Before the snow came

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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.

From the shipping forecast to the skinhead

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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.

Before the 40 mph wind came

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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 on the subject of Japan

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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

Oh to be by the sea!

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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.

More santa business

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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?

We won’t be watching Gavin and Stacey or Dirty Den today. Or will we?

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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.

See you by the heel stone

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Spotted in a charity shop in Lewisham this morning, this excellent solstice-related jigsaw puzzle. Let’s hope every piece is there or it may be a right pain in the neck when it comes to completing said ancient monument.

 

We thought of a daft thing, wouldn’t it be great to travel back in time and bring the game to a cave and see if stone-age man/women/kids would enjoy the game. We reckon they would be delighted with it especially knowing that it was on sale for the bargain price of 4 quid.

And on the subject of those sacred stones we just found this excellent film on youtube! We even spotted an example of the famous “Punk Kicking Dance” (that we’d never be able to do now) at 3.51 mins in. Happy belated Solstice.

More on the Stonehenge Festival Campaign here.

What have Jean-Michel Jarre, Ken Barlow and King Arthur all got in common?

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Happy Winter Solstice! From tomorrow, days will be getting longer which is great news to us gardeners. If you want to celebrate the great day in style without having stayed up all night in the pouring rain and cold, shivering by the heel stone, why not tune in via youtube (above).

So turn up the heating, put on your best solstice suit, pour yourself a glass of warm mead and pretend you’re at Stonehenge with the best of them. Happy Solstice and a big shout to that yellow round thing we call the Sun.

Doing the Knowledge

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Above is the audio of KNOW from Imaginary Stations broadcast on Saturday December 14th and repeated on Sunday December 15th 2024 via Shortwave Gold. 

As usual it’s a great mix of tunes from the Imaginary Stations crew and at 16.15 in there’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “Have you got the Knowledge?” featuring the tracks above. Well, what do you know!