Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' furry antlers, I wonder what the artist Frida Kahlo would have made of a national lockdown. With her stern mono brow stare, nationalistic folk dress and cigar smoking attire, she looked to be a woman who wouldn't have liked being told what to do. However, Frida was no stranger to confinement. Having a crippled right leg from contracting polio as a child, she reached her teens only to have her spine, ribs and pelvis crushed in a bus accident, resulting in years of operations, multiple miscarriages and chronic pain. Henry Ford Hospital (1932), The Two Fridas (1939), The Broken Column (1944), The Little Deer (1946) Detailed paintings can be viewed at www.fridakahlo.org   Turning away from her previous career choice of medicine, Frida started painting. And what did she choose to paint in her constant bed of non-convalescence? The subject matter closest at hand - herself.  Only one look at some of her self-portraits exposes the true frustration, heartbreak and rea...

 Hello m' muscly stunt doubles, It is not always easy gardening here at Long Mizzle, with its six split leveled terraces, many steps and uneven slopes. Many a time I have found myself either stumbling up or stunt rolling down the garden with momentum. If anyone remembers 'Dynasty' from the 1980s, you may remember the classic cat fights between sappy Krystal and villainous Alexis. Well there's one 'mud slide' classic that springs to mind (copied in to the end of this post for your perusing leisure).  Above: Watch the drop! One of the terraced walls of Long Mizzle One programme Monsieur and the kids have got into during lockdown is 'Parks and Recreation' (on Netflix). It loosely centres around what will be done to the local pit. The character Andy, played by Chris Pratt, is the singer of a cringey, wanabee Dave Matthews / Hootie and The Blowfish pub band and his song 'I fell into the Pit" amusingly soundtracks this ongoing saga. Well our old pond ...

 Hello m' soapy suds,    Well, I don't think I'll be going out gardening in today's pelting hail storms, so it'll be a day for indoor sowing. There are more window ledges yet to be filled with promising pots of mud. I have a big bag of sowing compost strategically positioned by the newspaper plastered dining table. The seeds are ready. The teapot is on.  Some pots have had a luxury spa jaccuzi treatment already -   I popped to town during the week and decided to take a punt on some Wilkos ginger and echinacea packs. Regular blog readers will know of my love of ginger cake and my distress over last years depleted global harvest. The echinaceas I have tried 'bareroot' before and they didn't take. Fingers crossed this time! Last night, we had a super early tea, then I potted them up whilst watching Neighbours. The littlest joined me and used the hamster saw dust that came with the ginger tuber to make a casserole dish farm, complete with random vicar. Then ...