We’ve got some time off work for a week now and typically there’s a good bit of rain on the way. It’s good for the garden (as it’s parched), the pond (water levels are low) but not for us (lounging around in the sun doing nothing is fun, can’t lounge around in the rain!)
The garden is going to go wild with all this rain and of course mixed with a bit of sun that may come out from behind the clouds this week. Above is a reminder of what plants in the sunshine look like just in case you have forgotten. This is the salvia we got from B&Q a few weeks ago and it’s loving where it is.
Early yesterday morning we decided to clear the “wild” part of the garden (below) as yes it is wild but it just looked a bit of a mess. We cleared out all the weeds and now it’s a little bit bare but we can imagine that won’t last long. We’re expecting some rain later this week so that mixed with some sunny periods will be the right conditions for a mad growth spurt.
Whilst having a cup of tea admiring our good work, we were visited by a fox quickly passing through, two birds including the Robin (top pic) and then a neighbour’s cat came in either for the birds or the bit of catmint we are growing near the pond. We remember years at Shannon’s someone telling us it will bring all the locals cats in. Perhaps they were right?
We’ve just found this tonight, a dub piece by the great Scientist & Alicia Previn called Scientist Spacewalk. Super strings dub on the answer rhythm. More on the collab here.
And it’s nothing to do with the strings on 1970’s UK reggae releases…
Early this morning we popped down B&Q in Bell Green for some liquid fertiliser as we’re not producing enough comfrey leaves to make the liquid feed we’re used to putting on our garden (Above: crow waiting for bus home like us at 8.30 am).
Something we should look into is the NPK content that comes on the side of the bottle denoting how much Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and K for Potassium (or Potash) is in the liquid. As we’ve always used home-made comfrey liquid and mixed in compost on the beds, that’s something we’ve got to research about more.
Back home we spent a good hour or so feeding the back garden including the giant sunflower which is reaching skywards. We’ve 3 sunflowers, this 8ft monster and another 2 that are about 5 foot. It must be all about where they’re placed and how much sun they get. We love the sunflowers as the tops do follow the sun about during the day.
And this week we were told about this video, 10 vegetables/fruit that we don’t bother with anymore. We’re talking skirret, alexanders, good King Henry, medlar,chickweed, scorzonera, welsh onions, lovage, tansy (“The punk rock herb…” “…that demands respect and attention” as the bloke describes it, we love that!) and turnip greens. We wonder as food fashions come and go, will any of these “old time something come back again” as the song goes?
And two tunes about flying winged things:
The first a nice dub number from Derajah meets The 18th Parallel called Dub Crow.
The next is an a excellent tune released by the wonderful Sublime Frequenciesout of Seattle, Washington, it’s by Chhoun Vanna and called To Tea Yum Chlong (Birds Are Singing But My Lover Won’t Return). At 2.45, it just ain’t long enough.
“The birds are chirping, to and fro
My love, have you forgotten me?
As water can’t cut through the sand
I can’t cut you from my memories
The bridge (between you and I) has broken
The pathway is gone, and the water is so very deep
How am I to find you on the other side, so far away?”
Thanks to fleurmach.com for the lyrics.
Earlier this year we were given a mixture of seed packets that came free with gardening magazines. We’ve had all sorts and usually just threw then in corners of vegetable beds or wherever there was a spare space.
Just by the raised beds at the side, there’s a mixture of a couple of cherry tomato plants and this (above). We put the photograph into Plant.id and found out it is a Common Mallow. We then looked at the Wildlife Trust website and they had this to say about it (here) “Certain parts of common mallow are edible (leaves, flowers and seeds) and there is evidence that the Romans may have deliberately cultivated the plant to be used for food and medicine.” It’s not a bad looking flower either and we are not going to pull it up for now.
We may have covered this before but the above (according to plant.Id) is buckwheat. This appeared from out of nowhere on a container by a fence/screen and it’ll be staying for this season we think. Wikipedia has told us it’s a pseudocereal and it is related to sorrel, knotweed and rhubarb. The things you find in your garden!
And here’s a great tune from Optimus Featuring Oskar Gudjonsson with Four Point One.
Earlier this year we had a report from Rich R who had just returned from Sicily and sent us some photographs including one of a nice flower (above) that we had not heard of called lantana(more here).
The week after seeing the pictures we bought a couple of lantana plants off ebay, not sure what happened to the other one but here’s one of them. As far as we read it’s a perennial so perhaps next year it will look better. We’ve just read online that in some places they can be invasive and considered a noxious weed, blimmin’ heck on that note we’ll keep them in a pot.
