Below is the recording of last weekend’s WARM show from Imaginary Stations. It’s a great show featuring an hour of tunes to raise the temperature including a mix at 3.57 from One Deck Pete called Feeling hot, hot, hot. Tracklistings are:
Cass. – Ethan Veerbek
Bunny Wailer – Love Fire (Version)
Blundetto featuring Courtney John – Warm My Soul
Mice Parade – Warm Hand in Farmland (Stereolab remix)
Tune into the show and forget about the cold weather here at the moment.
We did something today we hadn’t done in a long while, we took a few cuttings from some houseplants and stuck them into some small pots filled with potting compost (above).
This all started when we did a google search for cutting compound as we needed some (or so we thought). We bought a small tub off ebay and then found an article that mentioned you can use natural compounds like honey, aloe vera juice or cinnamon. It may still be a bit cold for them to take but let’s see what happens. The ones above are from an aloe vera we bought many years ago and some from a great pink geranium we bought for a couple of quid from the plant stall in a summer sale in a church hall in Hither Green last year. Below is the original plant we bought.
We don’t know much about taking cuttings but we’re going to have a go as if all goes well we’re going to see if we can get some cuttings from the wonderful geraniums at Honor Oak Station (in exchange for a few bottles of comfrey liquid) as they are some great looking plants. It’s a good way of getting more plants without putting your hand in your pocket.
#gloriousweather #warmwintersday #thegardeningwillhavetowait #nowaterproofswillmakethisbetter
We had a night away in Brighton on Thursday and were treated to some sunshine the next morning, makes a change don’t it? Sunny but still on the nippy side at 5 degrees.
This afternoon we spent just over an hour in the back tidying up a couple of beds and it seemed a lot colder than yesterday and we’re supposedly having some sleet and snow tonight too. Winter eh?
What was nice though, was that we spotted a flowering camelia hiding away with lots of buds on it. We may have to get that net curtain tent out.
Big shout to Gerry Hectic for letting us know about the Shipping Forecast all-day special on Radio 4 yesterday celebrating 100 years of said forecast. All the programmes are now up online on BBC Sounds and all very well worth a listen but here’s one we caught last night about the forecast’s theme tune “Sailing By” here.
A classic tune wrote by a man called Ronald Binge at a room at the end of his garage that was thick with cigarette/cigar/pipe smoke. More on Sailing By here.
And by the powers of the internet we learned there’s a reggae connection too. From Ronald Binge’s wikipedia page here: “Best known today is probably Elizabethan Serenade. A reggae version of the tune, Elizabethan Reggae, was performed by Boris Gardiner in 1970.” Look at his writing credit under the song title.
It’s been a while since we’ve been out in the garden so we spent a couple of hours yesterday and today tidying up little areas rather than tackle the whole thing (and then possibly feel defeated). We found a giant garlic bulb (below) which was sprouting so we took the cloves apart and replanted them, fingers crossed!
We also had a go at the bed at the bottom of the garden (which has the wild bit behind it which is looking a bit messy at the the moment) which has been overrun with nasturtiums and weeds (below). We’ll be putting some vegetables in again we reckon. The cardoon on the right hand side is still going as well.
We also tidied up the bed by the garage, making it look a lot more tidier. The handful of hours we spent today will hopefully saving us a bit of work when spring finally comes around.
We’re supposedly getting 40 odd miles an hour winds later so it’s doubtful we’ll be sitting around the firepit watching the New Year’s Eve fireworks at midnight.
And talking of the new year, happy 2025 to all our readers and friends worldwide from us here at Weeds.
And as promised here’s a part 3 of pictures from Rob C of his trip to Japan in November. As he mentioned on his previous post here: “…the changing leaves are also a popular attraction in the autumn.” “…as the days passed, there were clearer and clearer signs of the leaves turning from green to gold to vibrant red”. Wonderful stuff Rob!
And musical related to this post here’s Ginza Dub off Tokyo Dub by Martin Campbell & Hi Tech Roots Dynamics.
Japan pics © Rob C 2024
A few days ago we heard from our good friend from Japan, Stevyn from the great Iron Feather Journal fanzine who is away on holiday at the moment. He said “Hokkaido is minus 10 and there’s tons of snow so we took a mini vacation and flew south to Okinawa (pic above) and now relaxing by the sea side”. He sent us this picture below from his holidays of part of a jungle with a genuine viper warning! That’s brilliant Stevyn. We hope you had a great Christmas and that you’re having a great holiday, cheers for the pics.
And to continue the festive themed soundtrack here’s a clever little number by Bodyswitch from the Stocking Stuffers EP a nice dubbed up version of Carla Thomas’ Gee Whiz, it’s Christmas.
And a lovely dub from from R. Santa on Nou Art Records out of Barcelona called “Time Dub”
Has Gavin & Stacey finished yet? And is it really the last one?
A big season’s/holiday greetings to all our readers and our gardening, radio and musical mates from around this globe of ours. A big thanks for supporting the blog, the radio show we’re associated with (Imaginary Stations) and the music we release (though that’s been a bit thin on the ground this year but we’re sure that’ll change soon).
Here’s a reggae Christmas LP worth sticking on the stereo today:
Remember we’re on our way to spring (it won’t be long before we’ll be sowing those seeds) and as ever we hope that all your gardening wishes come true.
Weeds up to me knees 