Not many words just pictures

Will it rain again, will the sun come out or will we all be blown away by the wind? That’s the questions on our mind whilst in the garden just. We’ve already stopped mowing half way through doing the grass in the back because of the heavy showers.

To cheer ourselves up we’ve taken some pictures. Here’s a great self seeding poppy (above) and a small  fruit truss  forming on another tomato plant (below). Just because we’re in lockdown, nature don’t stop does it? #lockdowngardening #halfmowngrassrulesok

To be transmitted live on 3955

Here’s a sneak preview of a forthcoming transmission from DJ Frederick’s Radio Lavalamp (“We’re bridging the gap between mystery and science. You’ve tuned to a cosmic flow of Radio Lavalamp on shortwave”) which will be broadcast on Sunday 12th July at 2200 UTC (11pm UK time) on 3955 kHz via Channel 292 in the 75 metre band.

The transmission features our own One Deck Pete who supplied an experimental mix for the station called “The Purple Nucleus of Creation 001” which is at 21.48 minutes in on the soundcloud below.

Tracklisting:
Carlos Pizzetti – Lucky Star (Interlude) – Popular Computer
Zane Moss – Found – Gloria Recordings
Julie Østengaard – Is That You? (Part 2) – Phinery
100th Monkey – Blessed Love – Disco Gecko
Mahamboro – Inane – Orange Cliff
Blundetto – Paseo – Heavenly Sweetness

For more freeform radio brought to you by DJ Frederick, tune into Radio Lavalamp. #shortwavesnotdead #radiolavalamp

https://soundcloud.com/djfrederick/radio-lavalamp-july-2020-3955-khz

This is a pepper

We filled some of those raised beds a bit tight at the beginning of lockdown and it’s starting to look a bit like a jungle in some of them now. Perhaps it wasn’t the correct way of using them what with all the plants fighting for space, soil and water. In the raised bed (below) we’ve two tomato plants and a load of peas at the back, a lettuce and two cabbages in the middle row and in the front row either two chilli peppers or more than likely two peppers PLUS some spuds. Can we put anything else in there? Talk about square metre gardening!

With raised beds they do tend to dry out easily so we’re forever giving them a water during the morning. The great Joe Maiden would say never water at night as the slugs and snails would be attracted to the moisture and suggested always early in the day is best for watering and we’ve also started giving the raised beds a comfrey feed once a week too.

The peppers or chillies or whatever they are, are flowering (top and bottom pics) and there’s some mini-fruits too! We love those raised beds!

Ambience to help you melt away during lockdown

Wow what a day! It peaked at just over 30 today and we’re good for nothing this evening. Here’s a tune that compliments how we’re feeling in the best possible way. It’s Oblomov with Umiraet Rodina (The DJ Stress M.C.P Remix) on the Moveton label. We don’t know what genre you’d call it but we do love it here. To accompany this tune is an oddly cropped picture of the water lilies down the pond.

What will tomorrow bring in terms of weather?

Hot You’re Hot

My gosh it’s baking today so this makes it “classic lockdown” weather like what we had at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. A time when the only habit to worry about was taking single teabags down to the compost heap a few times daily. That was long before the daily trip down with a garden fork to give the dalek bin a mix took hold. Those were the days my friends…

And talking of friends we had one visit us yesterday evening (above) who perched on the bamboo cane supporting a tomato plant while we were sitting in the Dad corner giving it a bit of a Henry David Thoreau with a mug of tea.

Oh yeah, the erratically sown poppies (below) don’t half appreciate being out in this heat unlike us at Weeds who prefer a bit of shade!

So to all those gardeners (and non-gardeners) in lockdown wherever you are in the world, hang on in there, do keep in the shade and enjoy the current spate of classic lockdown weather with a few reggae tunes.

And while we’re on the Keith Hudson production thing.

How’s life in London?

It’s sweltering and it’s not even 12 noon yet! We’ve got KFAI on and tuned into the Echo Chamber and listening to the last few tunes of the programme played by DJ Baby Swiss AKA CAPNCOZY (who co-hosts with the one and only Dr Strangedub) and this one by Kliment & Tuatara called Super Moon was just played. Perfect for weather like this!

A garden update and a tune

Thanks to our good friend across the pond Justin Patrick Moore for the sending us a photo update of his back garden. That’s what’s brilliant around this time of year, the garden seems to grow overnight and at a fair rate too. We all should really appreciate this time as autumn will be here before we know it. Above are the “Tiger Lilies gone wild” and below is entitled “When the Compost Takes on a Life of it’s Own” and we all know about that when we get those potato peelings and old onions sprouting! Is that a cucumber/courgette growing and are there a few mushrooms in there too?

And below a nice patch of borage that the bees love and the leaves are a good addition to comfrey if you’re making a liquid feed.

He also sent us a nice tune to accompany the pics from Anna Nacher & Marek Styczyński off the LP entitled Throbbing Plants (the title sounding very Genesis Breyer P-Orridge meets Percy Thrower.)

Thank you for the pics Justin. Please send your garden pics, no matter how small your garden is, even if it’s just a couple of pots on a windowsill, send them in! The address is onedeckpete (at) gmail.com we’d love to see your garden!

And through the magic of amplitude modulation…

Here’s a recording off an online SDR of today’s One Deck Pete’s “Tunes to cheer you up” which was transmitted on Free Radio Skybird via Channel 292. This is the fifth episode in the series and this week it’s an exclusive of an early mix of a new tune from Jazz’min & Madtone with “Return to the branches”. Apologies for the non Hi-Fi quality but that’s what you get with that wireless thingy.

Tomorrow’s tomato today

Judging by the weather forecast it looks like the good weather is returning next week. We’ve had some rain and sun this week which may have kept us in but it’s making the veg and the back lawn come out of themselves. Those scorch marks on the grass have now turned a shade of dark green and here’s something we spotted this morning, our first tomato, we know it’s early days but it’s the first one! We’ve already started feeding all the veg once a week with that smelly comfrey liquid so it is doing something! Roll on the good weather!  #tomatoesinlockdown  #lockdowngardeningnearlewisham

Tomorrow’s music yesterday

This Sunday 21st June sees the last in the present schedule of DJ Frederick’s Free Radio Skybird until the autumn. So tune in at 1100 UTC on 6070 kHz in the 49 Metre shortwave band via Channel 292 and if you haven’t got a suitable radio it can also be heard on the SDR link on their site here.

This month’s programme will feature DJ FrederickJustin Patrick Moore’s Radiophonic Laboratory, our very own One Deck Pete with Tunes to cheer you up, Jim Salmon with Radio Emma Toc World Service and a documentary on singer/songwriter Jim Sullivan (more on him here).

Tunes to cheer you up features a shortwave exclusive of an early mix of Jazz’min & Madtone’s brand new tune Return to the branches (at 33.33 mins in the Soundcloud link below). #shortwavesnotdead #freeradioskybird #jazzmin&madtone

https://soundcloud.com/djfrederick/free-radio-skybird-june-21-and-28-2020