Thanks to Justin Patrick Moore for sending this book cover from Fred Vargas to us. Crazy coincidences of a stone circle kind. Any one drying the dinner dishes tonight with a standing stone tea towel? We await your pictures…
We’ve had some communications overnight about standing stones and we are well chuffed that people are interested in the stone giants like we are. Thanks to Rich in the Lake District for kicking it all off.
The first is from an old friend of ours, Pete B in Woolwich. Thanks for getting in touch and for sending us a great picture of The Callanish Stones (above) on the Isle of Lewis, the one Justin used on his yard sale flyer in the last post. He also sent us a link to a wonderful panoramic photograph (nearly 140 degrees!) of the Castlerigg Stone Circle.
He emailed “Nice to see the Castlerigg stones, some years ago I caught this panorama of Castlerigg when we were camping in the Lakes.”
For the picture click here.
As Pete added “Best viewed on mobile phone in landscape mode, maximised and with controls hidden – downward pointing arrow to the left-hand side of the control bar.”
Thanks also to Bongo Twisty for getting in touch via the comments and for sending us a great photograph. “The picture is of the Standing Stones of Stenness in Orkney. I was up there cycling about a couple of years ago.” Thanks a million for sending it over Bongo Twisty and for following the blog for a long while! All pictures are copyright the owners.
Ta for the pictures again both, keep cool in this present heatwave and take it easy!
Cheers to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore, for sending us the flyer for his yard sale that was on Saturday that featured some standing stones “Callanish Stones I think..” There’s some great standing stone coincidence vibes going on. Cheers Justin!
Apart from mentions of Stonehenge at solstice time, we think this is a first for Weeds! Here are some brilliant photographs from Rich up in the Lake District of a stone circle very local to him called Castlerigg. More on the stone circle here and here. This looks like a brilliant place. Cheers Rich!
Any of our readers got any good standing stone pictures? Or have one around the corner from where they live. If so, send them over to one deck pete at gee mail dot come and we’re post them up.
More pics and info of Castlerigg on Julian Cope’s Modern Antiquarian here.
Whilst researching a future post, we found this great variety of tomato from Seed Spring Seeds (website here).
As it says in the blurb on the site:
A Romanian tomato producing large, roughly heart-shaped fruit that weigh an average of 365g and measure about 8.5cm in diameter. Captain Beefheart’s big taste is combined with a juicy flesh, tender skin and few seeds, making it one of the best large-fruited tomatoes you are likely to encounter. The plants are good growers and will produce fruit well into the autumn.
A pepper called Frank Zappa anyone?
The above is a fantastic Beefheart tune as played on the excellent Andrew Weatherall – Live at Antenna Studios mixtape here.
Want to see the Sun rise over the heel stone at 04.52 am tomorrow and enjoy some true solstice vibes from the comfort of your own home/bed?
Feeling a bit too long in the tooth for standing in the cold all night, and listening to the sound of early morning drumming workshops with no sleep is not the aural delight it used to be? Tune into the above youtube for some genuine solstice vibes piped to you via the internet. Put on your best Stonehenge slippers, have some tea and toast ready and watch that magic moment when the sun rises.
A Happy Solstice to you all, whatever time it is where you are and wherever you’ll be celebrating the solstice.
We love the stories of the good old days when Ken Barlow used to turn up at a Stonehenge solstice and you could sit on top of the stones and watch whilst Hawkwind played “Silver Machine” as the sun came up. All for Free! Unfortunately we didn’t go to any of the festivals there but attempted it once and missed it by one day. The convoy was driving off when we got there.
Big up Wally Hope by the way, organiser of the Stonehenge Festival. Without him there would be no Crass and without Crass there would be no Crass-like Anarchic seed sowing method that we use.
Here’s the fourth episode in the Downbeat on Shortwave series with Jesse Yuen and One Deck Pete that was broadcast this weekend on Imaginary Stations via Shortwave Gold.
