Sedum Trays (Dirty Fingers)

Yeah I’m blogging about Gardening now. Glance around my flat and you’ll see an abandoned vintage typewriter, knitting needles wedged on top of some books, my acrylic paints are under the TV, remnants of last years Sloe Gin are on our (dwindling) drinks shelf, my bike is outside and now I have a sedum tray at my feet. I am a hobby whore. I will never settle on one thing long enough to perfect it. A sentence that can be applied to most areas in my life.

My mum is an amazing gardener. When we first moved into the family home when I came along thirty-five years ago our gardens were paved over, not even a weed poked through the concrete. My mum turned them into a brightly coloured haven, carefully choosing plants to attract our disappearing butterflies and bees. Last time I was at home she made me think of gardens as an art form. “Think about all the colours you see around you in nature. It’s like picking out colours you’d want to paint with.”

Having just moved into a flat with the luxury of some outdoor space we set about making a sedum tray. It’s like building your own miniature garden. When you head out to a garden centre (or my favourite Columbia Road flower market) you’ll need a decent size pot and then chose a mixture of succulents and alpine plants (ones that effectively thrive well in hard conditions and grow well when clumped together).

Prepare your pot by lining the bottom with a smashed old plant pot (obviously not the plastic ones) which will help with the drainage. Mix some grit in with your soil (as they don’t like getting too wet). Don’t bother wearing gloves, I think there’s something about getting dirty hands that is far more satisfying. Just make sure you pack the soil tightly between each of the plants you put in and don’t pack it out too much, remember these plants will blossom and grow! The photo below was taken the moment we put this together, now the plants tumble over the sides or reach up to the sky.

Sedum trays don’t need a lot of care which is what makes them so perfect (it helps that succulents retain water). You won’t need to water it constantly every 7-10 days. Just make sure you snip off any dead flowers to make room for new ones to grow. Like getting a fringe trim!

Finally, here’s a gardening inspired playlist for you all, featuring Bat for Lashes, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Jeff Mangum, Wild Nothing, PJ Harvey and more. Enjoy.

2013 So Far (In A Playlist)

My blog is now in its third year of posting the music that’s grabbed me the most, floated my boat, captured my heart during the first six months of the year, in a historically strict twenty-five tracks. (I fully expect the person who first made me think of doing this will, as usual, come up with a far superior list).

You can play my 2013 tracks so far via YouTube or Spotify.

1. Mount Kimbie – Made To Stray
2. Daft Punk – Lose Yourself To Dance
3. John Grant – GMF
4. Kurt Vile – Was All Talk
5. Public Service Broadcasting – ROYGBIV
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Despair
7. Daughter – Youth
8. Suede – It Starts And Ends With You
9. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
10. Boards Of Canada – Reach For The Dead
11. Haim – Falling
12. David Bowie – Where Are We Now?
13. Wolf Alice – Bros
14. Darwin Deez – You Can’t Be My Girl
15. Disclosure – Latch
16. Local Natives – Wooly Mammoth
17. Villagers – Passing A Message
18. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds – Mermaids
19. Jessie Ware – Imagine It Was Us
20. Phoenix – Trying To Be Cool
21. Fuck Buttons – The Red Wing
22. Gaz Coombes Presents – One Of These Days
23. Foals – My Number
24. Kelis – Jerk Ribs
25. Queens Of The Stone Age – I Sat By The Ocean

Marylebone and Eton Mess

I won’t name the person in question as she’s far too modest and wrinkles her nose up at praise. Pay her a compliment and she accepts gracefully but always adds “funny how people see you isn’t it?”. I’ll leave it up to her if she wants to share this post. Today is her birthday and well, she’s truly been a bloody brilliant friend to me the past year.

She’s helped me move house on a Monday night straight from work, carrying boxes and boxes of books to the top floor of my building. Shared many a glass of wine and gin. Shared some special gigs. Reminded me I’m well loved during tough times. I remember a particularly low day last July she sat opposite me in a pub in Marylebone. Her expressions a complete mirror of my own, she was genuinely as upset as I was.  To me that’s a dear friend, someone whose very expressions show they’re going through it with you. She’s an amazing person.

So, this mixtape is for her, you can play it on Spotify or YouTube.

Happy Birthday and I’ll see you later so you can blow out the candles on your Eton Mess. ♥

1. Bonobo Feat. Andreya Triana – Stay The Same
2. The Knife – Heartbeats
3. Zulu Winter – You Deserve Better
4. Jessie Ware – Taking In Water
5. Polica – Lay Your Cards Out
6. How To Dress Well – & It Was U
7. Daft Punk – Get Lucky
8. Kindness – Swingin’ Party
9. Chromatics – Kill For Love
10. SBTRKT – Pharaohs

Field Day Mixtape 2013

The bands I’ll be aiming to see at Field Day this Saturday in a mixtape (I distinctly remember writing last years sitting in a park in the sunshine). Although, from my present mood I am considering rounding off the day watching John Cooper Clarke so I should have added poetry and spoken word into my list. With a cider in my hand, the smell of petrichor in the air and dirt on my knees. I do get goosebumps over that first festival of the year feeling.

You can play my mixtape on YouTube.

Hoxton Robbings and Roofs.

Not many daughters are on the receiving end of a smug dad when they get robbed. My first weekend as an East London resident resulted in my iPhone being swiped as I dashed into a shop on Hoxton Street sober as a judge in broad daylight. My dad, born and bred in the area, has put up with years of people telling them how much Hoxton has changed but when my mum broke the news of this theft he  jubilantly exclaimed. “Told you Hoxton hasn’t changed!”.

