Monthly Archives: September 2023

Autumn, Jean-Michel Jarre and butternut squashes

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It ain’t half now turned a bit autumnal especially after the Autumn Equinox (on Saturday at 7.50am). At the end of the garden is a very small bed that has a right mixture of stuff in the tiny space include chillies and Cape gooseberry and peppers too. Also what we thought was some sort of melon may now be a butternut squash (pic below). Will it ripen before the frosts come?

And here’s a tune from Maurice Louca from Cairo a chap we discovered over the weekend while we were researching a forthcoming shortwave mix. From the excellently titled LP Benhayyi Al-Baghbaghan (Salute the Parrot) here’s the percussive monster called Maksim (Maxim) and it’s wonderful stuff. Listen to it a few times in a row and you’ll be noticing bits you never noticed the time before and be wanting to listen to it again. Mad mad stuff.

And while we’re talking about Cairo we’ve just remembered this tune from the excellent Zeb – The Spy From Cairo called Qanun in Dub.

That’s what I call house painting volume 34

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This morning we got the brushes out to give the back doors a lick over with a tin of paint and were looking what to put on while we where painting and found this excellent François K 6hr tribute to Jose Padilla. Six hours!

It’s from just after his sad passing a couple of years old and a wonderful tribute to Mr Sunset himself, RIP Jose Padilla. Tracklistings are in the Mixcloud comments and features this excellent dubbed out spainish guitar classic!

We’re now looking for some brushwashing classics, songs on a turpentine tip, nothing found as yet!

Morania calling, Morania calling

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If you fancy something different to listen to this Sunday 24th September 2023 there’s a couple of interesting broadcasts on those shortwaves for you. At 2000 hrs UTC on 3975 & 6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold possibly the hardest station to catch on the airwaves will be making an appearance, the elusive Radio Morania. Listen in for some very interest content.
While at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI the Imaginary Stations crew bring you the Imaginary Stations Polka Party. Expect lots of polka classics, all recorded live in front of an all singing and dancing audience in Poland. Poland, Maine that is. It will be one polka party, possibly the greatest ever polka party broadcast on shortwave!

Feeling (extremely) hot, hot, hot

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This year has been the first year we’ve taken growing chilli peppers a little bit more seriously, not that we had to do that much apart from give them a daily watering and a weekly feed of comfrey liquid. Our plants are mainly in pots (which we will bring inside in the winter if possible) except this one planted out in the flowerbed which is doing well.

This evening for the first time we took a good look under the foilage and found these fruits, and from the info on the plant label (this was a plant we were given in a plant swap) we  didn’t know if it was Hot or Pot Yellow. On further reseach could it be this one here? Looks like they turn yellow from green when they reach final maturity and are extremely hot. These may be the ones, 7 pot yellow!

This is the BBC calling, live from Deptford Market

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Found amongst the half opened bottles of shampoo, boxes of random electrical leads and general house clearance fare (to a soundtrack of someone wanting a refund from a sale the week previous of an electric good that went up in flames) here’s what we picked up at the Deptford Market for less than a quid this morning. It’s a first day cover from 1972 celebrating BBC & Broadcasting History, well interesting stuff, there’s a nice little inset with info about the featured stamps too. More on the item here.

If you would like to know how the story fared out with the damaged electrical good, here goes: “I want my money back” said the disappointed customer in very aggressive tones with some swearing thrown in too, “Where’s the device then?” said the vendor, “I threw it in the dustbin as it went on fire and could’ve burnt the house down” to which the market seller replied “No proof, no refund”. He may have a point! It weren’t one of those old wireless radios by any chance?

Slug–U–Like?

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“Slugs, what are they good for, absolutely nothing” as the song goes. We can’t think of a good reason for having them in the garden. We know that slugs are important as they provide food for birds, insects and all sorts and if we removed them we’d mess up the natural balance but they drive us wild here. We’re sure Bob Flowerdew or someone else reckoned they collected them and imprisoned them in a 1970’s type plastic clothes basket containing salad and garden waste and made them work all day making compost.

We at Weeds would like to redress the balance, so if you’ve heard good things about slugs (apart from providing food for wildlife) we would like to hear from you. We want to hear your tales of slugs who have saved lives, foreseen the future or have helped people to find their way back home on a foggy night. Please email onedeckpete at gmail dot com with your story (do include an address) and the winner of the best story will receive a selection of what’s left over in our seed tin. You don’t get prizes like that offered on other blogs!

Stars on 45

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Here’s the Imaginary Stations show WS7S – The Skybird Seven Inch Vinyl Special a show in praise of the humble seven inch single that was broadcast on Sunday 10th September 2023 via WRMI. There’s some gems on here with some light scratches and a little bit of off-centre pressing madness.

At a few seconds into the audio One Deck Pete brings you a mix called The Skybird Single Club. Here’s the tracks:
Rotary Connection – Like a rolling stone
Weekend – The view from her room
Earl Curry – One whole year baby
Felice Taylor – I feel love comin’ on
Toby Nelson – You don’t need me (Version)

Have a listen to the show and rediscover the world of the humble seven inch single.

Talking of radio shows this Sunday 17th September 2023 we have two imaginary station related programmes on the shortwave. At 2000 hrs UTC on 3975 & 6160 kHz via Shortwave Gold we have DJ Frederick’s Shortwave Music Library where he picks some choice classics and rarities not usually aired heard over the wireless. Expect all sorts of eclectic stuff.

Talking of wireless, at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI the Imaginary Stations crew bring you WTAB. A trip back in time where trebly voices and music flowed through horn type loudspeakers and when it got too loud a spare sock would dampen the sound. Expect some old tunes from way way back in the day!

There’s no real reason

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Yesterday with no plan in our heads we tidied up what we call the “wild bit” at the bottom of the garden. We used to grow veg there but it doesn’t really get that much sun so a couple of years ago we sowed some “bee bombs” and what other wild seeds we could find and the area went a bit wild.

We were very influenced by this wonderful pond made by Bill Shimmers at the time of sowing the wild seeds (above) and added our own versions in a smaller and cheaper way utilising a slow cooker crock pot, a dutch pot that only had one handle and a tupperware box. An example of “down at heel” pond construction at its finest and nowhere as great as Bill’s. We are sure at the time Bill replied to our tweet at the time saying kindly that even the smallest addition of water in the garden will help the wildlife. What is great though yesterday we saw the odd frog in one, a drowned slug or two in the other and some very strange moving things that could have just been the “floaters” in our eyes playing up or the effects of dehydration. That was without our glasses on as well so there could well have been more stuff moving about.

As it was very cool down there for most of the day (compared to the 32 degrees C in the sun) we just started and kept on going, taking stuff away and adding the odd different plants and herbs we have about the garden already. We reckon it will be an ongoing project as we can see a couple of plants we want to take out but we don’t want it too sparse as the wildlife needs a hiding place. There was no plan, make it up on the spot gardening innit?

Enjoy the last couple of days of intense heat as we’re supposed to be going back to the early 20 degree C next week. Here’s to more wildlife in the garden.