Long Mizzle Garden

 Hello m' furry antlers, I wonder what the artist Frida Kahlo would have made of a national lockdown. With her stern mono brow stare, nationalistic folk dress and cigar smoking attire, she looked to be a woman who wouldn't have liked being told what to do. However, Frida was no stranger to confinement. Having a crippled right leg from contracting polio as a child, she reached her teens only to have her spine, ribs and pelvis crushed in a bus accident, resulting in years of operations, multiple miscarriages and chronic pain. Henry Ford Hospital (1932), The Two Fridas (1939), The Broken Column (1944), The Little Deer (1946) Detailed paintings can be viewed at www.fridakahlo.org   Turning away from her previous career choice of medicine, Frida started painting. And what did she choose to paint in her constant bed of non-convalescence? The subject matter closest at hand - herself.  Only one look at some of her self-portraits exposes the true frustration, heartbreak and rea...

 Hello m' early springy pops,   In a momentary lull of rain this week, a couple of garden tasks were tackled (full details in next post). This, in addition to an epic welly walk, has ensured we've had a good dose of fresh air and vitamin D. Making the most of our once-daily-allowed-exercise-outing, we picked a sunny afternoon to follow  Penryn's Nature Trail . It is an absolute gem of a walk and we had tremendous fun, even if we did get caught in a couple of hailstone storms.  The start of the trail is best experienced by finding the hidden 'ope' (narrow alleyway) between two historic Penryn town houses on St Thomas Street. Lovely as it is, we cheated and skipped this section by joining the trail from behind the Methodist church.    At this time of year wellies are essential, and even then the eldest sprog managed to get a boot stuck in the mud, and landed sock down whilst we cackled with laughter. Luckily I always carry spare socks, pants & leggings...

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 from mizzly Long Mizzle, There's been some wonderfully moody hues and inky blues washing through the garden this week. The trees are starting to bear their witchy lacework and soon we'll be able to see glimpses of the old graveyard and creek beyond. In exploding colour pallet contrast, the zinnias, 'vanilla ice' sunflowers, dahlias, californian poppies and  river lilies jump out, even if on limited time now. This may be one of the last tomato and pepper harvests from the greenhouse. A rogue mutant snail seems to be trying to finish our harvest off. This lone 'Apache' chilli is reserved for Monsieur's heat bomb challenge. He likes to give it the large that he is now heat tolerant. Much to the ridicule of my hardcore Manc friends, when I first met him twenty years ago, a mild korma was about as much heat as he could handle.  Eager eyed and with great anticipation, the sprogs and I present the chilli to him on a plate and wait for the culinary drama to u...