Long Mizzle Garden

 Eh up m' solar sparkles, Has thoust had a jolly good yule tide? I've had  a lovely time with the family and my bottle of buckspiss. The kids insisted we get a 'real' tree again from the garden centre - the one with the hotter than the sun toasted marshmallows, singing penguins and flurries of fake snow. Walking round Falmouth Pavillion's Christmas tree festival, I did rather like the street grittiness of the cigarette cupcake (bottom left) Above: Tree decorations made from collected litter Below: Let's get wooly Other cutie pie things- A couple of week ago I went to a cookin' * gig at the Pavillion. Tom Meighan, ex Kasabian , was playing. I totally had it out large to songs like Clubfoot . My old work friend does the sound for him when on tour. As they all rehearse in Cornwall, this was something of a warm up gig. A week later they were supporting the mono eyebrowed saviour from Manchester, Noel Gallagher, at Wembley arena. I wonder if they were blisteri...

 Hello m' slim shadies, After a two day heatwave shattered UK records, my trusty Glass Storm Barometer warned me that a storm was imminent. The next morning I woke to a drastic drop in temperature, thunder and lightening. Climate change has officially arrived, just as the scientists said it would all those years ago. Sadly environmental scientists don't rule the world, knobbers do.  Above left - barometer in fine weather | Above right - rapid ascension of blue liquid in snozzle means approaching storm (see monkey blog post here for more detail). If it pees, batten the hatches! Below: Down by the morning cool, Penryn Marina  Whilst the holiday makers were rollicking in the sun on the beach, I was crunching on ice cubes, taking shade where I could. Obviously all the parasols had sold out, so a little improvisation was required for the top patio -    Approaching storm after the heat -  Very little gardening happened during the heat . Contrary to what Monsieur...

 Eh up our kid, Less gardening this weekend - I've been living it up large, feet up, head full of lurgy, watching the Glastonbury Music Festival highlights on t' tele. The band that opened up my first ever Glasto in 1997 were called The Shirehorses. This was radio DJs Mark and Lard's spoof band. Having listened to their ridiculous comedy sketches on BBC Radio 1's graveyard slot, holed up in my teenage garage, I was a big fan.  When Mark n' Lard moved to Radio 1's prime time slot, they refused to relocate from their Manchester base (the rest of Radio 1 broadcast from London) and they would often play the spoons or kazoo over any tune they disapproved of (compulsory playlists you see). They particularly seemed to take offense to a band called Savage Garden, which they called 'Cabbage Garden'. They claimed every band around at the time had nicked their sound. In my early 20s I got to meet them in person as a friend of mine from the BBC technology trainee sc...

 Al'reet m' chiefs,   Of course the title's a play on a line in the 1975 film Jaws - 'We're gonna need a bigger boat'. Before I get onto pots, I'd like to share a little outing, and perhaps some boats... It's been an action packed week off and now I'm feeling like I need extra time to recover! One highlight was going over to the north coast with the kiddiwinkles and ancient ones.   The Fern Pit Cafe on the edge of Newquay, overlooks the River Gannel and Crantock beach. If I ever I think Long Mizzle's split levels are challenging, I think of the heavenly steep cliff side garden that tumbles down from the cafe to the boathouse and footbridge below. Above: Red Valerian (Centrranthus ruber) Unfortunately the steps, boathouse and footbridge were closed off on the day we visited. I have many fond memories of spending whole dusty summer days as a child, mucking about crab fishing, then walking back up the endless steps for an ice cold strawberry m...