Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' golden Zeuses, A brief insight into the day in a life of an olmypic gardener...  1) I promise to Zeus that I have trained for the past ten months by doing as much tea drinking, seed planting and weeding as possible.  2) My fellow budding athletes and I paint our nails gold, silver and bronze, only to have them promptly destroyed by further outdoor sportsmanship (mostly trampolining and dirt digging). 3) A succulent shrine is constructed as an offering to Zeus. (The creature is a nod to Athena's mechanical owl, in the 1981 film Clash of the Titans) 4) Poseidon, annoyed at all the attention Zeus is getting with the Games, angrily brandishes his trident. Together they battle out in the bay, where sea meets sky, thus creating Storm Evert. Despite my frantic attempts to stake the sunflowers in torrential rain, one sunflower is defeated in the 70 miles per hour howling winds. Two ancient urns take a tumble, but recover.  5) We hear a rumour that Poseidon is resid...

 Hello m' old  fruit gums,   I love sharing my garden with you in my weekly correspondence. Some of you I know in person, others I feel I have come to know from your blogs and comments.  It is silly of me to say the garden really feels part of my existence? In a world that can be hard to navigate, it is a space of solace, at least something I can control, or rather work together with at ease. Creating it and watching it grow brings me a huge amount of satisfaction and joy. But there have been some issues troubling me this week that have led to this delayed post.  Usually I stray away from issues . When my eldest daughter asks if I can read her some of her latest Jacqueline Wilson book, I roll me eyes, as I know it will involve social issues . Let's not forget the annoying characters Wilson aptly describes... TV's Tracey Beaker being the best known. In 'Lily Alone', the misled, single, teenage mum has time and money for new clothes, makeup, and takeout food, but ...

 Hello m' shivering timbers, My ideal birthday treat ? Forget the champagne, diamonds and posh restaurant. Boring! But a wee road trip to a weird plant nursery and reclamation yard full of rusty junk.... now that's my cuppa!!! It is not often I head out west across the Cornish Peninsula, Penzance way. There are pirates in these parts after all.  Back in the early 2000s, whenever I visited my brother, we'd visit a fantastic reclamation yard in Longrock. It was by an old railway line that overlooked the glittering deep blue of Mount's Bay. I'd mostly leave empty handed, but would dream of having my own truck and place to fill with plants and wonderful junk. I remember there was an old long haired hippy that ran it. It was rumoured he liked to visit India. The sound of world music would drift through the rickety building and out-structures. Somewhere I have some dusty photographs that I took of it back then. One day, when I drove past, it had gone. Longrock never drew ...