When the weather’s not like it’s supposed to be (like this summer in SE23) or when the (wood) chips are down, the above clip never fails to disappoint.
We do hope Bernard Byron (who CAN speak Venusian) would enjoy our mix below which was originally broadcast (light years ago) on Radio Lavalamp via the shortwaves. Bernard, never mind what the others think about your theories, we believe you!
God knows what’s happening weatherwise, it’s freezing here in SE23 at the moment and there wasn’t much of an appearance of that yellow thing they call the sun over the weekend despite the promise of it.
Yesterday we spent an hour or two weeding the “rewilding” area at the bottom of garden where we put the “wild flower seed mix” and the odd bee bomb or two. As most of the flowers are “wild” so to speak, it’s hard knowing what are the actual weeds. The area does get a lack of significant sunlight so it’s a big gamble whatever you put down there. The cardoons do well though despite something that’s been eating their leaves for most of the summer (above).
Like we said before, it’s an art to get a part of a garden to look “wild, wild” instead of “wild” as in neglected if you see what we mean. We think we need to give our untame area a bit of time to develop before it looks as nice as the great insect garden of the great Horniman’s Gardens below. That’s “wild” but nice wild.
There are successes though, towards the top of the garden we have a couple of sunflowers growing against the garage wall and it’s the smaller one (7ft) that is flowering first. This gardening hobby is all about patience isn’t it? Shame we haven’t got any.
A couple of wonderful tunes from the stables of the great Lee Perry who sadly has passed away. The first from The Creators (Perry himself) called Kimble (a version of Stranger & Gladdy’s Seeing is knowing) is a tune we originally acquired for a paltry amount of pennies in a Bedworth second hand shop (which was filled to the brim with beige coloured white goods) in the early 1980’s. We had no idea who it was until the needle dropped on the very scratched Amalgamated seven inch.
The second Honey Love a vocal featuring one Burt Walters. The B side of this white label (which sadly we don’t own) has the backing track of the A side with the backwards vocal from Burt Walters dropped over the top which was unheard of at the time in reggae or any other gene (possibly). May your genius live on forever Mr Perry.
There won’t be many words in this post just mainly pictures from the garden earlier. The first (below) is the result of the random throwing around of seed when receiving them from ebay (This is possibly from a wild flower mix). With the flowers we very rarely mark out seed drills and stick down plant labels, it’s straight out of the bag and onto the bed.
And the second is a rather strange and wonderful freshly picked tomato. It seems a shame to eat it!
And the third is the super tall Sunfower looking down on us ready to flower. This one next to the garage is nearly 10 foot. Bonkers.
And on in the background whilst we were writing this post was this week’s Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on IDA Radio Tallinn (every Monday from 8-11 UK time and archived here). There’s lots of musical goodness on the show as udsual and at the start some works from one Vladimir Tarasov teased in and out of other downtempo gear. A idea “stick it on the stereo” midweek summer evening listen.
The other week we cleared out some grass clippings and recent vegetation from out of the dalek compost bin and stuck it into the old fashioned “out in the elements” heap of old next to it. Up until a few days earlier the wooden frame was full of a few years worth of sticks and ivy that had never rotted down but we moved that into the local council’s garden refuse bin leaving the bottom of the dalek with a load of brandling worms chomping their way through some well rotted warm debris.
Well we looked in the “Open to the wilds of SE23” compost area today (we took off the once stylish now mouldy, bath mat cover first) and gave it a good fork over and it seems to be rotting much quicker than it was in the dalek, not sure if it’s the weather or just being outdoors but whatever it is, it’s working well (see above).
The quarter full darlek (above) is also doing well, there’s less brandling worms compared to last time we looked which means it’s on its way to maturing. Composting well is a bit of a science but it’s worth delving into (no pun intended) as your garden will thank you for it!
Big thanks to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for sending us this picture of a volunteer (plants that self seed) zuchinni (aka courgette) that has come up on the compost heap. They thrive in rich soil so a compost heap is ideal. To say the plant is going mad is an understatement!
We only got one plant that we got from a new seed supplier we found out about this year and it’s really suprised us as it’s so large. We only sowed two, one got eaten by slugs and snails and this one has gone barmy, taking over the garden path. Only a couple of fruits so far and one of them was one of those forgotten ones which grew to a fair old size!
Looking at Justin’s site here we were reminded of this tune below and a great episode of Wireless Nights (Megahertz) from a while ago available to download here. An interesting listen if you like all that shortwave radio business! Cheers Justin!
This Sunday 22nd August 2021 is a transmission called The Return to KMRT broadcast on WRMI (also home to the excellent This is a music show) at 2300 utc (12 midnight UK time) on 9395 in the 31 metre band. If you haven’t a radio of a shortwave type you can always try a online SDR here at the allotted time.
Talking of supermarkets the original KMRT broadcast from earlier this year is up on the KMTS mixcloud site featuring at 28 minutes in a mix from One Deck Pete called “Buy one get one free”. Tracks from Tyler Newman, Allen Ginsberg, Anima Universalis, Japanese Sound Portrait, Beatz for Food, Lullatone, Cantoma and Z Lovecraft. Tune in and grab yourself a bargain!
We now have proof that it is indeed the squirrels that are having a go at the sunflowers (the giant “10 feet”ones we got off ebay) when we caught one today feeding off the flowerhead. At least they’re actually waiting now until they’re in flower as it was the buds they were nicking previously but surely it’s the seeds (that come after the flowers) they should be waiting for. Who knows?
This Sunday evening the 15th August 2021 at 2300 UTC (Midnight UK time) is a transmission from WSFR (Radio Swiss Family Robinson) via WMRI on 9395 kHz. Expect an hour of island related tunes and also a mix from One Deck Pete called “All washed up”. The mix includes tracks by Le Emjaén, Kingbastard, WES WAX, Scientist and islandman. After the transmission the show will be posted up here.
Tune in and be surrounded by water!
Here’s a container that came available today for the current batch of Comfrey liquid (nice video about making the stuff here) we tipped out from the bucket at the furthest end of the garden today. It’s well handy to tell you the truth when it comes to squirting it into your watering can. Less chance of splashing about we hope. Get this stuff on your clothes or hands and the smell will be with you for days, months and years.
We had heavy rain on and off most of today so the neighbours must have thought we’ve lost the plot (again) if they looked out the window at 7.30 pm and saw us with a watering can giving the plants a feed. At least the plants will appreciated it!
Weeds up to me knees 