And they’re off! It’s now officially spring, the forced rhubarb and a lonely crocus under the black plastic bucket out the back (above) are showing signs of life and the tomato seeds have started to germinate indoors (below). All we need now is some dry days and then we can start to prepare for the forthcoming months!
And to get you all in the mood for the forthcoming season here’s some tunes …
A big festive gardening greetings to one and all!
As that supposedly Santa bloke/Saint Nick approaches and the solstice is on it’s way, it’s only fitting that we post up this oldie but goodie up on the blog to celebrate. This scratched reggae 7 inch blank out of the island of Jamaica (from the late Coxsone Dodd’s stable) was found in a second-hand shop in Coventry in the late 1970’s (the legendary “John’s” in Hillfields.) It’s seen better days but who cares, it’s a tune!
https://soundcloud.com/weedsuptomeknees/jingle-bells-unknown
Any info on this oldie but goodie is well appreciated (“WI-0-608-A” Matrix number fans) as we know nothing about this blank 7″ apart from it may be from 1964 as the other side of it (M Robinson – Follow You) was released in the UK on the Port-o-jam label that year. Season’s greetings to one and all!
If this global warming lark keeps a going, we’ll all be having a Bailey’s with ice out in the garden come Christmas day afternoon after a morning of weeding!
This fine example of a Jamaican ska/pop tune was bought for the bargain price of 10p in what I used to know as “John’s” second hand shop in the Hillfields district of Coventry in the late 1970’s. I was then working in a factory which used to knock off at midday on a Friday so in the afternoon I would spend my wages on second-hand records and clothes (hey, what’s changed!)
The shop had two or three floors filled full of musty smelling women’s dresses, old tailor’s dummies with arms missing and big wooden wardrobes amongst other bric-a-brac and the shop owner looked like a thin Giant Haystacks.
My favourite part of the shop was the big boxes of 7″ records, most without sleeves next to cardboard boxes of mouldy, well thumbed adult magazines and the owner’s heavily moulting Alsatian dog who growled aggressively at you in the corner (nice!)
A good few of my reggae records were found there and I know of other people who shopped at this quality establishment too (a studio 1, 7″ blank with “Mittoo” scrawled across the label in felt tip which I overlooked is sitting in the rhythm doctor’s record boxes even as I write. Hi Chris!)
I rarely get misty eyed about damp smelling second-hand shops and this place is probably well knocked down and built over today, but this gaff still has a place in my heart. RIP “John’s.”
Weeds up to me knees 