Three for the new year

Posted on November 12, 2015 by onedeckpete

talks I know it’s a bit previous, but as part of the Free lectures at Gresham College next year there’s some interesting ones in the Mondays at One – Garden and Gardeners series.

There’s Wildlife Gardening on March 7th 2016, Chelsea Physic Garden through the Ages on March 14th and Gardening Entrepreneurs on 21st March.

They all start at 1pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall and run on a “first come, first served” basis and doors open half an hour before the event to get that seat near the front (and avoid the one in front of the pillar.) Stick these in your diary if you love a talk!

Three for Thursday

Posted on November 12, 2015 by onedeckpete

weather rain november

This Saturday morning I was hoping to tidy up the fast decaying and untidy mess that is the back garden and give the grass one final cut. Don’t look like I will be, looking at the above!

Here’s three Yabby You (R.I.P.) tracks to stick on at the weekend (loud) while enjoying a hot toddy that’ll take your mind off the rubbish weather (unless the met office is wrong!)

Tune in, turn on. It’s two for tuesday

Posted on November 10, 2015 by onedeckpete

han and egg radio A couple of great tunes heard on radio shows this week. The first is a lovely loop laden piece of ambient electronica by Gnesis called Pear off the DJ Kicks LP by Actress played on Tom Ravenscroft’s show. Haunting ain’t the word. One to look at the seed catalogues to and decide whether it’ll be artichokes or asparagus peas.

The other is Seconds, Minutes, Hours by David John Sheppard as played by Andrew Weatherall on his Music’s Not For Everyone show on NTS Radio here. Tune! Thanks to our good mates Maz and Marc for re-reminding us about that show.

Don’t go all ziney on me…

Posted on November 8, 2015 by onedeckpete

Wimbledon Zine Fair 2015_2

Continuing the fanzine theme of the last post, a big thanks to Fliss for reminding us about the Wimbledon Fanzine fair next Saturday 14th November at Wimbledon Public Library from 1-4.30pm. It should be good if you like all things ziney!

Fliss has a new gardening blog called Jewels in the Soil, named after the discovery of the first turnip grown on her allotment and it’s well worth having a look at!

Saturday night shouty vibes

Posted on November 7, 2015 by onedeckpete

ded yampy-sweary

Big cheers to the “Ranting Poetry, Sweary Poetry, Boozy Poetry” blog, Stand Up and Spit for featuring my fanzine from 1980, Ded Yampy in today’s post (here).

Other recent posts there include William Burroughs & Devo from the NME in 1982, Annie Anxiety’s “Barbed Wire Halo”, Flipper, George Orwell and the bizarre Wavis O’shave. If you love all that old time shouty stuff, have a butchers at Stand Up and Spit!

Jumper clown

Posted on November 5, 2015 by onedeckpete

We discovered our plant name of the week a couple of days ago while looking for some seeds on e-bay. It’s a Viola (Viola tricolour) called Johnny Jump Up aka tickle-me-fancy, come-and-cuddle-me or love-in-idleness. And we were thinking of some bad boy ragga business!

If you fancy looking for some seed bargains on ebay for next year or for the next seed swap, tap in something like “flower/vegetable seeds job lot” or “assorted flower and vegetable seed bargains” into the ebay search. Do check the “use by dates” on the ads though.

Book of the week

Posted on October 30, 2015 by onedeckpete

Gardeners’ World: The Veg Grower’s Almanac: Month by Month Planning and Planting – Martyn Cox – BBC Books 2014 – £9.99

I found this in the library this week, a nice compact little gardening book that’ll snugly fit into a donkey jacket pocket. It’s a handy little publication sectioned off month-by-month with what jobs to do and has features on vegetables that are relevant to that month too. It’s all in black and white with no pics but has some nice graphics and a sow and grow chart at the back. Simple and informative and a book worth buying or one for a long-term loan out of the library.

Trouble is though with library books you do really have to take care of them. When it comes to gardening books I have taken them outside into the garden, balanced cups of tea on them and even have been known to read them in the bath. The last one I had from the library went back after a good few renewals and in a bit of a state. Thank god for those automatic machines, rather than getting an earful from an angry librarian!

A book worth getting (but not one for dropping into the bath!)

Ain’t that peculiar

Posted on October 28, 2015 by onedeckpete

Big thanks to our good mate Pete B in Japan for getting in touch and letting us know what the vocal version of The Crystalites tune in the last post was.

It’s funny but that organ riff was going around in my head all last night and I kept saying to myself “I know that tune, I know that tune!” but for the life of me couldn’t remember what it was.

And as if by magic I receive a message from Pete this morning with the answer to the question I didn’t ask but needed to know. Cheers Pete!

The crystal ship

Posted on October 27, 2015 by onedeckpete

Two cracking tunes from The Crystalites out of the Derrick Harriott camp. Heard on this week’s David Rodigan (MBE) show from a forthcoming compilation from Norman Jay (MBE.)

The next is one I found a long time ago in the 50p singles section downstairs in Record and Tape Exchange Soho. It was slung away in the back of a cupboard before finding it a couple of years later and realising what a tune it is! Both of them appear on a Nu Beat UK release from the late 60’s if you’re ever lucky enough to find it!

Those oldies but goodies remind me of you…

Posted on October 23, 2015 by onedeckpete

This is a lovely mix of downtempo gear (including some organ-led gospel, dark funk and the like) and a great guest mix from Blundetto out of Paris from a couple of years ago. If you remember we featured his single Warm my soul featuring Courtney John (here) in 2012 after hearing it on DJ Dick’s blog out of Birmingham (nice one Dick!).

This is one to put on loud on a Friday evening after a (crap) week at work, while enjoying a glass of your favourite tipple waiting for the cabbage to cook. Big up Blundetto and the Confused Radio Crew!

Weeds up to me knees

Madtone, gardening and life