Long Mizzle Garden

 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...

 Hello m' crunchy daylilies, What a scorcher it has been today! Naturally, I have been looking for things to cool me down, this time in the form of fresh salads. FOODIE W*NK*R ALERT: I made a video in the garden this morning - munching at some crazy edibles. Who'd have thought the daylilies that grow like weeds in my garden were edible?! [Just be sure they are indeed Daylilies (Hemorocallis fuva) and not Tiger lilies (Lilium lancifolium)!!! Plus in large quantities, Daylilies are said to be hallucanagenic ] In the background - edible cannas and nasturtiums -   Cooking is not my favourite pursuit really,  but I am always on the look out for ways to bring the cost of the weekly food shop down. I made a big monster pot of rustic curry using shop brought red lentils (cheap!), carrots, together with homegrown garlic, turnips and spring onions. Ol' Glass Eyed Mumrah makes a lovely panfried flat bread, 50% flour, 50% natural yogurt - lovely to scoop the curry up. I am still havi...

 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...

 Hello m' fizz pots, It's too bloomin' hot outside, so I've come in for a nice glass of cokey pokey* and wee blog sesh. Ol' Glass Eyed Mumrah told me off for not doing a post last week! Feet up and crunching on ice cubes, I'm smug in the thought that I won't have to bucket up the bath water tonight and lug it downstairs to water the patio pots. This is because I have gradually been planting them up with drought tolerant succulents. * The cokey can't pokey because the pokey's in the cokey! * [The copyright goes to my six year old daughter who came up with that slogan. No, it doesn't make any sense, but it could be advertising genius ]    Aonium 'Zwartkop' underplanted with Sedum album   Red house leeks and Delosperma 'Ruby' Aeonium arboreum and Mesembryanthemums (that's a mouthful - lets just call them Livingstone Daisies) Last year the cannas were in the half-barrel pots, but look how much happier they are let loose in rich, m...