May the (good weather) be with you

Posted on October 9, 2015 by onedeckpete

Here’s two great tunes to get the supposedly sunny weekend off to a flying start.

The first is from Roots Manuva with Don’t Breathe Out on Big Dada featuring a nice Barry White sample.

Number two is the work of Greg Morris from “the land of wood an water” (as the Rt. Honourable David Rodigan says) with a great dub of the Real Rock rhythm in a 2015 style.

Stick these two on loud when you’re out in the garden tomorrow tidying up and when the sun goes in, light up the bonfire and put the tunes on again!

One for the autumn collection

Posted on August 29, 2015 by onedeckpete

Heard on Tom Ravenscroft’s show this week, a tune from Deerhunter called Snakeskin out on 4AD (home to the US Girls we featured a while back here). Loving the instrumental section three quarters of the way in. The tune takes a little while to sink in, but it will! One to play loud while you realise it’s near enough autumn.

The train to Fishguard is coming…

Posted on June 26, 2015 by onedeckpete

Mike P Cherries A big shout to Mike and Aradhana of the great Ffynnonofi Farm near Fishguard, Pembrokeshire where we’ve stayed a couple of times in the past. It’s a top place, the sea’s on your doorstep and there’s plenty of countryside to take in as well as some great fruit and veg growing on the farm!

Mike’s sent us some snaps of his garden at the present moment and the plants are looking good! The sweet cherries (above) look brilliant and the plums (below) look like they’re coming on fine too. Mike P_Plums The morello cherries (below) are starting to turn red.And look at the overwintered garlic below, they went in around november last year and are now well on their way!

One of the caretakers of Ffynnonofi Farm is Dai, (the son of the late John Seymour, author of “The new complete book of self-sufficiency” we reviewed on the blog here). His tip is that garlic should ideally go in on the shortest day (usually around the 21st December), and picked on the longest day (around the 21st June). Great advice!Cheers to Mike for sending in the pics and also thanks for passing on this fine classic from Peter Tosh.

Two for a Thursday

Posted on June 18, 2015 by onedeckpete

The first tune of the night features a combination of an odd acoustic guitar sound, orchestral strings and great vocals courtesy of KEAB (BEAK spelt backwards) with “When we fall” played on Tom Ravenscroft’s show last week. The video even features a mini-seafort type structure which is a bonus for us, as you know we love a seafort here at weeds.

The second is a great dub of Kiko Bun’s “Tell me where I’m from” heard on the Rt Hon David Rodigan’s show the other week and what a dub!

Two tunes for blasting out loud from the kitchen window just as it’s getting dark (to ward off the slugs and snails) while watering the garden and sniffing night scented stock fumes. Nice!

Never mind the sell-by-date, feel the width!

Posted on June 7, 2015 by onedeckpete

Last week I got a right old bargain from ebay, 30 odd packs of seeds (plus a couple of seed collections thrown in on top too) for £9.56 including P&P! The oldest sell-by-date was 2013 so it weren’t that brilliant but most of the use-by-dates were at least 2015 and there wasn’t that many duplicates. Not bad for just under a tenner though!

A mate from work has just got an allotment and this weekend was going to the allotments’ annual Cheese and Wine, Seed Swap Barbecue, (how’s that for a good idea?) I gave her a massive handful to make a good impression and I still had loads for myself. Bargains, I love them! Remember this bargain related tune from many many moons ago?

A pre-gardening reggae apéritif

Posted on May 10, 2015 by onedeckpete

We’ve woken up to a bright and sunny day here in London and just before a day of pottering about in the garden (or more likely, before the clouds go in!) here’s a wonderful bit of music to get you going.

It’s Chronixx doing a live set over some classic Studio 1 rhythms from his first appearance at Miss Lilys in New York City in 2012. Miss Lily’s looks a brilliant place, a restaurant, record shop and radio station, all they need now is a little garden centre at the back and it would be an ideal place for us here at weeds! Also, here’s a set Chronixx did there from back in 2014.

