Long Mizzle Garden

Hello from Long Mizzle, Time to put some lippy on, dance around the garden and find coordinating pink and fluffy flowers! This week's bunch includes river lilies (Hesperantha coccinea), feather top grass (Pennisetum villosum) and Honeywort (Cerinth major 'Purpurascens'). I've never been too keen on the black kitchen tiles we inherited with the house, but they make a great background for the flowers to pop out from. Maybe one day I will lavish as much attention on the inside of the house, including the kitchen, as I do the garden! If you haven't already seen it, Vintage Vix's lockdown kitchen makeover here is amazing and I completely agree that coffee tastes much better in a vintage cup. I found a lovely old article on Sue's blog about the Teapot Pub (Old Star & Garter) in Falmouth here , which is how I fondly remember it (newer entries here ).  If I had the space, I think I would collect teapots too! Here's a small selection of my vintage cups - Vint...

 Hello, do come in, it's a bit damp, but I've got t' kettle on and it's going to be a beautiful day... In my art school wanker days, there was one set of images that gripped me more than anything else...and to this day they still haunt and fascinate me. They are the 'Silueta Series' (1973 -78) by Cuban born sculptor, video and performance artist Anna Mendieta.    Mendieta used primarily earth, sometimes flowers, twigs, blood and fire in a ritualistic attempt to create a sense of belonging and re-connect to her exiled homeland. She says she was 'ripped' from her childhood home in Havana (her father was politically imprisoned for eighteen years and Mendieta, along with her sister, were then shuttled between orphanages and foster parents in Iowa, America).  Although at first glance, some of these ephemeral images may seem morbid, it was in Mendieta's culture to see blood as a powerful thing and the muddy process was meant to be regenerative. The keen ga...

 Hello, ready for another weekly update from Long Mizzle Garden? Let's tea and gossip... Sorry, no slow-motion, grand shots of me emerging breathless from a helicopter here. This little patch of sea thrift (above, bottom left) was grown from seed a few years ago now. It seems to flower on and off all year through. I will be dividing this and putting some in our own  patch of Cornish dry stone wall. Some seeds will also be sprinkled in little nooks and crannies. After a cold snap at the start the week, the sun came out as promised on Wednesday and the river lilies (Hesperantha coccinea) have since been having an un-masked party en masse, dancing about the border. I don't think you can ever have enough river lilies! Like the sea thrift, they grow in clumps, but are quicker to spread. They also happily self seed and make a great cut flower to bring into the house. Notice anything missing from the old pond bed? It got too cold and wet for the succulents so I brought them in to the...