Cheers to Mike & Julia from just outside the fair city of Coventry for letting us know that the frost covers are out and fine looking ones they are too.
It’s been a bit funny when it comes to weather here in SE23. We had a frost the other week and then last weekend it was quite mild. I’m sure we seen some blossom on a couple of trees in the week too, it’s so crazy is this current weather. Cheers for the picture and we look forward to more of your great photographs next year!
We’re in Storm Bert at the moment here in SE23, it’s windy and very dour when you outside. It’s always good on days like this to have something to cheer us up so a big thanks to Debby H for sending us more cosmos pictures taken this week. We must rememember it is late November and as Debby wrote with the attached pictures “Come snow and frost, the cosmos plants struggle on valiantly!” and she’s right. Cheers for that Debby!
On the stereo we have this playing in the background to cheer us up despite the bad weather. It’s a bit of an off kilter bit of dub by the great Bjørn Torske called Dub Vendors (the B side to the single Disco Members from 2000.)
Here’s a new mix from One Deck Pete called “An introduction to Dub Gardening” and goes out to all dub gardeners everywhere and we welcome contact from (dub and non dub) gardeners wherever they may be. Dedicated to the late Percy Thrower.
The mix features:
Augustus Pablo – Melody Dub
Soulware – Augmented Seed (Dub Version)
Biggabush – Beat Dem in Dub
Jasmine Tutum & Madtone – Return to the Branches (no hams mix)
Vassell Meka – Flowers Dub
Madtone – Compost your mind
We’re not completely sure where the Dub Gardening phrase originates from but it may (or may not and we apologise if it was somebody else) have something to our good friend across the pond Dr Strangedub (alongside DJ baby Swiss) who brings you the The Echo Chamber which is broadcast on KFAI every Wednesday morning from 8 am-Noon UK time here.
A good few ago the good doctor put together a gardening related mix called In The Garden of dub which is below and has also been featured up on Weeds a few times but well worth posting up again! Features lots of artists inluding Singers & Players (ft. Prince Far I), Earlyworm, Madtone, Finn The Giant, Juno Gad Allstars meet Earlyworm, Leroy Sibbles, Jah Wobble, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bakshish, DubXanne (ft. Ranking Roger) and lots lots more. Big shout to all dub gardeners.
Hi to Debby H for sending us pictures of the state of play in her garden when it comes to continuing cosmos flowers at the moment and it is really crazy stuff. All the garden borders have the plants in them and the volunteer/self seeded one in the north bed has the most amazing colour (above).
“I have borders on 3 sides of my lawn, and there are cosmos flowers in all of them, including the northern border where I didn’t even plant any!” said Debby. They really are brilliant and as we said a few posts ago we ask our readers to send us some cosmos pictures next year, wherever you are in the world. Cheers Debby, you’ve started off a growing cosmos trend hopefully!
Cheers to Rich R up in the Lake District for sending us some rather bonkers aurora pics from the other Thursday. Crazy, crazy stuff indeed!
Seeing this cosmic coloured sky, we wouldn’t be suprised if there’s also reports of a Gort-like robot out of The Day The Earth Stood Still seen walking down (carrying a large tote bag of course) to the Village Shop to get some lovely home-made confectionery before he starts his night-shift guarding flying saucers and the like. Cheers Rich for the wonderful pictures. All we can say here is wow!
We’ve just received some pictures from Debby H now we’re into the autumn season. She took a photo of the red robin bush (above) in the south of France just before she left to come back to London. “I took a photo of the red robin bush in the garden there. It has grown new red leaves which I have never seen before at this time of year. It usually happens in spring and sometimes in autumn. It just goes to show that this September has been much cooler and wetter than usual in that part of the world.” She’s got a point.
Back in north London things are still looking great, with the cosmos (above) still thriving. “Not quite so many flowers but pretty good for late September” and she’s right. There’s even some volunteer/self seeded ones growing alongside the path (below). The one we bought at B&Q after being influenced by Debby’s cosmos still has flowers and some new buds.
The sedum which we’re partial to are flowering and the golden rod is looking brilliant too (below).
Excellent stuff Debby. Hope the garden continues to look great even in the next few weeks as we approach the end of the year. Cheers again Debby!
A very big thanks to Rich R for sending us some great pictures from the Lake District over the last couple of weeks. The one above is from Derwent Water in Keswick looking towards Borrowdale. My gosh, now you’re talking! And the one below was taken on his evening stroll, you can’t any better view than that in our opinion.
And below is a very odd moon making an appearance up there, the other night below, crazy stuff. The Lake District looks like one wonderful place Rich and ta for the pics, they are always welcomed.
Also cheers for the confectionary goodies emergency parcel (from the excellent Village Shop, Braithwaite) last week from the Lake District Rich. To say they were appreciated was an understatement! Thanks very much for that.
And the musical accompliment to this post is this week’s episode of the always excellent Rhythm Doctor’s Waiting Room on IDA Radio (Tallinn). A big cheers to RD for playing Madtone’s WP1 at 54 mins in. It’s a wonderful 2 hour show and well worth listening to.
Big thanks to Mike G and Julia (Ace photos as usual by the way Julia!) for sending pictures of their wonderful dahlias that have been loving the decent weather up there near Coventry for the last two days. The black dahlia (above) is really something else!
The one above is another favourite of ours, a classic of dahlias! And as for the orange one below… We’ll be buying some tubers for the spring, we will.
And these pictures have given us an excuse to repost up an example of that rare genre called dahlia dub from Madtone called A dahlia state of mind.
And another dahlia themed track this time by Asta Hiroki.
And a final one by Jean-Michel Serres.
It doesn’t take long, just a few days of dryness to ruin what you have in your garden. Our good friend Gerry Hectic came back the other week from Gilles Peterson‘s We Out Here festival and his tomato/strawberry experiment in one of those strawberry pots was looking the worse for wear. It is totally sad to see the before (above) and after (below).
Please tell us there’s a happy ending Gerry!
And to change up the vibes on this sad event here’s a wonderful number from Cyril Diaz Et Son Orchestre with Feeling Happy. May this tune lift spirits and sad dry plants everywhere.
Weeds up to me knees 