Out of the two old dears that nosed their way into my misfortune one comforted me and offered to pray to Saint Anthony while the other shouted at me for “being an idiot. you can’t take your eyes off anything for a second in Hoxton It’s crap!.” I suspect my Dad would have sided with her.

Last year I set myself a to-do list. Life happened and things didn’t pan out despite achieving it in parts. I have three Lido’s left to swim in London and I learnt how to ride a bike (albeit not brilliantly yet. I doubt I’d pass my cycling proficiency). This move sparks a mentality of getting back on track as living here was part of the plan.

Up on the roof.

We sat up on our roof terrace last night with a bottle of wine watching the sun go down and the water returning to glass after a day of long boats passing, plastic bags floating past like lyrics from a Suede song, Laburnum Boat Club plunging in and ragged looking ducks disturbing the canal. I felt the luckiest and calmest I’ve been in a long time despite the bad luck on the first weekend I arrived. 

P.S I predict I fall in the canal by the time the year is up.

P.P.S My first week was soundtracked by Kindness, David Bowie, Daft Punk, Bat for Lashes, Talking Heads, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Haim. You can play my mixtape on YouTube here.

A Happy Easter Glastonbury Mixtape

I never sleep well during a full moon. So if you add that to Tinnitus playing its wicked part in a lack of a peaceful nights sleep regardless of the lunar cycle, this week has been restless. At some point around 4am Wednesday morning I started trying to compile an Easter mixtape but all that kept popping into my head was songs from Jesus Christ Superstar and Blue’s All Rise (blame a catholic upbringing and drinking a lot of cider in a town that loved pop, tacky boy bands and R&B). Despite the fact that the mere mention of these songs runs the risk of creating unwanted earworms to anyone foolish enough to be reading I didn’t want to actually put you through hearing them.

Last night as I was sat sinking pints listening to my male colleagues talk golf and scrolling through my phone the Glastonbury line up was partly announced (I know there’s more to come because Thom Yorke in some guise wasn’t listed so I am still hopeful for John Grant and Yeah Yeah Yeahs in my wildest dreams). So instead of Easter this mixtape is based on those first knee jerk excitements as I glanced through the stages. I can smell the petrichor, sloe gin in hip flasks and the mud already.

You can play this on either YouTube or Spotify. Have a very merry Easter. ♥

1. Phoenix – Girlfriend
2. Tom Tom Club – Wordy Rappinghood
3. Solange – Losing You
4. Villagers – Becoming A Jackal
5. Foals – Milk & Black Spiders
6. The Rolling Stones -Ruby Tuesday
7. Devendra Banhart – Can’t Help But Smiling
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Nobody’s Baby Now
9. Nas – The Message
10. The Horrors – Still Life
11. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
12. Haim – Falling
13. Local Natives – Breakers
14. Rodriguez – Inner City Blues
15. Peace – Bloodshake

The Letter ‘Z’ Mixtape.

The amount of time it’s taken me to get round to the final letter of this self-imposed alphabet playlist challenge is living proof that I have found myself in a job where I have a severe, and saddening, lack of time to fart around on the internet. Oh to be a grown up.

But finally it is here. The letter Z. From Zoe to Zola Jesus, and Zulu Winter to ZZ Top. It has been a pleasure trotting through the alphabet musically for you all. I hope you’ve enjoyed at least some of the tunes.

Now onto the next mixtape challenge… coming soon.

You can play my letter Z mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Zulu Winter – Silver Tongue
2. Zebra – Right Here, Right Now
3. The Zutons – You Will You Won’t
4. ZZ Top – Gimme All Your Lovin’
5. The Zombies – She’s Not There
6. Zola Jesus – Night
7. Zoe – Sunshine On A Rainy Day
8. Zero 7 – Destiny

The Letter ‘Y’ Mixtape.

The penultimate letter of my alphabet playlists features one of my favourite bands, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I had to resist the temptation to only list tracks of theirs. From French electro pop to sixties legends. Part of me wishes this alphabetical challenge was ending here as Yazoo feels like one of those songs you walk away to, or from, if your life was a film.

You can play my letter Y mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. Yes – I’ve Seen All Good People
2. The Young Knives – Weekends and Bleak Days
3. Young Rebel Set – Red Bricks
4. The Yardbirds – For Your Love
5. Yo La Tengo – Is That Enough
6. Yeasayer – O.N.E
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Pin
8. You Say Party! We Say Die!
9. Yelle  – Que Veux-Tu (Madeon Remix)
10. Yazoo – Only You

The Letter ‘X’ Mixtape.

With the best intentions I thought I’d get through the entire alphabet in playlists last year but I failed with only three letters to go. Frankly, I’ve run out of steam and enlisted the help of Gareth and Matthew as X and Z are proving tricky. Thanks to them I am pushing on to finally complete this.

If you listen to the entire playlist IOU some sweets and/or booze. I can’t stand X-Press 2 but I was determined to get to 10 tracks and was willing to select this based on David Byrne featuring on it. Likewise I’ve never found my way in to The XX but I loved Angels from last year.

You can play my letter X mixtape on Spotify or YouTube. ♥

1. The XX – Angels
2. XTC – Making Plans For Nigel
3. Xpansions – Move Your Body
4. X-Ray Spex – Germ Free Adolescents
5. XXXY – Ordinary Things
6. Xiu Xiu – Dear God, I Hate Myself
7. The Xcerts – Aberdeen 1987
8. X – Soul Kitchen
9. Xzibit and Snoop Dogg – Bitch Please
10. X-Press 2 feat. David Byrne – Lazy

A Christmas Ten

You can play this mixtape on YouTube or Spotify. A very Merry Christmas and here’s to a perfect New Year. ♥