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.
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.
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!
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!
A big shout to Stevyn Iron Feather Journal‘s Towne Club Records collection of remixes and alternate versions of Pink Floyd’s Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast which are all up in their glory here. It features a remix (below) by our very own Madtone called Pete’s Ambient Breakfast.
This tune later formed the basis of Jazz’min & Madtone‘s Earth Citizen which was featured on Echo Chamber – Around The World In Dub Vol 9 & 10 by Dan Dada Records a set well worth downloading here and it’s all for FREE as are all of the Around The World in Dub series are.
Stevyn has informed us that they are still seeking remixes, dubs, edits, extended, cover versions, mashups, etc. of this song done in any genre or styles. There’s no rules so give it your all and send him your creations. If you like a good read of all things on a different tip have a butchers at Iron Feather Journal here.
If you ever need an idea for a birthday present for a gardener then look no further than buying some packets of seeds, plastic garden wire, a bag of garden grit or bags of soil enricher (and if they like the medium of radio also a fantastic book called “The Voices”). Cheers to all who were involved in buying the above as they have come in well handy and well appreciated here!
The bags of soil enricher stood around in the corner for the grand total of about 24 hours until it was put to good use on the raised beds that have now been stripped of their spuds, lettuce and onions apart from a couple of lone tomato plants.
We tipped the stuff straight from the bag in large doses and hoed it into the beds. In beds where we couldn’t get the hoe in we just left it on the top like a mulch and it probably won’t be too long before the worms and nature works it into the soil. It gives off a creosote type niff but that’s a small price to pay for some decent veggies and flower production next year.
Our own natural soil enricher projects are going well, we’re having a lot of success with the open style compost heap (complete with an old bathroom mat to keep the goodness in and the rain out.) It doesn’t smell, doesn’t attract vermin (we don’t think) and seems to be working well in breaking down the garden waste. A weekly turn with a garden fork helps too.
In the dalek bin, things are progressing and it looks like the worms are on the way out (that’s a good sign to say it’s nearly done) even though there’s a few hanging onto the side. The dark brown crumbly stuff inside looks like it’s going to be good for the garden.
As for smelling and enrichment the comfrey liquid is high on the list for those two properties. The container was ponced off a butcher, the housebrick to weight it all down and the comfrey, nettle and borage leaves all from the garden itself. It’s A1 stuff but blimmin’ reeks, keep it off your clothes!
And what does the forthcoming weather in SE23 hold for us you reckon?
We’re at Camber Sands at the moment for a well needed break, some time to wind down and see the sea after a being stuck indoors for a good year and a bit.
We were very tempted yesterday to partake in a local delicacy called the “Sussex Split” seen in a quality supermarket in nearby Rye.
The cake’s origins go back to olden times we were informed and the example above is a monster type affair that could feed a family of six. It sells for less than two quid and is topped with that “fake” fresh cream that we all know and love. Great eh but is it organic?
When the weather’s not like it’s supposed to be (like this summer in SE23) or when the (wood) chips are down, the above clip never fails to disappoint.
We do hope Bernard Byron (who CAN speak Venusian) would enjoy our mix below which was originally broadcast (light years ago) on Radio Lavalamp via the shortwaves. Bernard, never mind what the others think about your theories, we believe you!
God knows what’s happening weatherwise, it’s freezing here in SE23 at the moment and there wasn’t much of an appearance of that yellow thing they call the sun over the weekend despite the promise of it.
Yesterday we spent an hour or two weeding the “rewilding” area at the bottom of garden where we put the “wild flower seed mix” and the odd bee bomb or two. As most of the flowers are “wild” so to speak, it’s hard knowing what are the actual weeds. The area does get a lack of significant sunlight so it’s a big gamble whatever you put down there. The cardoons do well though despite something that’s been eating their leaves for most of the summer (above).
Like we said before, it’s an art to get a part of a garden to look “wild, wild” instead of “wild” as in neglected if you see what we mean. We think we need to give our untame area a bit of time to develop before it looks as nice as the great insect garden of the great Horniman’s Gardens below. That’s “wild” but nice wild.
There are successes though, towards the top of the garden we have a couple of sunflowers growing against the garage wall and it’s the smaller one (7ft) that is flowering first. This gardening hobby is all about patience isn’t it? Shame we haven’t got any.
A couple of wonderful tunes from the stables of the great Lee Perry who sadly has passed away. The first from The Creators (Perry himself) called Kimble (a version of Stranger & Gladdy’s Seeing is knowing) is a tune we originally acquired for a paltry amount of pennies in a Bedworth second hand shop (which was filled to the brim with beige coloured white goods) in the early 1980’s. We had no idea who it was until the needle dropped on the very scratched Amalgamated seven inch.
The second Honey Love a vocal featuring one Burt Walters. The B side of this white label (which sadly we don’t own) has the backing track of the A side with the backwards vocal from Burt Walters dropped over the top which was unheard of at the time in reggae or any other gene (possibly). May your genius live on forever Mr Perry.
