Sowing is sweet during lunchtimes

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As we’re working from home we do have a bit of an advantage that we can do a litle bit of gardening at lunchtime during good weather. Today as it was on the warmer side we decided to sow a few more seeds. The kitchen window has become a little crowded so we utilised some spare space in the raised beds under plastic out in the back.

The second covered raised bed is starting to fill up too. The celery cut from the base is starting to grow, those volunteer giant garlic bulbs are doing well and we have some parsnips in the middle so we decided to put some pots of sweet peas either side. Hope they like the heat under the plastic as we haven’t had decent sweet peas for a few years now. The below pic is going back a few years but it is inspiring us to have some sweet peas back in the garden again.

Music like us

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Yesterday our good radio friend in Cincinnati, Justin Patrick Moore tipped us off that Vicki Bennett from People like us was doing a show on WFMU. It’s now available via listen again here (The show named “February 14th, 2024: This Is Bardcore, This Is Barcode, This is the Pooless Flute”).

As you can imagine there were some crazy records played, bizzare mash ups and some “odd sausages” (as an old workmate used to say). Here’s two tunes that we’ve never heard before that caught our attention. The first is Polo & Pan with Nana (above) and it’s a bit of left-field pop on the catchy, happy tip. And we’ve just found out it’s sampled off this tune below from Os Tincoãs another band we have had to research. And an interesting band they were.

The second is Keezo Kane with Ga Ga Ga (James Brown Steppers Mix) which is great stuff. If you’re a lover of some real musical madness do check the show out. Cheers Justin for letting us know about it.

It’s time to sow (or is it?)

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In-between the rain and sunshine yesterday, we got out into the garden and sowed some seed in the raised bed at the side with some transparent plastic tacked over the top so to create a cheap mini greenhouse. Those pallet box collars we were given a few years ago have had a good life, the polythene on the top don’t last sadly and needs replacing every year but they do work. In these “poor people’s greenhouses” we sowed some beetroot, the Lldl lettuces we purchased last year and some parsnips. Parnsips are funny anyway and need fresh seed but these seeds were bought last week so touchwood should be okay if the soil gets warm enough in there. Fingers crossed we will get some germination out there.

And speaking of germination we have had some success on the kitchen window with two  cherry tomatoes showing their tiny seed leaves. Great stuff, all we need is the rest of the windowsill seeds to kick off now.

The relationship between apples and dub

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The sun’s out today and we’ve been listening to a great show called Golden Apples in Dub with a selection by Jesse Yuen (of RTMFM’s North of The River Swan that returned to the radio yesterday by the way). The show was broadcast by RTR FM 92.1 Perth, Australia and a fine dubbed out show it is. Listen and enjoy some very nice tunes here and some great “Baby I love you so” versions which you can never get enough of! It’s a great show Jesse!

Not long to go now…

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Cheers To Debby H again for sending some pics. The above are some of the dwarf daffodils (about 6 inches tall) growing in her garden. As she says “They are popping up in clumps all over the place. These are the first flowers that have opened up in our garden this year and they are brightening things up nicely.” She also sends a picture of some croci (below) growing along the path by the Pymmes Brook. Great stuff Debby! It can’t be long until all our gardens start getting into gear now.

Snowdrops in Osidge

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Cheers to Debby H for sending us a picture of some snowdrops seen in Osidge the other day. Do you think spring has sprung or is there more cold weather on its way?

More seeds have been sown today in pots indoors so a little bit of warmth would be appreciated. Of course we know it’s still early to sow but if we have seeds and some compost handy you just try and stop us!

The radio dial is a compass…

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This afternoon we were listening to a mixtape on Radio is a Foreign Country which is a wonderful radio show broadcast on WRMI (Mondays 0300-0500 UTC on 9395 kHz) also it’s own internet radio station and website. This is how they describe what they do, “An endless stream of obscure (and mostly retro) global music and audio ephemera rarely heard outside their home region.” This tune above by Los Zheros called Para Chachita was heard on the mixtape section called “Peruvian 45s” and is a corker! The whole mixtape is great in fact. Explore some worldwide mix goodness here.

Big shout to all the IFJ crew in Japan

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A big hi goes out to Stevyn from the great fanzine/website Iron Feather Journal for sending us this picture above of the first issue of Steroid Abuse up on the wall of his Nandalow Bookshop in Hokkaido, Japan. “The pic is a view into the bookshop, notice at the top of the door (top left) a poetry paper scroll, also featured in the drawing of the inside view (pic below)” “The pictures hanging include the old late King of Thailand who loved dogs and Richard Francis Burton’s tomb in Kew Gardens”. We love that duck!

Do have a look a the Iron Feather Journal Website here for all sorts of interesting stuff. Thanks Stevyn as well for all of the support for Weeds, Madtone and Steroid Abuse over the years!

Also here’s a wonderful couple of tunes that were on a free record with Iron Feather Journal 17 many moons ago which we’re sure we bought at Atlas Records in Soho. We could be wrong as it could have been by mail order but it was a long long time ago and our memory is a bit shot here. Both great tunes but we do love that Laura track.

Also a mention of the great project Stevyn is also involved in which is the Pink Floyd Breakfast Remix here on Towne Club Records, Japan. Cheers for all your support and big up IFJ, the Nandalow Radio show and the bookshop!

A tune from yesteryear

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While searching through those old gramaphone records the other night for a forthcoming shortwave mix we came across this tune called Texas Yellow by Urchin which we had well forgotten about. It’s a long one but a tune that you can really get lost in. It was nice to rediscover it and there’s even a Aquilegia named after it too!

Local seed event alert

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Thanks to Ruth for getting in touch about this great event on Sunday 25th February 2024 from 1-4pm held at the AFRIL allotment of refuge at One Tree Hill Allotments SE23 3NP. It looks well interesting, there’s a bit of a seed swap, a free vegan lunch, a tour of the garden and at 2.30pm talks, a workshop and a Q&A session. It’s free and more details and tickets can be obtained here. Thanks for letting us know Ruth!

And this is a pic of a scarecrow at One Tree Allotments from a couple of years ago. We think that the coat has been changed for a yellow one now but it is still there and still creeps us out when we’re passing by. It’s those hands placed casually in the pockets that does it.