Long Hot Days 1

A few scorching hot days to make it feel like a proper summer. Spent nearly 12 hours up at the allotment one day, enjoying the place to myself for most of the time. Got lots done and munched on produce throughout the day. Discovered for myself, with a stomach ache - though I'd been warned - that mange toute (and many beans) are poisonous if not cooked for a bit.


Tomatoes in my 'greenkennel' - the tall, makeshift greenhouse on the other plot has hardly been used in three years.

The first of many sunflowers, with all my neighbour's tat behind. After three years, it's permanently 'under construction'.

The old chocolate factory in the background : Due for development in the coming years, possibly with eco homes, artspace, cafe etc. Watch this space...

Cucumber plant in the greenkennel : Grew one cucumber at home in a small plastic greenhouse and only planted this out a week or two ago.

Red Onions 2

I've lifted most of the red onions now & taken them home for final drying & storage. Perhaps I could have left them longer & they might have swelled in the rain due next week, but they were just as likely to get nicked if I left them lying around at the allotment.

Peas

Coming to the end of the peas. Leaving last ones for seed.

Borlotti

Borlotti beans coming along, need time to fatten up.

Fat of the land

Red Onions

The red onions - and Japanese ones - just keep on swelling. The foliage is only just starting to die back and I've bent over the stems on half of them but haven't lifted any yet. The tops are pretty crunchy and make your eyes water, but sliced up thinly, are great in salads and sarnies ; )

Green Grocer

Crikey ! Lots from the plot today :

500g Redcurrants
250g Blackcurrants
2kg Potatoes
2 Beetroot
1 Lettuce
Bunch of baby Carrots
Last of the broad beans (leaving the rest for seed)



The cat had left a starling outside the shed.

Noticed black stuff oozing from the poppies, which I expect is raw opium.

Photographed the Borlotti beans & other produce then cycled to the supermarket for bread and dairy produce. I need to get me a share of a cow and a few hens ; )

Strawberries

Picked the last of the strawberries as Wimbledon came to a close. Got a good crop this year - enough for a few jars of jam and a trifle.

Sparaxis & Ixia

Sound a bit like a Greek islands - wouldn't look out of place on one.

Cosmos

Grew some cosmos for the first time this year - the ones in pots have flowered earlier than those in open ground and slugs & snails haven't been a problem.

Evening Primrose

Enough this year to make a bar of soap, but let the moths and pollinators enjoy it too.

Glastonbury 2008

"A bit like The Battle of Stalingrad, sponsored by The Guardian" - David Quantick, on Glastonbury.

The Now Show - BBC Radio 4

Roland @ iTunes

As from today, 'Patch Of Paradise' is also available from iTunes :

Roland @ iTunes

Onions

Nearly ready - just need another week of sun. Shame it's set to rain.

Ideal Soundtrack

Crikey - not only does Graham 'Hi Hi' Duff write and act in BBC Three's superb 'Ideal', but he's also responsible for selecting most of the soundtracks and was once a late night radio DJ.

He's posted tracklistings for all four series at the Ideal Forum, enabling me to track down the rather wonderful Sol Seppy - 'Enter One', as goosebumpy as Amiina & Lee Hazelwood.

Ideal Tracklistings

Esbjorn Svensson

Tragic to lose such a great jazz pianist. The E.S.T. represented all that was good about contemporary jazz. Having spent a year in Stockholm and being born the same year, I literally felt i knew where he was coming from :

Guardian Obituary

The Uncle from U.N.C.L.E.

Christopher Cary, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Strange Man Affair, 1965

1966 and all that

A friend lent me a copy of a 1966 episode of Batman, in which my late uncle, Christopher Cary, played a kilt-wearing Scotsman. Priceless lunacy !!

Rhubarb Rhubarb

Swapped a few cabbage seedlings for the right to help ourselves to rhubarb.

Harvest & Sow

Spuds coming on nicely - no sign of blight, yet.

Harvested :

Rhubarb
Peas
Lettuce
Broad Beans
Strawberries
Rocket
Pak Choi
Spinach
Kale

Sowed :

Carrots
Lettuce
Pak Choi
Spinach

Planted Out :

Cobra Beans
Cabbage
Sweet Corn

Broad Beans

Despite an attack of blackfly, the broad bean harvest is a good un.



Been picking around half a kilo every few days.

Spring Harvest

Harvested artichokes, broad beans, lettuce, rocket, radishes, peas.

Angelica

I was only expecting the angelica to last two years. This is part of one which was growing at home and I divided, three years ago. Perhaps this is the last year. We made crystallised angelica from the stems a few years ago.

