Category Archives: From our guest contributor

A mix containing flowers from Bristol

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Nice to hear from Kit, G5KIT this afternoon, he emailed “Spring has officially arrived over here in Bristol. Two random daffodils have sprouted in the garden!” Great stuff.

So, in celebration of this here’s a great mix he sent us, and we’ve never heard any of these tunes before. Cheers Kit, it’s great to hear mixes from our gardening friends. Keep them coming!

Track listings:
Spinal Tap – (Listen To The) Flower People
The Hobbits – Daffodil Days
The Syn – Flower man
Luscious Jackson – Water Your Garden
Derek and the Dominos – Keep On Growing

A heavy duty gardening report from France

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Thanks to Spike from Morschen43 for sharing photos of the back-breaking work he’s undertaken in his garden in Le Puy-en-Velay in France this week (more on his great garden here). Seeing the couch grass dandelions and the pickaxe, fork and shovel, we’re breaking into a sweat just looking at the pictures. As he told us “The most used tools used in the work were a fork and a spade”. You’ll all agree he’s done a great job to say the least after looking at the “after” pictures at the bottom of this blog post!

Cheers for keeping us updated and we’d love to see how the garden progresses throughout the year. You’ve done well this week Spike and we are never going to complain again about working hard in our garden looking at these pictures!

A report from north London

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If you remember, last month Debby H in north London let us know that the early sowing of her cosmos seeds had germinated (here).  She very kindly sent us a picture of how they are getting on now and look how healthy they look! “We will put some in a flowerpot soon and put it in the plastic green house.” Great stuff! We still haven’t sown ours yet and will have to do so soon.

So also sent us a great picture of some daffodils growing on an area of council-owned land, down the middle of a road near where she lives. Impressive or what? Thanks Debby and let’s hope spring is around the corner.

Weather report from the lakes

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It’s been damp and overcast down here in SE23 today so the gardening we were planning to do was confined to repotting some seedlings indoors. Thanks to Rich R in the Lake District for letting us know about the weather up there. “Still some snow on the hill tops this week. Biting winds but lovely sun and it’s light until nearly 6.30pm.” Great stuff Rich and ta for the picture, we can’t wait for spring.

Ground floor: perfumery, stationery and leather goods

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A big thanks to our good friend Marc B. who sent us this wonderful short film from Marc Isaacs called Lift. It’s a film well worth watching, all 24.37 minutes of it (and it should go on for longer!) More about this great film here.

A bit of a prune for a plum tree on a sunny afternoon

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Cheers to Spike from Morschen43, for letting us know he was out in his garden in Le Puy-en-Velay in Southern France today, giving his Quetsch plum tree a bit of a prune and for sending us some pictures.

The weather looks great over there, he was saying it was sunny and around 11 degrees C. That’s a nice extended pair of loppers in the bottom picture Spike and do keep sending us those garden updates please.

A mix for the year of the fire ‘oss

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A big thanks to Kit, G5KIT for sending us a mix of his in honour of the new Chinese Year of the Horse and a right great mix it is too. As he said about making it, “It took my mind off the ‘orrible weather for a bit, at least.” Great stuff Kit!

Tracklistings:
The Divine Comedy – My Lovely Horse
Horace Andy + Stepper – Horse With No Name (Dub)
Emperor Penguin – Mysterious Pony
Doc Watson – Tennessee Stud
Lil Nas X – Old Town Road

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