The salvia we bought from B&Q (above) is looking good, it’s getting the odd bit of comfrey liquid every now and again and a water if we see that the soil is bone dry around it. More on salvia care here.
And finally a shot of the cosmos under the dead tree. Do send us your gardening pictures and a song recommendation (if we like it we’ll post it up with the article but no Cliff Richard/Coldplay please as a refusal often offends). Have a good Sunday and enjoy this sunshine!
A big thanks to Debby H for sending us some pictures and an update of her garden up in north London. Just writing this now is making us think how fast this year is going, it’s nearly the end of August, it seemed like the start of the year not that long ago.
As Debby wrote accompanying her photographs “My Ornithogalum plant (above) now has 9 flowers. We never had 9 before!” It’s looking brilliant Debby.
The cosmos (above) are doing well. We have some of the same cosmos here and even the odd couple of plants we have it’s a welcome sight but a bed of them like above are well cheering to see. We need more cosmos growing everywhere!
“Finally, we have picked two of our pears. I didn’t know till recently that you pick them while they are still hard and let them soften up afterwards.” Brilliant stuff Debby, they look great. This gardening lark does reap rewards! Hope there’s more fruit to pick as the weeks progress, ta for the pictures Debby.
We can’t get enough of this tune since first hearing this. It’s released on the great Serafin Audio Imprint and as they say on the tin (labelled Bandcamp), “We are a fine little Imprint from Germany supporting slow and beautiful music all around the world” and they don’t half! This one is from Laaar and it’s called A familiar feeling and by the way, all of the EP it’s from is worth listening to!
And if you like tunes that sample shortwave radio like we do, here’s one by Hali Palombo called Contestia using a vocal sample off the Shannon Volmet, more about what a Volmet is here.
Two Paradise Garage classics were heard in a couple of retail establishments earlier today. The first was “My Love is free” by Double Exposure heard in a coffee/expensive sausage roll shop in Herne Hill at 9.30 am.
Later on while walking through Lewisham Shopping Centre (home of probably the cleanest public loos in London) at about 12.30 pm The Fatback Band‘s “Going to see my baby” was coming through the speakers. What next, a bit of Death Metal in the meat aisle in Tesco sometime this week?
What’s the best tune you have heard being played in a shop? Answers please via the comments and we’ll blog up a chart.
By the way here’s a classic Paradise Garage cassette from supposedly1982 but possibly recorded a few years later.
Gil Scott Heron – The Bottle The Clash – The Magnificient Dance Cymande – Bra Loose joints – Is it all over my face Double Exposure – My love is free Exodus – Together Forever First Choice – Double Cross First Choice – Dr Love Lenny Williams – Running (mixed with Man Fridays Love Honey, love heartache acapella.) Fatback Band – Going home to see my baby Loleatta holloway & Salsoul orchestra – runaway Shades of love – Body to body Positive force – We got the funk Roy Ayers – Running away Salsoul orchestra – Ooh, I love it (love break) Salsoul orchestra – You’re just the right size Carl Bean – Born this way
As usual while we were putting together a shortwave mix last night, a great tune was found. This one is from the golden year of 2012 and it’s from Equipe du Son and the tune is called Lesson 1. A lovely bit of uptempo electronica for a Saturday which was a day where the sun was trying to make up its mind whether to come out or not. Another reason to love the tune is that the chord structure is slightly reminscent of Archbishop Carl Bean’s Born This Way. Enjoy the tune before the weather gets boiling hot again.
We’ve got some time off work for a week now and typically there’s a good bit of rain on the way. It’s good for the garden (as it’s parched), the pond (water levels are low) but not for us (lounging around in the sun doing nothing is fun, can’t lounge around in the rain!)
The garden is going to go wild with all this rain and of course mixed with a bit of sun that may come out from behind the clouds this week. Above is a reminder of what plants in the sunshine look like just in case you have forgotten. This is the salvia we got from B&Q a few weeks ago and it’s loving where it is.
Whilst having a cup of tea admiring our good work, we were visited by a fox quickly passing through, two birds including the Robin (top pic) and then a neighbour’s cat came in either for the birds or the bit of catmint we are growing near the pond. We remember years at Shannon’s someone telling us it will bring all the locals cats in. Perhaps they were right?
Weeds up to me knees 