What more can I say? This is what greeted me when I got in this evening and wandered to the bottom of our garden. God knows how the goldfish below feel and how stressed out our cats are, but this is bonkers!
We’ve got a small pond at the bottom of the garden and as there’s no electricity supply down there, there’s no pump, so the quality of the water can be something to be desired at the best of times but there are a few goldfish in there (bought years ago from lewisham’s “premier” pet shop) and they don’t seem to mind.
Yesterday around lunchtime looking out of the kitchen window, I saw our cat frantically fly down the garden path towards the pond where I was sure I saw something bobbing about on the top of the water. On closer inspection it turns out it was a duck, how mad is that? 
I originally thought to shoo it out as I reckoned it would probably half-inch the fish that’s in there but as the picture (below) shows it weren’t bothered, but rather preferred their food which was floating on the top of the pond.
The cat wasn’t too keen on it being in the garden but the duck didn’t seem to care, as at one point went to sleep with his neck resting on his back in the middle of the pond while our feline friend was on the side, fuming!
The duck stayed in there for over two hours before flying off in the direction of Catford to the relief of our cat who for a long while later, stood guard at the side of the water waiting for it’s return.
I tell you what, the water looked a great deal cleaner after the duck’s departure. Big up the South London duck!
Today I popped into an excellent exhibition in Soho after our friend Izzy in Whitstable heard it advertised on BBC Radio London last week and thought it might be up my street. It certainly was!
The exhibition is called ‘Record shops of Soho from 1946 to 1996′ and is at 2 Berwick St, London W1F ODR until the 20th April and open from 10 am to 7pm each day. The exhibition is a joint venture from Museum of Soho and The British Record Shop Archive.
I was chatting to Leon from The British Record Shop Archive and it turned out I had met him when he had a record stall in Camberwell Market years ago. I recalled to him that the time I met him, he mentioned that he had in his collection, a great flyer to a “Rocksteady Party” from the late 60’s in Brockley he had found in a record sleeve.
In a remarkable coincidence this afternoon, he had on his person a copy of the flyer made into a fridge magnet (Main image). And what a magnet! Love the tea stain too, well authentic!
He also told me that someone he knew actually popped to the address a couple of years ago to see if Stella was still there, to ask about the party and the reggae scene in South East London. Sadly the owners knew nothing of a Stella. Does anyone out there know Stella and who Chang’s Rocksteady Sound was?
So if you fancy seeing Soho record shop paraphernalia from yesteryear and vinyl related gear we at weeds implore you to go to the exhibition before it’s too late. Well worth it!
Talk about spring springing! Here’s how the Eremurus aka foxtail lilly or desert candle is getting on since the post in late March (here). This pic was taken just this afternoon, some progress or what?
I think this tune by the great Prince Buster might sum this plant up!
Here’s a lovely track by Daniel Knox called Incident at White Hen that I first heard the other week on Tom Ravenscroft‘s show and now can’t stop listening to.
It’s a tune to put on loud while assembling IKEA products on a Good Friday evening (with or without a partner to help you!)
The other morning I had a look at our good friend Scarlett’s great blog Heavenly Healer and was reading about her seeds now coming up (including cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and aubergines) and it’s nice to see someone else on the “twirly” tip!
I’ve started off some seeds in the back room in a cheap plastic propagator and they’re coming on slowly. Also every year I’ve a few leggy tomato plants sitting on the kitchen windowsill waiting to go out once the risk of frost has gone and this year is no different!
There’s one egg box of potatoes still chitting away merrily in the back room. Spring please come soon so we can do some gardening!
Thanks very much to the good folks at Shannon’s for getting back to us about the unknown bulb in the last post and for sending us a picture. It turns out it’s Eremurus aka foxtail lilly or desert candle. Matthew Wilson mentioned in a piece in The Telegraph from 2003 (here) that “The plant grows away quickly, forming a rosette of blueish-green leaves up to 4ft high, from which the flower spike begins to rise during late April. By late May the spike will have risen as high as 9ft high, more typically 7ft or so, topped with densely packed buds that gradually relax into flower.” It’s definitely one mad plant and one that’s well worth £7.99!
Thanks again to all at Shannon’s and I will be sending pictures when it’s in bloom, great stuff!
Last November I bought a mad looking corm/bulb type thing at Shannon’s for around £7. I loved the look of it at the time and also knowing it would grow into a 6ft high monster made me think, “I’ve got to have one of those!” But for the life of me, I can’t remember what it was called. Any ideas?
Well I’d forgotten all about the bulb until last week when I noticed this poking through the earth in one of the beds.
Then in the space of a week, it’s grown into this. It reminds me of those things that came out of the spacecraft in the old version of The War Of The Worlds. Madness!
In one of this month’s popular gardening magazines there’s a feature about making your own seed box with various drawers and compartments. I know I’m a bit OCD when it comes to my seed container so I can’t talk, but making one out of sheets of plywood with “25 sections which I am going to put into alphabetical order” is taking it a bit too far I reckon. What’s wrong with an old biscuit tin?
Here’s a couple of tunes (thanks to David Rodigan as ever for these!) to stick on loud while looking through your (possibly chaotic and in a non-alphabetical order) seed tin and sorting out what’s going in as the growing season is near enough with us. Happy seed tin exploring!
Ini Kamoze – Hill and gully Ride (Xterminator)
Damian Marley, Pressure and Tarrus Riley – Mental Disturbance (Yard Vybz Entertainment)
It was an afternoon of good weather today so I tipped around in the garden and finished off clearing the back bed and it was nice to see it clear of weeds for once.
I’m giving the bed a bit of a rest of veg this year so unusually it’s going be full of flowers if all goes to plan. This afternoon I sowed a load of cornflowers called ‘blue boy’ in the first quarter of the bed (600 seeds off ebay for £1.50 including p+p, cheap or what?)
Talking of seeds and good value, earlier this morning I picked up a copy of “Grow your own” magazine for £4.99 for the free packets of veg seeds (little gem lettuce, basil, courgette, kale, carrot and celeriac) from the WH Smiths in Lewisham. They were also selling cut-price Terry’s Chocolate Oranges and Ferrero Rocher on a special make-shift stall outside the store because of Mother’s day tomorrow. Aaahhhhh!
And to end on, a lovely tune in a hip-hop/reggae style from the great Protoje called Criminal. A tune to play whacked up loud while searching magazine emporiums for gardening mags with free vegetable seeds as it’s “that time of year”. Big up Rodigan for playing this the other week. More of the instrumental version please.
And thanks to youtube, a nice live version of the tune.
Weeds up to me knees 