) January 2nd, 1982]   [Tattbyväge

Hello and welcome to Long Mizzle, Open this small unassuming shoulder bag, and you'll find a passion for travel, together with a love of gardens and landscape, through the eyes of an unknown artist. Mam found this lot in a house sale clearance stall a few years ago at Rosudgeon Carboot Sale, and kindly gifted them to me... [Garden at Dragarstigen (Sweden), 31st July, 1982] The bag contains: four small sketchbooks filled with studies in ink, chalk and watercolour, one tube of paintbrushes, one small empty medicine bottle, one 'Amalifi' tourist penknife and one 'rapidliner' pencil, purchased in Germany.                                                       [Stadpark (City Park) Vienna. 1989] A label inside the bag reads - Mr L J Watling, Brannel Mill Cottage, Coombe, Cornwall.  I have been unable to find any 'L J Watling' artwork referenced online and so I'm unsure as to whether sketching was a mindful pastime for Watling, or acted as a warm up exercise t

Hello m' hearties, hope you are well. Please come in and enter the mad house and garden that is Long Mizzle...    I don't want to sound like Great Aunt Gertrude but I can't believe December is upon us already! Because I am so tight, sorry, thrifty , we don't go spending mad here. Heck, we haven't even had a proper Christmas tree for two years - just a twiggy installation. But we do like having silly fun making things. I stole my eldest daughter's flower press this week to preserve some of the lovely pansies blooming in the garden. Five layers of sandwiched pansies, card and paper. I'm not sure what we'll do with them yet. We could use them as alternate baubles (if stuck on card) or add them to our homemade pot potpourri or stick them on bookmarks... If you are unable to meet up with loved ones this Christmas, why not turn them, or yourselves into pebbles!?  IMPORTANT: VEGETARIANS PLEASE LOOK AWAY NOW!!! Something that has become a Christmas tradition at