Whistling three sheets to the Wind

Cheers to Justin Patrick Moore for sending us this great instrumental from Luna called Drunken Whistler and a lovely little number it is. For some reason it reminded us of something that may have been on Andrew Weatherall‘s excellent Live at Antenna Studios mix (below) which we have mentioned a good few times.

If you haven’t heard the mix before it’s well worth a listen, there’s a track from Manfred Mann of all people called Just for me (“And there, I saw trees reaching to the sky. And birds full of colour and flying high”) and Harpers Bizarre with Witchi Tai To. Excellent stuff of the eclectic kind! Cheers again Justin for sending us the track recommendation.

The interview keeps on coming

As we posted up the Andrew Weatherall at the Chinwag night at Outlaw Yacht Club, Leeds 2013 mix yesterday, we were reminded of the brilliant interview with Andrew by our good friend/Steroid Abuse DJ Chris Madden from the same evening. It’s a six parter but well worth watching!

The music keeps on coming

It’s been four years since the passing of the great Andrew Weatherall can you believe. We saw on Facebook a link to this great mix from Outlaw Yacht Club, Leeds 2013 (from a great night presented by our good mate Chris Madden) and we just had to share it. The mix starts off with Big Youth, Ari Up, Dr Who in dub then goes into rockabilly and much more and you know what? It’s downloadable. RIP Andrew Weatherall.

Daddy was a garden-er, he never hurt nobody…

If someone tells you that gardening is expensive and that you need to spend a small fortune to grow something, tell them they’re having a laugh! Today from the pound shop in Catford we procured a 20 litre bag of multi purpose compost and a box of shake ‘n sow butterfly and bee seed mix for the grand total of £2. Well worth it if you’re watching them pennies.

With the said compost we sowed some peppers we got free from Kitchen Garden Magazine and some tomatoes that were left over from last year so that didn’t cost us much either. We cut up some individual plastic seed trays we got from Shannon’s a couple of years ago, popped the seed on the top and then covered them with a light layer of compost and stuck them under a plastic propagator cover by the window in the back room. Fingers crossed we’ll see some signs of life in a couple of weeks or so.

We also stuck a couple of trays containing more tomatoes and some Kitchen Garden cabbages outside in the garden in the upside down terrarium we found in the street years ago. Let’s hope it warms up weather-wise for them!

And the last bit of sowing was done in a couple of pots on the kitchen windowsill with some basil seeds and some cut and come again lettuce which we’ll use for micro-greens. And there’s still some multi-purpose compost left for next week. Thrift, we love it here at Weeds! Who says you need money to garden.

And the soundtrack to this piece was the excellent Ross Allen show dedicated to Andrew Weatherall which is well worth listening to, click here to tune in.

Spaghetti squash in the (kitchen) area

It’s still been a bit wet and windy here so there hasn’t be that much garden-related to write about. Apart from yesterday, when we finally put the spaghetti squash we grew on the Thompson & Morgan seed trials last year in the oven with a bit of olive oil and salt.

The squash has been sitting on the kitchen windowsill since harvesting last autumn so perhaps we should have had it when it was a bit fresher. After the 40 minutes on about 200 degrees centigrade and a ruffle with a fork this is what it looked like. As for taste, it put us in mind of sauerkraut which ain’t a bad thing in our book. Next time when we grow them we’ll eat them straight away! Well worth trying though.

And there was a massive blow to music in general last week when we heard of the passing of the great Andrew Weatherall. We’re still in shock here, but the story in Time Out here about him still being on google street view brought a smile to our sad faces. R.I.P. Andrew Weatherall.

Awakening of the beast

It seems like it was only the other week we were planting the strange looking root crown of the Foxtail Lily (AKA Eremurus). In fact it was at the start of October (post here) that we purchased another crown from Shannon’s and this afternoon whilst tipping around in the garden we noticed it peeking its head through the ground. Fingers crossed the forthcoming cold weather won’t knock it for six (in the morning we’ll probably stick a cloche or a bit of fleece over the top for added protection).

