Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' stormy teacups, Seems like I've been working too hard lately. As my old kindly boss used to say each day at elevenses "Let's get our priorities right and put the kettle on" ...and get out into the garden! (I added that last bit) Long Mizzle is recovering from Storm Aurore. She whipped up the English Channel with a reported tornado and 60 mph winds. At one point, the Trachycarpus Palm was bent right over, the leaves almost touching the ground. A tree surgeon friend of ours tells us these were some of the only trees to survive the hurricane of 1987 (the one Michael Fish famously dismissed), on the estate he manages in Sussex. The lower leaves get incredibly scraggly looking, so I trimmed them off. Soon our ladder will be too short to manage this though.  Spot the new addition to the upper terrace? Give us the netball and move aside kids, watch and learn!   We were lucky -  the only damage really was some battered sunflowers and one toppled Aeonium pot. ...

Hello and Happy Halloween or Samhain to you, As this week's weather has been viler than a witch's wet fart, time has been spent indoors delving into the traditions of Samhain (Summer's End), the precursor to Halloween.  The Druids and Ancient Celts started it. October 31 st sounded the welcoming of the harvest and the dark portion of the year. For three days and three nights, the wall between this world and the next was believed to be at its most permeable.  Shape shifting spirits, be they malevolent or benign, could walk amongst men.   These were the days where fairies were vicious, hunting in groups, stealing souls and kidnapping folk. Celts would dress as beasts, with furs, paints, antlers and tails as a means of protection. Mandatory rituals led by Druid priests included animal and human sacrifice (according to ancient Roman writers) and the lighting of a community fire.  [No gardening going on here today] By Medieval times, the idea of a ‘Dumb Supper’ had deve...