Jesse and Pete bring you two 15-minute downtempo mixes each over the hour-long show. We’ve posted up two recordings, the above the clean studio version. The recorded off the radio, mono version complete with atmospheric sounds literally, is below. Enjoy the tunes!
Jesse Yuen Mix 1
Stress Assassin – Me We
Pugilist – introspect Ft. Tamen
Drug Free America – Baby Doll and the Dolphin Burger (video edit)
One Deck Pete Mix 1
Deadbeats – Got it going on (Space Hopper original)
Stereo Total Vs Mad Professor – Das erste Mal dub trip 2
Transglobal Underground – Templehead – Burundi Beat mix
Madtone – It is AI but WE created it
Jesse Yuen Mix 2
Leslie Winer – King of sleep
99 Cents – Adrenalin Spaceboy (Dub Boy Extended mix)
One Deck Pete Mix 2
変化への恐れ – Shinogi シノギ
Mad Professor – Boombox version 2
Kuna – Decade Dub
Space To Crash – Holding Hands
Earlier this afternoon we tuned into Downbeat on Shortwave (brought to us via Imaginary Stations) using The University of Twente’s online SDR here. Propagation wasn’t brilliant but we got a signal, unlike the sound of static on our shortwave receiver at home. Hopefully tomorrow’s conditions will be better and the later timing of the transmission helps. Here’s what was heard.
Imaginary Stations bring you music you don’t usually hear on the shortwaves every week and has an archive that is well worth looking through here. Expect the unexpected as they say and a whole lot more! Never mind the genre, it’s all about great music on the shortwave bands with some added remixing thanks to the ionosphere and those groundwaves.
Tune in here tomorrow at 1300 UTC (2pm UK) and 2000 UTC (9pm UK) for some chilled out sounds from Jesse Yuen and One Deck Pete. A big shout to all the Imaginary Stations crew: Fred and NanSea, Justin Patrick Moore and Marc from Belgium. Here’s to more eclectic programming on shortwave!
This weekend Imaginary Stations bring you the fourth episode in the Downbeat on Shortwave series with Jesse Yuen (from Perth, Australia) and One Deck Pete (from Catford Village, Londres).
Jesse and Pete bring you two 15-minute downtempo mixes each over the hour-long show. Expect some ambient, dub, reggae and downtempo tunes for a chilled-out weekend.
The show is broadcast on Saturday 13th June at 1100 hrs UTC (12 noon in the UK) on 6160 kHz and then again on Sunday 14th June at 1300 hrs UTC (2pm in the UK) on 6160 kHz and 2000 hrs UTC (9pm in the UK) on 3975 kHz/6160 kHz. Thanks to the great Shortwave Gold for beaming those radio waves skywards.
Don’t worry if you haven’t a shortwave radio you can tune in via an online Software Defined Radio here (pre-tuned into 6160 kHz). Just plug in at the right time(s) and experience that shortwave mono sound with all the fading and cross channel interference live.
Here’s the older shows for your listening pleasure!
Programme 1
Programme 2
Programme 3
Here’s a recent addition to the Weeds HQ garden, a couple of white speedwells (AKA Veronica) which have gone in next to a poppy that is on its way out (and now producing seeds to be distributed around the garden/to mates).
Also, a few weeks ago when we moved one of the Belfast sinks that contained a climber, we stuck it by the trellis halfway down the garden. We then stuck a couple of pots of pelargonium cuttings we took from the kind folks at Honor Oak station on the top.
We think the humble pelargonium has a bit of a bad reputation, as someone we know calls them “Granny flowers” and we were told pollinators go nowhere near them. It was through the success of those cuttings (they are doing great and so easy to propagate) that we have been trying more, as we never were that interested in taking cuttings before. Anyone got any good “cuttings” tips?
If you look closely, you will see the famous Theatre of Hate stone, that gardening legend has it, that Kirk Brandon used as a prototype for the band’s logo. More on that famous stone here.
Weeds up to me knees 