Some tunes to get you in mood for weeding, watering and taking off that horticultural fleece from the cold night just has gone (which you’ll more than likely be putting back on come this evening!).

One for a Wednesday night…

Posted on April 22, 2015 by onedeckpete

An infectious number from U.S. Girls called “Damn that valley” on 4AD heard on this week’s Tom Ravenscroft show. Excellent stuff on a bonkers reggae influenced type beat!

Eats, shoots and leaves

Posted on February 21, 2015 by onedeckpete

I heard two great gardening tips this week. The first was from Penny Golightly (of the great Golightly Gardens website) who mentioned the free tomato seed offer from Heinz. It’s only a limited thing but have a look at their Facebook page here and see if you’re lucky!

Also on last week’s Gardening with Tim & Joe show on BBC Radio Leeds, Joe Maiden mentioned rather than buying a pack of seeds especially for pea shoots from the major seed sellers (around £2.50), go to the supermarket and buy a packet of dried peas which are the same thing and a whole lot cheaper!I had a day off Thursday and managed to do a little bit of gardening before the rain came and it was so nice to be back out there. I cleared the bed next to the pond (Pic above – fish courtesy of Lewisham pet shop, bought a few years ago and they’ve multiplied a bit since then. God knows how they survive in a rusty old water tank!)

The reason I was out there was I bought a load of bluebells a fortnight ago which were bought “in the green” (as I missed the proper bulb planting time in the autumn) so when the postlady delivered them on Thursday morning they were live (with roots and shoots and all) so they had to go in. Let’s hope the birds or the squirrels don’t pull them up!

Things are on the move, the onion sets, garlic and parsley under the top half of the old kitchen door are starting to show signs of life and the tomato and pepper seeds I stuck in a few weeks ago indoors are on their way. It won’t be long now, roll on the warm weather!

To all the twirly kings and queens…

Posted on February 6, 2015 by onedeckpete

It’s never t’wirly* here! A few days into the new year I stuck in some seeds (post here) and here’s how they are getting on nearly a month or so later. It’s all done on the cheap, (especially after the expense of christmas!) the propagator cost us £3.50 from shannon’s, the seeds were off ebay and the whole thing is stuck in the back room by the patio doors.

There’s some tomatoes on their way (tray on the left, front) and behind them, the peppers are starting to come through. Alright it’s been a month, but who cares as they won’t be able to go out till ages yet. The other seeds coming through in the pots are some lettuce leaf basil and some strawberries. The other two pots contain an odd one for me, alkanet, don’t ask me why but I’m giving it a go this year and also a chinese lantern (aka bladder cherry. what a good name!) More reports on those in the next few weeks.

spuds on the chit feb 2015 And as for the seed potatoes from shannon’s (above), there’s signs of life! Keep on chitting on.

And to end on, here’s a happy sounding slice of tune-age from a few years ago with an apt forward-looking title (considering the weather of late) as heard on Tom Ravenscroft’s show the other week. It’s from Karriem Riggins called Summer Maddnes S.A. (Alone Together.) Roll on the spring!

*More on the cult of the twirly here.

Coming in from the cold

Posted on February 3, 2015 by onedeckpete

I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow over the garden. I’ve a day off today and was hoping to tidy up a couple of beds out there if I got an hour or two, but they can now wait as you can’t see the weeds for the snow!

I found out a new gardening term the other day as I wanted to buy some bluebell bulbs to stick in the bottom of the garden under the tree by the pond as it can get quite shady and I never have much luck there anyway.

As I’ve long missed the autumn delivery/planting, the only way to purchase them now is when the bulbs have started growing in the spring. They’re lifted at the nursery and then transplanted to us the punters “live”, hence the term “In the green.” Roll on the spring!

Two to feel warmer to (after the stereo and the heating’s been turned up!)

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life

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