We’ve just found a clip from an old Gardeners’ World featuring Monty Don on the Eremurus and how you plant the root crown here.

And here’s another plug for the Weeds related musical project Madtone with their tribute to the said plant “Foxtail Lily Dub (Beaming to the Caribbean)” which has been getting some super support from the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Dr Strangedub from The Echo Chamber on KFAI, the dread gardener Don Letts, Justin Robertson and more. A big cheers to them! Watch out for a vocal version of the tune in the next few months!  #FoxtailLily #shortwavesnotdead

 

What a difference the sun makes

Don’t think buying in tomato plants is in any way cheating. Earlier this year we sowed a few tomato seeds that failed miserably so we bought a couple of varieties from Shannon’s. The cherry ones (above) have done exceptionally well and they’re still going strong as we didn’t pinch out the tops. Big thanks to Shannon’s, we’ll be doing the same next year.

Monday afternoon was so nice we went out in the garden and tidied up one of the scrappy beds and then planted some garlic cloves to overwinter. It’s worth making the most of the weather at the moment as in a months or so’s time it may be dreadful. Here’s the before and after:

And finally a big shout to Steyvn Iron Feather Journal for letting us know about the latest Music’s not for everyone on NTS which features a ten inch vinyl special including One Deck & Popular’s Son of Stitt (Cafe del Bob’s mix) from many moons ago. Big thanks Mr Weatherall! #onedeckandpopular #sonofstitt

After the sun has gone

Last weekend was a corker when it came to sunshine as on Sunday the temperature in London reached 20 odd degrees. The lawn was cut and a good load of jobs were completed and we even gave the seedlings (tomatoes, brussels sprouts, peppers and walking onion) that are on their way indoors a bit of a break in the sun.

Very much influenced by (episode 4 of) Jane Perrone’s On The Ledge podcast combined with the fact that in our seed tray were a few dealer bags with a tiny amount of seeds in them (cress, peas, beetroot, lettuce, coriander, basil and more) that needed to be sown, we filled a large pot full of multi-purpose compost and threw them all in. Come a couple of weeks time we’ve have some micro-greens to accompany our dinner!Traditionally this week (Good Friday) is the time for putting seed potatoes in (so the late great Joe Maiden used to say on his radio show with Tim Crowther). We aren’t too sure if we’ll be doing ours as it’s still cold out and as someone once told us at a potato fair, as soon as it’s warm enough to put your hand in the ground for ten seconds without it feeling cold that’s when you should put your spuds in. Sounds like good advice!

And while you’re waiting for your ground to heat up here’s a nice bit of mix-up business from one Mr Andrew Weatherall on Rinse FM the other week (8.04.2017).

Tune in, turn on. It’s two for tuesday

han and egg radioA couple of great tunes heard on radio shows this week. The first is a lovely loop laden piece of ambient electronica by Gnesis called Pear off the DJ Kicks LP by Actress played on Tom Ravenscroft’s show. Haunting ain’t the word. One to look at the seed catalogues to and decide whether it’ll be artichokes or asparagus peas.

The other is Seconds, Minutes, Hours by David John Sheppard as played by Andrew Weatherall on his Music’s Not For Everyone show on NTS Radio here. Tune! Thanks to our good mates Maz and Marc for re-reminding us about that show.

One for the Big Youth tooth massive

can the world beLooks like I’ll be having another tooth pulled next week.This morning at just gone 8 am I ventured up to Guy’s Hospital Dental Department with a dull pain in one of my back teeth.

Three hours later after one long wait, a couple of examinations and an X-ray, I’ve now got an appointment on Wednesday to have an extraction. To keep my mind off the intermittent pain for the rest of the day this mix from Andrew Weatherall has been on repeat. Nice vibe, and very soothing for my teeth.