Shar-dun-nay from One Tree Hill and discovering Jah Bottle Head

Walking down into Honor Oak Park today we noticed a grapevine coming out of the scrub and bramble bushes from the bottom of One Tree Hill. We took a closer look and there’s fruit, Chateaux (pronounced chat-ox) Forest Hill anyone? There’s an excellent piece about One Tree Hill if you’re interested here.

And while looking for bottle themed records found out about an artiste called Jah Bottle Head aka Alexander Portious who plays wonderful instrumentals using a comb and bottle or just a bottle head. Whatever he uses, it is a brilliant sound. Here’s his version of Gregory Isaacs’ Love is overdue.

And then we found this one below with a crazy dub, nearly a ton on discogs! We were feeling a bit down earlier and these tunes from the great Alexander Porteous/Jah Bottle Head have really cheered us up. First bottle and comb dub anyone?

And there’s a version of Everything I Own (plus Bottle Head Overdue) at 11.42 on this LP that has some other wonderful tracks on it. “King Tubby’s and Errol T are our engineers this evening”.

Raise your glass to Jah Bottle Head!

Local seed event alert

Thanks to Ruth for getting in touch about this great event on Sunday 25th February 2024 from 1-4pm held at the AFRIL allotment of refuge at One Tree Hill Allotments SE23 3NP. It looks well interesting, there’s a bit of a seed swap, a free vegan lunch, a tour of the garden and at 2.30pm talks, a workshop and a Q&A session. It’s free and more details and tickets can be obtained here. Thanks for letting us know Ruth!

And this is a pic of a scarecrow at One Tree Allotments from a couple of years ago. We think that the coat has been changed for a yellow one now but it is still there and still creeps us out when we’re passing by. It’s those hands placed casually in the pockets that does it.