Straight to bindweed’s head

Some people get fed up with bindweed and let it get them down. Kit G5KIT in Bristol on the other hand, let said weed influence a 15 minute mix.
We wonder if you place a speaker near said the offending bindweed and have this on a continual loop that the problem will go away. Very doubtful, but a cracking mix all the same. Cheers Kit.
Tracklistings:
Brian Cant – One Potato, Two Potato
Junior Byles – Cally Weed
King Tubby – Dub from the Roots
Lee Perry & the Upsetters – Bush Weed
Sly & Robbie – Dub Glory

On a harvest festival vibe

We’ve had quite a few emails of late with pictures of harvests attached that got us thinking, is it that time of the year again or is it a bit earlier (we saw that blackberries were ready a few weeks before they usually are).

The first is from Rich in the Lake District of his damsons in the garden (above). We’ve never grew Damsons before and don’t know that much about them apart from seeing a jar of the jam once on a Women’s Institute stall at a church fete. Just seen a few other recipes for them here. Cheers Rich!

Ta to Debby H in north London who sent us the above. “Here’s our second crop of pears, and there’s still more to come! All from a tiny tree! Also in the picture is our latest crop of cherry tomatoes. So much garden produce this year.” You’re right there Debby!

Great to hear from Justin Patrick Moore in in Cincinnati who sent us a snap of his carrot harvest this year. We love those red coloured ones.

It’s funny with odd coloured varieties, we imagine the different coloured carrots are just like the orange ones but once we grew white beetroot as we love beetroot here. It did taste like beetroot but it just wasn’t the same without the red juice staining the bread in the cheese sandwich it was in!

Finally some tomato pictures from Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay. Top picture are a few varieties he has grown including Beefheart black, Crimea, grape and Russian. The above two are Russian beefsteak. Great stuff Spike!

Thanks to everyone for sending in those harvest pictures and keep sending them in!

Don’t try this at home

Seen at Herne Hill Market the other week, a great one from the artist called Julie Lomoe from 1969! Great graphics with a wonderful sense of humour about Hip Ski Tripping. Far out! That’s a cool jumper the skier is wearing and also some nice ski kecks.

Polytunnel business

The polytunnel is now up and we are in business! There’s nowt much in there now apart from some assorted chillies, a few different types of tomatoes and some freshly sown spinach but we’re sure that’ll change in a week or so.

It took us a good morning and a bit of “That isn’t the right piece, where’s 5B?”, the thing falling apart and it looking like a skeleton of a whale on the lawn, and parts moving when they weren’t supposed to but we got there in the end. After a good tighten up, the frame was put into place (above). Thanks to Alan C for lots of tips, especially this great one: “I put a layer of woodchip under mine but some use wood strips or gravel/stones. This gives a nice evenly flat base and slows the frame rusting – the woodchip quickly dries out and separates the poles from the soil.”

As soon as we put the cover on we dug a little trench and tucked the excess of the cover into the ground and put broken concrete slabs, bricks and whathaveyou to weigh it down and then backfilled with soil and more woodchip so it is hopefully stays put in the wind.

As we said there’s not much in there at the moment but we’ll update you. Cheers to Alan C again for his tips and advice. Big up all Polytunnel crew!

 

 

Preparation, preparation, preparation

This afternoon we cleared an area (which once housed a greenhouse many moons ago) in preparation for a polytunnel which will arrive sometime this week. Thanks to Alan C who gave us some great advice about purchasing one, as we didn’t know much about what was on offer out there.

We weren’t the only ones that were excited today, there were a Blackbird and a Robin who swooped down a few times even when we walked a little way away, we must’ve disturbed some food in the area or someting.

Harvest time in a Skybird Radio International style

Cheers to our good friend in Cincinnati, Justin Patrick Moore for the pictures of his harvest from the other day, some brilliant eggplants (aubergines) there and is that a small cucumber? Brilliant stuff Justin.

And from Spike from Morschen43 in Le Puy-en-Velay some great Haricot Beurre (butter beans) which he said “has a nice taste and are delicious with tomatoes” and talking of tomatoes, here’s his first Black Crimea beefsteak (below)

And below a Beefheart (also known as Coeur de Bœuf or oxheart tomato). Wow they look great! Cheers for sending them on Spike as they look great.

And talking of the great captain himself:

 

Please don’t take our sunlight away

Thanks to Debby H for this great (inverted) image of the partial eclipse last night taken in north London at the maximum at 7.13 pm. What an excellent photograph!

And here’s two eclipse related tracks, the first from the The Eclipse Band with a very aptly titled Daylight Robbery. And another, from DNN called Eclipse Dub.

We didn’t see the eclipse as it went dark

Strange lighting was the order of the day when we witnessed the partial eclipse of the sun in SE23 around 7.16 pm this evening. The colander was out and reflected said phenomenon onto the fence. Crazy stuff!

The earth didn’t stand still and the birds didn’t stop singing but it was an interesting evening all the same and it was nice when the light went back to normal again.

Here’s an eclipse-related (originally for shortwave) mix from a few years ago called “Can you see Baily’s beads?”

Tracklistings:
A Man called Adam – Moon
Cosmos – Summer in space (Mark’s Harmonic 33 mix)
Cedric Im Brooks – Blackness of Darkness
Cornell Campbell – Stars

The colander is now back in the cupboard until the next eclipse in 2056 or whenever it is, the birds have gone to sleep for the evening and the world continues turning…