A big thanks to the mystery person who left this excellent champagne box on my doorstep early this morning. It’s exactly like the one mentioned on the blog many moons ago here and it’ll make a great planter just like the last one. Please own up as it’s a top gift!
Today I also received my free packet of seeds from BBC Countryfile. Guess what planter they’ll be sown in? Big up John Craven, champagne boxes and people who leave great gifts on your doorstep! Thank you!
An infectious number from U.S. Girls called “Damn that valley” on 4AD heard on this week’s Tom Ravenscroft show. Excellent stuff on a bonkers reggae influenced type beat!
I’ve got a collection of leggy tomato plants waiting to go in the garden until after the risk of frost has gone, like I have every year. After starting them off on the kitchen windowsill a couple of months ago, I put them in the plastic mini-greenhouse outside with the front open during the day to harden them off. This weekend I stuck one of them under the terrarium outside and also sowed a mixture of seeds beside it. There’s onions and garlic on their way in the bed behind and in the raised bed furthest away have seed potatoes under a good deal of earthed up soil. 
The bed at the bottom of the garden which I was going to keep veg-free this year has now a row of leek seedlings which I sowed indoors on xmas eve last year and a couple of courgette seeds which went in over the weekend under jam jars for extra protection. The rest is a mixture of flowers, a purple sprouting broccoli gone to flower, rocket and strawberries. It won’t be long now until “they’re off” and we can’t wait!
What more can I say? This is what greeted me when I got in this evening and wandered to the bottom of our garden. God knows how the goldfish below feel and how stressed out our cats are, but this is bonkers!
We’ve got a small pond at the bottom of the garden and as there’s no electricity supply down there, there’s no pump, so the quality of the water can be something to be desired at the best of times but there are a few goldfish in there (bought years ago from lewisham’s “premier” pet shop) and they don’t seem to mind.
Yesterday around lunchtime looking out of the kitchen window, I saw our cat frantically fly down the garden path towards the pond where I was sure I saw something bobbing about on the top of the water. On closer inspection it turns out it was a duck, how mad is that? 
I originally thought to shoo it out as I reckoned it would probably half-inch the fish that’s in there but as the picture (below) shows it weren’t bothered, but rather preferred their food which was floating on the top of the pond.
The cat wasn’t too keen on it being in the garden but the duck didn’t seem to care, as at one point went to sleep with his neck resting on his back in the middle of the pond while our feline friend was on the side, fuming!
The duck stayed in there for over two hours before flying off in the direction of Catford to the relief of our cat who for a long while later, stood guard at the side of the water waiting for it’s return.
I tell you what, the water looked a great deal cleaner after the duck’s departure. Big up the South London duck!
Today I popped into an excellent exhibition in Soho after our friend Izzy in Whitstable heard it advertised on BBC Radio London last week and thought it might be up my street. It certainly was!
The exhibition is called ‘Record shops of Soho from 1946 to 1996′ and is at 2 Berwick St, London W1F ODR until the 20th April and open from 10 am to 7pm each day. The exhibition is a joint venture from Museum of Soho and The British Record Shop Archive.
I was chatting to Leon from The British Record Shop Archive and it turned out I had met him when he had a record stall in Camberwell Market years ago. I recalled to him that the time I met him, he mentioned that he had in his collection, a great flyer to a “Rocksteady Party” from the late 60’s in Brockley he had found in a record sleeve.
In a remarkable coincidence this afternoon, he had on his person a copy of the flyer made into a fridge magnet (Main image). And what a magnet! Love the tea stain too, well authentic!
He also told me that someone he knew actually popped to the address a couple of years ago to see if Stella was still there, to ask about the party and the reggae scene in South East London. Sadly the owners knew nothing of a Stella. Does anyone out there know Stella and who Chang’s Rocksteady Sound was?
So if you fancy seeing Soho record shop paraphernalia from yesteryear and vinyl related gear we at weeds implore you to go to the exhibition before it’s too late. Well worth it!
Talk about spring springing! Here’s how the Eremurus aka foxtail lilly or desert candle is getting on since the post in late March (here). This pic was taken just this afternoon, some progress or what?
I think this tune by the great Prince Buster might sum this plant up!
Here’s a lovely track by Daniel Knox called Incident at White Hen that I first heard the other week on Tom Ravenscroft‘s show and now can’t stop listening to.
It’s a tune to put on loud while assembling IKEA products on a Good Friday evening (with or without a partner to help you!)
Weeds up to me knees 