The great indoors

Thanks to Debby H for sending us pictures of her collection of indoor plants. Because until recently, she didn’t have a garden; she has an abundance of them. As we here at Weeds are not very good with houseplants, we love to see other people’s. The flowering cactus (above) looks great.

Now the picture above is brilliant, the Orchid is blooming and there’s a healthy looking Pineapple. We didn’t even know you could grow them here, even indoors! More on growing Pineapples here.

Debby wrote “I grew the Strelitzias AKA Bird of Paradise plants (above) from seed about 5 years ago. We are hoping they may flower sometime.” Wow and when they flower…

“I also grew the Canna (below) from a tiny plant. Last year it flowered continuously with beautiful bright red flowers. The Canna lives outdoors in the summer. We put the Strelitzias out too, but they hated it and wilted every day there was any sun! Strange because they generally live outdoors in warmer climates.” Brilliant stuff Debby, thanks a lot for that and do send us some picture updates and also when the strelitzias flower as that’ll be great.

Not long to go now…

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

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!

What month is it?

Today has been a nice day 8 degrees and sunny, you wouldn’t think it’s the first day of February.  Thanks to Debby H for getting in touch with a picture taken last week of a cherry tree which had already started to blossom in Southgate. The blossom is on the water sprouts at the bottom of the tree. As she said  “I never ever recall seeing cherry blossom in January before.” She’s right!
Even the Lldl bargain bulbs we bought in the autumn are starting to sprout at the moment. It certainly has been mild of late but you know what this weather is like, God only knows what’s around the corner. Here’s to good weather!

Now this is what you call a tape!

A big thanks to Debby H for getting in touch here about a tape called Abedare Rockers, an excellent reggae compilation from the mid 1970’s. There’s not much info about it and it doesn’t appear online either in digital form sadly but we did have a copy of it years ago which we picked up by mail order or somewhere on a London excursion and it was a bit of a much played classic.

From looking online the tape was available at the 1976 Deeply Vale Festival and as Michael Williams (who worked at Better Badges and Dub Vendor amongst other places and was one of the founders of the Dread Broadcasting Corporation, more info on that here) said on Facebook a few years ago: “‘Aberdare Rockers’ was a compilation made in my flat mid 1970s, can’t remember who compiled it, could have been ‘Nightdoctor’ founder Charles Wood, my brother or Joly MacFie. Joly and I did Better Badges and were reggae fanatics and so duplicated this compilation, to as one did in those days turn people on. It was thought of as a regular underground release but no just a compilation made in the heady days of the 70s amidst ganja fueled evenings pre punk.”

Well Debby has found said tape and sent us a pic of it and copy 64 is above. Brilliant stuff! We look forward to hearing a copy of this one day as it was a wonderful tape. Also she sent us some great pics of covers of other cassettes she has just unearthed and we love that DIY ethic of all of those. Brilliant stuff Debby and thanks for getting in touch!

By the way  this below is an interesting interview with Michael Williams about DBC featuring some good tunes too.