Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' hot scrumpies,   Apologies for my blogging absence. It feels work wise, mentally and physically I have been living in a pressure cooker for the past month This coincided with the hottest June globally on record. Hello El Niño - you arrived too soon. The garden sat thirsty for weeks on end. Some of the luckier beds received buckets of used bath water. A hose pipe ban has been in place in the South West since last summer. The reservoirs are critically low and the water company is scrambling to set up the desalination of seawater. Most plants seem shorter in height this year. The roses however seemed to love the dry heat.  Dog on quay dutifully watches over sea swimming owner Now there are reports of a potential maritime heatwave. Since taking up sea swimming, I can confirm the sea is still officially flippin' cold to my skin. My brother says 'knees, hips, nips and tips' is the way to enter the water without shocking the body. The nips seems to be the hardest s...

 Hold on February, I forgot to say hello! Camellia morning over Long Mizzle. Please cue the confetti cannons as I saunter in to the room nonchalantly in my silk housecoat... arms stretched out in a operatic way...THE EXAMS ARE OVER! I sat my last two RHS horticulture theory exams during the week at Duchy College Rosewarne. That's eight exams done and dusted, and I don't want to see another one any time soon! Time to be a lady of leisure, even just for one day. After a night of binge watching 'Canal Boat Diaries', along with copious amounts of tea, I bundled the kids off to school the next morning and waited for my folks to pick me up en route to Redruth town and Portreath for lunch. * Canal Boat Diaries on BBC iPlayer: Recommended for lovers of canal boats, locks, impossibly low and long tunnels, viaducts, aqueducts, Midland and industrial North adventures * Above: 'Tinners Hounds' made from boots found at Geevor Mine, by artist David Kemp. Redruth is a no ...

Hello m’ blustery barnacles, It has been a soggy, cold week here at Long Mizzle, so lots of time's been spent indoors, chain drinking tea, browsing botanical books and attempting some watercolour painting.  Look what’s popped out in the last few days – Monsieur gave me this Moth Orchid (Phalenopsis) a few years ago for valentine’s day, saying it was "the runt of the litter and the last one in the shop". Immediately I loved it. Some people chop off the stray, fleshy aerial fleshy roots, but I  think they just add to its weird beauty. Plus, these plants photosynthesize from their roots, so it is best to leave the aerial escapees intact and allow them to party, whilst the lower level roots are best kept in a clear pot. [Regarding root condition, green = good, silver = de-hydrated, brown = dead] In the wild, Phalenopsis would be perched in the crevice of a tree (epiphytic) or clinging to a rock face (lithophytic). This one has long been due a re-pot, but I will wait until i...