It may be raining here…

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It’s a terrible day today here in London. It’s tipping it down, feels about zero degrees and last night we even put some protection around the mimosa plant we have in a large pot near the house, just in case.

It’s a lot better over the other side of the world in Perth, Australia where our Downbeat on Shortwave collaborator Jesse Yuen is, and he’s sent a couple of pictures of the gardening work he did yesterday in the searing heat of 36 °C but today is a nicer 26 °C. Above is a view of the front garden which is coming along nicely (in October he sent us a post about starting work on his garden here) and yesterday he put some steel edging in. Looks great!

Also he planted a hakea pin cushion plant, that we had never heard of before. He said, “They have amazing flowers when mature” and he’s right there (below).

Cheers for the update Jesse and we look forward to seeing more pictures of the garden as they are inspiring.

Around the world on the 45th Parallel

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Last weekend, Imaginary Stations beamed their Annual 45th Parallel Midwinter Broadcast via the ionosphere using the services of the great Shortwave Gold. From a secret shortwave laboratory in the mountains way up north, the broadcast had tracks featuring the circle of latitude, music from above, below and along the magic line, and also tunes to keep us warm during this mid-winter season thanks to DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore.

And at 07.15 One Deck Pete brings us a mix called Above and Below the 45th Parallel.

Tracklistings:
Radio Lario – 30 Degrees North
Boca 45 – Forty Five
Haj i Ji – Above and below (RSD remix)
The 45 King – Armen
The Soulfulists – 4 degrees warmer

So get wrapped up, get a cup of hot cocoa in your hands and make sure you’re wearing those warm comfy slippers and enjoy this show of the highest (45 degrees) order,

Music for winter walks

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Cheers to WillJeff for sending on his latest mix called “Music for winter walks 2026”. It’s a mix of songs he’s been listening to while out walking the dog. It’s a lovely mix of stuff we’ve never heard of before and one to have on in the headphones while stepping out for a stroll as there’s some wonderful stuff on here. Cheers Will!

Tracklistings:
Marku Ribas – Musseke
Kwashibu Area Band – Mpaebo Mu Asomdwee
Sabine McCalla – Sunshine Kisses
Jonny Faith – Ibrium
Gelli Haha – Normalize
Saul, Natty Wylah – Coalesce
JIM – Phoenix
Land of the Loops – I Confess

Slow mo shortwave

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Imaginary Stations will be bringing another Downbeat on Shortwave (show number 3) this weekend (cheers Fred!) on Saturday 14th February 2026 at 1200 UTC and on Sunday 15th February 2026 at 1000/1400 hrs/2100 UTC on 6160 kHz.

Our good dub gardening friend Jesse Yuen from North of The River Swan, Perth, Australia and One Deck Pete from SE23, will be bringing you two 15 minute mixes each in a back to back downtempo style.

Tune in your shortwave radio or if you haven’t got one, via an online Software Defined Radio here (tuned into 6160 kHz) at the right time this weekend in AM mode and listen in and chill out to their slow-mo selection.

Well it looked smaller on the website

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We popped to B&Q this morning to get a container for a newly aquired mimosa plant that we can’t decide where to actually put it in the garden. One in a pot may be good and can be moved around until we find the right spot. The pot was bigger than we thought!

The birthplace of Michael Fish

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We’ve just come back from a couple of days at the south coast. We had some alright weather at Eastbourne (above, looking towards the Holy Well, Beachy Head is around the corner and the cliffs above are where we met a character with a rucksack here the other year) but when we went to Brighton, it tipped it down and somehow with the constant rain, the town lost a bit of its sparkle.

This rainy weather is enough to send you into a downward spiral but spring will grace us soon with its presence. We’ve started off some seeds, the chillies that aren’t really doing that much from since the last time we looked but it’s only been a week, it’s just that time of year but we stuck some Moneymaker tomatoes and a couple of Quick Fire Chillies in pots with a freezer bag over the top on various windowsills. Fingers crossed!

The rail/musical connection

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While researching a rail mix for a future shortwave transmission we remembered this ambient mix of The KLF’s Last Train to Transcentral which we first heard one evening on the John Peel show. The day after, we were going through Brixton Station and popped into Solar Records, (a record shop now long closed, which was just inside the station. More on the shop here) to see if they had the tune.

We remember the guy behind the counter telling us he had some copies but had sent his entire stock back because all of the copies were warped. We are sure he may told us that every copy of the single pressed was warped on purpose as an “art” thing. Not sure if it was true or not but we didn’t bother looking for the tune after that as who wants a warped record?*

News Update: according to discogs: “Limited to 1000 copies (*another 1000 were warped and therefore destroyed)” 

Years later we were going through Charing Cross train station, and we saw the owner of that record shop in a train inspector’s uniform with a nice hat inspecting tickets at the ticket gate. The moral of this tale is music and trains do connect us all!

Buses connect us all

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Here’s KBUS from last weekend, a tribute to the ‘umble autobus from Imaginary Stations. There’s all sorts of bus related tunes from DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore and the show really is the ticket if you love bus travel!

The show includes at 03.49 a mix from One Deck Pete called Mind The Closing Doors and here’s the tracklistings:
Alan Doyle [f/ Steph Simon] – Confessions Of A Bus Rider
Hoovobot – No fair Bus Fare
The Salsoul Orchestra – Chicago bus stop
Lifetime Pineapple – Double bus fare

Big up the bus!

Things that appear in your front garden (a new series)

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A big cheers to Rich in the Lake District again, for sending this picture of what appeared in his front garden the other day. Wow, that is one mad “male Common Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), also frequently called a Ring-necked Pheasant.” as AI told us. Cheers Rich, anything else mad that turns up as mad please let us know.

Japan in dub

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Thanks to Stevyn Iron Feather Journal for sending this tune on to us via Facebook messenger late last night. “Some wicked japan dub” he told us and rightly so! Cheers Stevyn.