The death of a cob

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We’ve just come back from a visit from Shannon’s today and this is the first thing that greeted us when we came back. We’re now thinking of starting up in nature photography and jacking in this gardening lark what with our brushes with nature this weekend.

We are even really considering a scarecrow (as suggested by Stevyn of Iron Feather Journal fanzine) as there was a cat sleeping possibly 3 metres away which didn’t deter the pesky squirrel consuming one of the many corn cobs that had formed on our plants we purchased from Shannon’ early this year. There’s two cobs left and they’ve been taken off. The really hot pepper plant beside it hasn’t been touched, we wonder why?

And on a good note here’s what we bought in Shannon’s earlier this morning, some Garlic bulbs and Shallots to overwinter, even though we didn’t have much luck with them last year. We will do as we always do, try again! Gardening eh why do we do it?

Isn’t the great outdoors supposed to be relaxing?

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After some stress in the garden this morning it’s nice to put your feet up and listen to some good tunes. Here’s an excellent one from The Itals with Brutal. Thanks to Your Host from the great shortwave music show on WRMI This Is a Music Show for playing the dub Brutality from The Revolutionaries on show 134. Thanks to Dazman for posting up the recording below. If you love good music you’ll love This is a Music Show! More on the show here.

And we don’t care…

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These pictures were taken twenty minutes ago in our garden in SE23 not at some big greenhouse at Kew. They were done on a mobile, no Bill Oddie long lens “twitchers in a disguised shed” business either. We’re still in shock here!

There was an audience of one human being and two cats in shock at its cheekiness. Shall we just give it our front door keys and be done with it?

Those SE23 parakeets are getting worse! Stevyn Iron Feather Journal mentioned we should get a scarecrow and we thought it might be taking it a bit too far. He may be right!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Autumn

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There’s been a right change of weather over the last few days. The sunflower (above) next to the garage has taken a tumble a few times because of the wind and is back up supported by some garden wire connected to various old nails in the wall. There’s been some damage to the main stalk so if we can get another couple of weeks out of it before the frost or parakeets get to it that’ll be something, finger crossed.

We’re also seeing some progress with the semi-open compost heap (above). We give it a weekly turn and there is heat in there and lots of brandling worms and the old bath mat does its job of keeping it covered. As for the dalek bin (below), the compost is now ready and it’s being used. It isn’t a short process but one well worth doing for some great soil improver for next to nothing.

And we’ve been doing a bit of “little and often” gardening at the side of the pond which can get a bit neglected at times but with a help of a brown Lewisham garden refuse bin (which is a boon, it really is. We pack it to its gills then leave it out in the sun for a couple of days for the stuff to dry out a bit and then add “just one bit more”) and regular watering we are getting somewhere.

For the bed in the front of the picture below we’ve just split the odd plant and found some self seeded volunteers and stuck them there. It’s mainly mint and it will go a bit wild but it better than just weeds. Any chance of a last bit of sunshine please?

While we’ve been writing this we’ve had this on in the background, another show worth listening to!

Text goes here, text goes here

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No words just a picture. It could be a contribution for Countryfile’s annual calendar competition, who knows?

Or hang on a minute, what about a Weeds up to me knees caption competition? The winner will get something, some comfrey liquid, an assortment of leftover seeds or an old Percy Thrower gardening book? Or how about a fake copy of Sniffin’ Glue, we’ll see what we can dig out. Send us your contributions as comments.

Blame Jimi Hendrix or Humphrey Bogart for these!

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Growing giant sunflowers come with various different problems. You have to stake them up to stop them snapping in the wind, keep the slugs and snails off them and there’s also the pigeons and squirrels to contend with. Now the Peckham parakeets are onto them.

It’s not the best photo as it had to be taken clandestinely but there’s at least three birds on the nearest sunflower the one with the multiple heads and one perched on the one furthest away (which hasn’t any flowers) on lookout duty.

It’s funny as when these birds appeared the pigeons and squirels were nowhere to be seen, the same as the cats. You just can’t win! More on those pesky parkeets and the origins of where they may have come from here.

Sunflowers, snails, slugs and squirrels

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The weather has been a bit changeable of late to say the least. Some of the sunflowers have been attacked by snails, slugs or squirrels but there are some that have out outmaneuvered them like the one next to the garage (above). It’s so tall nothing can climb it without a bit of work and is a little way out from the garage roof so the squirrels can’t even reach it from on high. This one above is at least a ridiculous 10 feet or more! We’re going to try and save some seed and if anyone fancies a swap for something just as crazy we’ll be game. We go for anything labelled as “Giant” “Rare” or “Out of this world” so if you have anything to exchange, drop us a message via comments!

Another thing with this changeable weather is it is a breeding ground for slugs and these are the gits (above) we have to contend with in SE23. They’re sturdy old things and we think they’d return if we collected them all in a bag and slung them up the local park. These are not common or garden slugs these are south London slugs and they mean business!

At least the pond has been loving this present weather even though we haven’t. The fish and plants seem happy with the rising waterline and if you stand still for long enough you’ll see mini-frogs jumping about in the areas around it. Let’s hope they gang up all together and teach those damn slugs a lesson!

Get on the right track

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If you love trains tune into CTRN on Sunday 19th September 2021 (repeated on the 26th September) at 2300 UTC/midnight UK time on 9395 kHz in the 31 Metre band via WRMI. Expect rail related tunes, station announcements and a whole lot more.

It also features a mix from One Deck Pete called “Off the rails” featuring tracks by Instantly Distant: Samples, Foley and Field Recordings, The Lamplighters, Commodore 98, Dennis Brown and Dub Syndicate.

So put on your best station master’s uniform, shine your whistle and tune in on Sunday evening. If you’ve no shortwave radio try this online shortwave defined radio here at no later than 30 seconds before the train is meant to leave as the doors will be closed for passenger safety. Tickets please!