This Year's Frog

This is the only one of seven froglets that survived this year. Then he hopped out of the jar in the garden one day.


A bit blurred - didn't use a tripod.



Coming up for air.



I probably should have kept them out of the sunlight.



Beginnings in the allotment pond.

A is for Apple

A list of most of the things i'm cultivating this year...

Apple - Cox's Orange Pippin
Artichoke
Asparagus
Basil
Beetroot
Blackcurrant
Borlotti Bean
Broad Bean
Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Carrot
Celery
Chamomile
Chard
Chrysanthemum
Cobra Bean
Comfrey
Coriander
Cornflower
Cosmos
Courgette
Crocosmia
Cucumber
Dahlia
Datura
Delphinium
Dill
Echinacea
Evening Primrose
Foxglove
Garlic
Gladioli
Gooseberry
Honeysuckle
Kale
Lavender
Leek
Lettuce
Love Lies Bleeding
Marigold
Mesembryanthemum
Mint
Nectarine
Night Scented Stock
Nigella
Nolana Bluebird
Onion
Pak Choi
Parsley
Parsnip
Peas
Poppy
Radish
Raspberry
Redcurrant
Rhubarb
Rocket
Rosemary
Runner Bean
Sage
Spinach
Strawberry
Sunflower
Sweet Corn
Sweet Pea
Tagetes
Tulip
Vietnamese Coriander
Yarrow
Willow

...links to photos later.

Flower Photo Gallery

Mulatu Astatke v Britain's Got Talent

Escaped from teenage daughter watching 'Britain's Got Talent', with some joker playing 'keepy uppy' with a football, while a ghetto blaster played. At first, even Amanda Holden thought that he belonged on a football field rather than in a theatre, but hey, the crowd went wild and Simon Cowell loved it, so I must be wrong, it wasn't shite and he is the future of entertainment.

Thankfully, Gilles Peterson had Mulatu Astatke live in session from Maida Vale. I'd certainly rather listen to a 65 year old Ethiopian than anything that Piers Morgan thinks is entertainment. Note to self - time to stop watching certain TV shows with teenage daughter, we'll only upset each other.

A laptop for every donkey

Came across a great site, with loads of good piccies & links :

http://alaptopforeverydonkey.blogspot.com/

Planting by the moon

Not a good time for flowering veg, but good for leafy veg.
Hmm. Regardless, sowed :

- Celery
- Lettuce
- Nigella
- Black Eyed Susan
- Busy Lizzie
- Cosmos
- Larkspur
- Aquilegia

First sowings

Sowed some seeds into modules indoors :

- Mangetout (Reuzensuiker)
- Cabbage (Langedijk 4)
- Broccoli (Brassica oleracea Italica)

(sound like good album titles to me)

..and two types of leek, in big yogurt pots :

- Leek (Carentan 2)
- Leek (Autumn Mammoth 2 - Snowstar)

(or at least track titles)

Albums Of The Year

The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen
The Tuss - Rushup Edge
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Von Sudenfed - Tromatic Reflexxions
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Efterklang - Under Giant Trees
Robert Wyatt - Comicopera


& failed to enjoy : LCD Soundsystem, Battles, Fiery Furnaces, Burial, Kate Nash, Jamie T, Mark Ronson et al

Crack open the sloe gin

Crack open the sloe gin and have a couple of listens to The Tuss - probably Richard James' alter ego - which finds its way to my ears. It's ok I suppose, but it just sounds like a lot of Ableton Live and a.n.other bit of software, with the same mashed beats and wafty pads. Don't get me wrong, it's still about the most important work to come out this year.

Good too, to hear a lot of Stockhausen on the radio, though it's a shame he had to die before that was possible. It's a guarantee of extra exposure, the dying game: Remember laughing with NJ @ Mouse Records back in '97, that it'd be the best way of marketing 'Baltic Beats'.

Oh dear - the Stockhausen's got a bit shouty now. Think I need to come back to earth with a mindless half hour of telly footy.

First frosts

Frost coming tonight, so I gathered up a few things from the allotment, including the last of the small pumpkins and dug up the vietnamese coriander bush to take home for the winter. I've already got half a dozen shoots in a jar of water which have sprouted taproots 3-4 cm long and are ready for potting up.
Never done so much faffing around before the first frosts - herded a load of potted plants indoors like sheep, some even though they don't really need it (olives, geraniums, parsley) and others to extend their lives a bit (lobelia, tomatoes, marigolds, dahlias). Wrapped up a couple of outside dahlias with bubblewrap, just to see whether I'll get the last buds to flower when it warms up a bit later in the week.

