Long Mizzle Garden

Hello m' pickles! What a week! I'm sure you've heard all about it. For us here at Long Mizzle, England Lockdown #3 means back to homeschooling (or 'School of Rock' as we like to call it) whilst working from home until at least mid-February. Our amazing NHS and key workers, frazzled from 2020, are continuing to work selflessly under extraordinary circumstances. Last Sunday, the day before the lock down announcement, we left behind a slightly frosty Long Mizzle and headed to a rather grander patch of land - Trellisick Estate, located near Truro and owned by the National Trust. If I'd taken a proper photo of the house itself, you may have recognised it from the BBC Antiques Roadshow!   Monsieur's not interested in grand estates and chose to stay at home with his guitars and coffee. I had previously booked the parking online (earliest slot available). We had intended to pay the additional fee to allow us access to the gardens, but we got completely carried away ...

 Hello 2021 and hello you! Welcome back, it is super good to see you. Here in the wintry UK, 2021 is starting as strangely as 2020 became, but I am prepared to hunker down in our biscuit bunker. With my batteries recharged over a quiet Christmas, I am full of dreams and ideas of fairy gardens, topiary, new planting schemes, outdoor sculptures, making a secluded picnic space and a woodland glade. The weather may be bad, but the garden planning starts here!  This was my view from the sofa on Christmas day, horizontally incapacitated like Jabba The Hut, following a 4am start (thanks to the littlest), full roast dinner, two glasses of wine and mass Fererro Rocher consumption. Captain Xmas was very kind this year, and I received a whole array of garden related items to keep me busy - With new Covid restrictions in place, Mam & I have been digitally swapping pictures of our indoor bulb forcing efforts. Here's mine at Long Mizzle, Penryn - And mam's at my folk's house, ...

 Hello m' handsome hollies, Today I'll be sharing a few of the more wintry drawings in the found Watling bag of sketch books. But before that, it is with great joy that I can announce... HOUSTON WE HAVE LIFT OFF!!! One of the hyacinth bulbs that mam and I started off in her cold October garage, has this week started to flower. After weeks of roots expansion, and a slowly emerging shoot, the flower rocketed quite quickly and suddenly, at precisely 32 minutes past the hour.   It still yet has to extend its full flower. We think some of the others will not be long behind -   And what of our red-onion-that-escaped-the-soup-pot ? It is looking very Chrismassy on the window ledge in our Snub (home office) back at Long Mizzle -    In my last post here , I wrote about finding sketchbooks by an unknown artist called 'Mr LJ Watling'. Last week I shared the summery landscapes, this week, here are some of the wintry ones - [ Saltsjöbaden (Sweden) January 2nd, 1982] ...