Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' spicy pasties, We spent last Saturday morning wandering through a triangular shaped field of Dahlias. Such was the assault of colour, it is amazing we ever made it out! If Dahlias were scented, I am certain we would simply have lay down and gone to sleep, like Dorothy in the poppy field, from the Wizard of Oz.  This is the National Dahlia Collection's first year at its new Cornwall base. Where previously it was down Longrock way (Penzance ), it has now arrived at Kehelland Trust, near Camborne.  It must have been quite a feat moving all 1700 cultivars! Thank goodness for the hard work by Louise Danks, her nice chatty dad and all the volunteers involved. I really could have taken a photo of every single bloom, so I had to restrain myself. Not all the plants are labelled yet, but where they are, the names are clearly written in white pen on a slate tile. Some I have tried to identify myself, so please do comment if you recognise any.   Dahlia - unknown D...

 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 ...