Late autumn sun

Late autumn sun ensures at least a couple of pumpkins mature in time for Halloween.
Sunflower heads in the shed had got damp and were starting to rot, so I sat in the sun separating a couple of hundred seeds.
Collected gladioli and rocket seeds too.
Planted out broad beans. The ones sown directly into the ground are finally emerging.
Harvested kale, rocket, lambs lettuce and a couple of carrots.

Sow when the moon is low

Peculiarly warm, dark, day, busy up the allotment :
Cycled with a bag of compost from home, dug a trench and buried it
Cleared more space and planted another 50 onion sets
Planted 24 garlic cloves
Planted a dozen broad beans in open ground & a few in a seed tray
Made a small bonfire
Skimmed off some pond weed
Harvested : a marrow shaped pumpkin, the rest of the late new potatoes, a parsnip, some rocket & the last cucumber.

Jorge Saxon / Galapagos Manufacture Remix

Jorge Saxon/Galapagos Manufacture Remix (edit) - mp3



Spent the last couple of weeks working on this remix for Jorge, who I met 17 years ago when I lived and worked in Poland and he was barely out of short trousers ! Apparently it's coming out on vinyl in Poland, together with other remixes - which is cool, 'cos I thought vinyl days were over. I'll be posting the whole track on MySpace soon.

When Badgers Attack

Argh! I had been warned, but didn't quite believe it would happen to me : The badger/s came for my ripe sweetcorn in the night, taking three or four which we were going to have for lunch. "At least someone enjoyed them", said my sweet, philosphical daughter.


Still loads of runners left - picked another kilo today.


Glad I made the effort earlier - about 20 giant Russian sunflowers made it past the slugs this year.


...and this pumpkin is out of the danger zone - I've lost three small ones to slugs.


Not quite a record breaker - the ruler was bendier than the bean!


Three or four tiny ridge cucumbers - hope it's not too late for them to mature.

Gorgeous Morning

Gorgeous morning, worth getting up early to enjoy. Harvested more runner beans, french beans, sweetcorn and raspberries up at the allotment and cut back my leeks, which are all infested with leek moth larvae. Checked on and watered the pumpkins - think about five might make it - cabbages, spinach, kale seedlings and carrots. Dug over a dry patch of ground, ready for something later in the month.

Afternoon and evening in the studio, writing, mixing and backing up as I go along.

CD Baby Payment

Hurrah ! Receive digital royalties and sales payments from 'CD Baby' in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. - Boo ! The buck is at a low against the quid.

Today's Harvest

- 750 g Raspberries
- 1 kg Runner Beans
- 1 Sweetcorn
- 500 g French Beans
- 3 stalks Rhubarb
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 1 leek
- 1 bunch Vietnamese Coriander

Sad Mac : (

Unbelievable ! In the same week that the studio amp dies and there's a lengthy powercut, the screen on the Powermac 5500 dies.

I know it's had 8 years of service - and was a few years old when I bought it second hand for £600 - but I was starting to believe it would live forever. The screen's been flickering on start up for a couple of years or more and as soon as that started happening, I got prepared for it to die. However, slowly I got used to the occasional flicker, when it would sometimes warp back to front for a few seconds, which was quite spectacular !

This evening, I was resurrecting the latest track, editing sounds in the sampler, when the screen went to sleep. Foolishly, I immediately woke it up, which it didn't like at all : It blinked and then went black, dragging all the software and data with it into a deep, probably eternal slumber.

Just as well I've got the Powerbook 3400 for immediate SCSI and MIDI needs, though even the transition to that will take getting used to. Don't have a USB scanner or MIDI/audio interface for this Mac or the PC - but the time is fast approaching.

Sweetcorn

Harvested the first ripe sweetcorn today : Wow - how tasty was that ?
Also : 1 kg Raspberries
1 kg Cobra beans
2 kg Runner Beans

...and got given a beetroot on the way out : )

Took some of the compost from my compost heap at home and dug it into the plot.

Blown Amp

Kenwood amplifier has stopped working : ( Don't think it was being overloaded. Strange thing was, after it stopped working a display light was still lit, albeit not showing what it should have, but when I turned it off and turned it back on half an hour later, there was no display light.

There was a smell of burning bakelite, or similar. I checked the fuse in the plug and googled for some help. After a while, I dug out a spare amp and got on with some work. Hope I can repair it, especially if it turns out to be something fairly simple, like an internal fuse, but as it's around ten years old it might be difficult to get spares.

Reasonably good replacements are fairly cheap - but I'd like to avoid being a consumer.

What's more, it belonged to a good friend and has sentimental value.