Tunguska Electronic Music Society – Arkady Pavlov – Lost in Love (off Tunguska Chillout Grooves vol. 3)
A mad little number heard on last week’s excellent Echo Chamber on KFAI. I can’t tell you why I like this track but I just do, odd but very catchy and one that stops and starts. One to listen to while lying down in the greenhouse watching the rain above while wearing a kaftan.
How can you tell I used to write a fanzine and I’m also a bit on the OCD tip? I’ve just spent an hour printing out labels, transferring my spare seeds into some “dealer” bags and found an egg box to put my chitted seed potatoes into. This is all for the forthcoming seed swap this Sunday and it’s only Thursday! You can tell what I was like around christmas time as a kid.
It’s funny as at the last seed swap I attended, a lady pulled out a massive list of what she “had” on 4 typed pages of A4 and produced a rucksack full to the brim of little bags of seeds. That’s taking it to the next level as they say!
I’ve haven’t got anything out of the ordinary (in a James Wong stylee) to swap, except possibly cinnamon basil and some lettuce leaf basil from my “how many different kinds of basil can I grow” phase last year. Hopefully see you there!
The seed swap once again is at
The Station Hotel
14 Staplehurst Rd,
Hither Green
SE13 5NB
from 6pm on Sunday 23rd February
A big thanks to Nick Egan (film director and top visual artist) for sending us snaps of his garden in Los Angeles. Nick as you know, got us out of a spot of bother with some bikers at a Clash gig in Bury Saint Edmunds many many moons ago (see Cloches over the Westway), designed some well classic record sleeves (The Clash’s “White Man in Hammersmith Palais”, Bow Wow Wow’s “See Jungle!, See Jungle” and Dexy’s “Searching for the Young Soul Rebels”) and also keen on the joys of gardening. Big up the pink flamingo! (pic above)
The tomatoes in his garden are looking good and seeing them makes me feel excited about the forthcoming growing season (that’s if the damn rain stops!)
There’s some nice cacti and succulents too, shame we haven’t got the climate to grow them outside here in the UK though. I remember when I was a wee lad there was a chap up the road from me mum’s in the midlands who grew cacti from seed. He must have been into Zen I reckon, I mean how long does it take for a cactus to flower from a seed? I’m far too impatient for that kind of business (even though I love a bit of tai chi!)
Great stuff Nick, please send us more pics and any good tips for getting decent tomatoes.
To celebrate the sun making a rare appearance in London today here are some pics from Martin Kennedy of the excellent All India Radio from Melbourne. It’s mad, it’s the wettest winter over here and over there, it’s the hottest summer on record, talk about yin and yang. Cheers for the words and great pictures Martin!
It’s been a long and dry Australian summer and one of the hottest on record, testing even the hardiest of plants. Hardest hit was the lime tree which dropped all of its spring flowers and buds and much of its leaves. The mandarin and lemon trees however fared a lot better keeping most of their fruit. The Japanese maple was also affected, losing all of its leaves after the first heatwave in January but strangely has completely grown back again despite subsequent heatwaves.
The curry leaf bush is doing the best in heat with a lot of new growth. The native grasses are of course thriving no matter what the climate throws at them and the vegetables namely cherry tomatoes and silverbeet seem to be coping OK.
The boston ivy is trying to grow over anything it can get its suckers on, no heat stress there! The lavender hedge is looking a bit woody, but given it is in the hottest and driest part of the garden its doing very well.
Excellent stuff Martin, do give us an autumn update, thanks. Cheers to Dr Strangedub for alerting us to Martin’s tunes and letting us know about his love of gardening too!
Talk about blowing a gale, I’m sitting in the back room trying to write a post and can I write one with the wind blowing one of massive proportions outside? No blimmin’ way, so instead, here’s an example of wind used creatively by one Addis Pablo, son of Augustus “East Of The River Nile” Pablo (shout out to the right honourable David Rodigan) and more good use of that same wind (and dub) from Pablo Senior (and King Tubby’s):
Here’s the state of play, spud-wise last weekend on the “earlies” I got from Shannon’s a few weeks ago. Those “chits” are looking good, the tray is in front of the back window and the room’s kept cool so there’s none of those spindly long pale shoots you see on well past-it potatoes that’ve been in the cupboard for a month. The great Bob Flowerdew mentioned on GQT the other week that chitting is a good thing to do and gives the plant a bit of a head start. Talking of which, I’ve just found the following tip on Bob’s website in the section what to do in March: “For a really green lawn, pee in the watering can, dilute well and apply often.” Good one Bob but I don’t think me neighbours would appreciate that one!
Not long to go now until the Hither Green Seed Swop on the 23rd of this month. Tell your friends as it’s going to be good!
Last Friday’s Gardeners’ Question Time came from Portmeirion, scene of top bonkers TV series The Prisoner. A big shout to Patrick McGoohan (RIP) and that mad balloon, Rover!
How bad is this weather of late in the UK? It’s cold and wet which don’t really motive you to get out in the garden or even make you think about gardening. Don’t worry, it won’t be long until spring is here, so get out those seed catalogues, have a trip to the local garden centre and see what you need to buy for the forthcoming season.
If you’re still feeling sad, just tap “David Rodigan” into youtube and watch some of his mad sound clashes, now there’s a chap with a great sense of humour. Have a look here and fast forward to 23 minutes with Roddy giving it some real good comedy action (he does all the talkover intro’s himself, we love this cricket themed one against Ricky Trooper from KIllimanjaro). Big up the great Rodigan! I listened to a recent Resident Advisor interview with him this week and he mentioned he was in an old episode of Dr Who. How brilliant is that!
The Pentateuch Band – Kingston
David Rodigan’s been playing this tune to death which was released last year by Jamaican roots band Pentateuch. This one’s also featured on Roddy’s show this week, recorded during the recent BBC trip to Jamaica where he visits Tuff Gong Studios, Alpha Boys School and talks to the newer roots exponents including Pentateuch, Keida Ranking and Jah 9 . Well worth a listen!
Weeds up to me knees 
