Getting on the right track

Here’s the Imaginary Stations tribute to the humble locomotive, CTRN. All the crew were aboard this week including DJ Frederick, Justin Patrick Moore and Marc from Belgium with all sorts of interesting train stuff crammed into the one hour show which was broadcast thanks to Shortwave Gold.

After a great story from Marc from Belgium at 7.50 mins in is a mix from One Deck Pete called “This one’s for the trainspotters out there”. Here’s the tracks:
Saiko – Traintrack
Jah Wobble – Turner, Whistler and Blake
The Hardy Tree – Railway tracks
Vin Morgan meets Lone Ark – Train Dub
Otis Rush – So many roads, so many trains

Here’s a few more train related tunes.

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

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.

And we don’t know nothing, and we don’t really care

We just heard on the Craig Charles show Nobody but you by Clarence Reid from 1969 and were shellshocked by the intro. We just didn’t know! Have a listen…

We remember a good while ago spotting this intro from James & Bobby Purify from I’m your puppet which is adapted on the excellent I am the toughest from Peter Tosh. We heard both songs a good few times and just didn’t make the connection.

That’s what we love about Reggae, you think you know a little about the genre and you know next to nada. We are always prepared to be educated and suprised, a bit like gardening!

Damping off and fungus gnats please stay away

Thanks to Debby H who got in touch again to let us know that the cosmos seeds she put in a few days ago are now germinating (above). We will now experiment and start ours off, if we can find space on the windowsills. Cheers Debby, do keep us updated.

We can’t help being a bit paranoid with our chilli seeds (Prairie Fire Mini Bush Chilli Pepper and Lemon Drop Hot Citrus Pepper) below, we sowed on January 10th (post here). If you remember a few years ago we started some off and then we lost most of them to the dreaded damping off.

So, this year we spent a bit more on seed compost and took the lid off the propagator as soon as the seeds germinated. We’ve now moved them to the kitchen windowsill and keep checking the compost so we’re not overwatering them but they don’t seem to have grown much since January 30th (here). Have we just got a case of DOP (damping off paranoia)?

The moneymaker tomato seeds have germinated, and we’ve taken the plastic freezer bag off them. As long as those black fungus gnats stay away we should be alright! We’re taking advice from Gardener’s World: “Control them by allowing soil to dry out between waterings, using yellow sticky traps, and placing sand on the soil surface.

A canna lily in north London

Thanks to Debby H for getting in touch with a great picture of her canna lily and don’t it look grand!
She also let us know that she sowed the first of her cosmos seeds a couple of days ago and she’ll let us know when they start showing up. As she said “It’s a bit early to sow them, but it’s an experiment!” We are always up for gardening experiments here. Saying that most of our gardening experiences are experiments.

A mix for the year of the fire ‘oss

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

A view from the lakes

Cheers to Rich in the Lake District for sending this lovely snap today and don’t it look great up in the background? “A lovely day here, freezing and sunny.” It wasn’t bad here in London today either, bright and sunny. And no rain for a change.

Do you reckon sping is on its way? Or not very far away?

 

Who listens to shortwave these days?

A big thanks again to DJ Frederick and all the Imaginary Stations Crew for broadcasting the Downbeat on Shortwave 3 show over the weekend via those radio transmitters at Shortwaveradio.de

The show featured a “hands across the ionsphere” collaboration between Jesse Yuen from Perth, Australia and One Deck Pete from south London, UK who played two 15 minute mixes each in a back to back style featuring some downtempo business.

We’ve posted up two recordings of the show. The first is the super stereo studio recording, clean as a whistle.

Then the off-air recording via the shortwaves recorded in glorious mono. There’s added texture to the show thanks to signals bouncing off the ionosphere/groundwave propagation. Enjoy both recordings!

Tracklistings:
One Deck Pete Mix 1
Alpha Seven – Rain chime (beatless remaster)
Múm – There Is A Number Of Small Things (2019 Remaster)
Submersible – Teak Forest

Jesse Yuen Mix 1
Siva – Respect (version)
Mohinder Kaur Bhamra – Mainu Apne Pyar Wich (Mystic Jungle Remix)
Coyote – Living In Heaven

One Deck Pete Mix 2
Rauschwerk – Oxidation (timeless space mix)
Kris Kemist – Casio Hip Hop
Junior Y Su Equipo – La Borrachita
Terror-Cactus – Descalzo

Jesse Yuen Mix 2
Michael Shultz – Weather report excerpt
Elijah Minnelli – Venn Diagram (Dub)
The Modern Pop Ensemble – Brakhage (Stereolab cover)
OK EG – Open Sky

It may be raining here…

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

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,