The other evening we played that outdoor game which involves some gardening gloves, a hoe and a pair of secateurs. The game involved walking up and down the beds knocking off any weeds, clipping anything that’s a bit overgrown and generally tidying up. No matter how many times you go back to an area you’ll always find some weeds you’ve missed so it’s worth having a second look. Around the pond was a lot of tiny bits of bindweed coming up between the stones, it’s easy to miss them when they’re small but after a while unchecked they’ll just take over. We also transferred some small poppies we found in the flower beds to around the pond to make the area a bit more interesting then just a sea of broken paving stones.
And the peppers or chillies (we can’t remember what they are) we grew from seed are starting to get accustomed to the outside world of sun, slugs and snails. There’s even a couple of flowers!
And taking an idea from our mate Gerry Hectic with his strawberries in a dustbin we’ve “repurposed” an inside of an old swing bin and stuck some of the mess that were/are the waterlilies that were once in the pond. Why chuck them out when they can be slung in an old bin!
And remember if you want some radio fun this weekend, KFOG the repeated Channel 292 transmission from last weekend is on this Saturday 26th June 2021 at 0900 utc on 6070 kHz. The next day Sunday 27th June 2021 KFOG – The Lighthouse Keeper’s remix is being beamed out of the WRMI transmitter from in Miami on 9395 kHz at 2300 utc. Discover some music from out of the mist.
And finally thanks to our friend Paul G in Melbourne for informing us of the internet radio madness that is Shirley and Spinoza here that played this tune below the other day. Felix looks like a chap who should be employed with no questions asked if he ever attended an interview as dressed in the youtube video. “And where do you see yourself in a year’s time if you get this job Mr Kubin?”
A quick reminder that KFOG takes to the high seas via Channel 292 on Sunday June 20th 2021 and gets underway at 1200 utc (1pm UK time) and also at 0900 utc (10am UK time) on Saturday June 26th. Both transmissions are on 6070 kHz.
Expect some above board business, ship to shore radio calls and a mix from One Deck Pete called “A mix from across the Pond” with tunes from Kiyoko, Honeychild & DJ Olive, BOATS, Robert Mellin and The Congo’s. Tune in here at the alloted time if you haven’t one of those shortwave wirelesses!
Last Friday evening we had a first here, well not actually here but on the estate backing us. There was a lawn mower going like the clappers from about 8pm to about 10.30 pm. That’s the latest we’ve EVER heard a mower going! Turns out it was a resident as the next evening was an outdoor birthday party held on the grassed area (playing some great music by the way) It’s not a massive estate but a sort of place a council mower on a back of a tractor can do in 15 minutes. Let’s hope the mower they used had headlights! The question is, was the edging done?
And we had another first, our mad big poppy grown from seed has just flowered (above). Well worth the wait! More on oriental poppies here.
Big shout to Gerry Hectic for sending us a pic of his dustbin fruit container conversion job which he did last year. It’s coming on a treat at the moment, look at those strawberries turning red! That’s a great idea Gerry!
And (below) here’s a few random flower pics from the Weeds garden taken this morning.
If you’ve got pics ofyour garden do send them in! Email them to onedeckpete (at) gmail.com and also send us a tune if you fancy it as well!
It’s all gone a bit bonkers in the garden here what with the good weather of late plus the combination of the rain we had a few weeks previous to that. The veg in the raised beds (above) are tearing away and the spuds are almost flowering.
We’ve let the grass go a bit wilder due to No Mow May and we’re beginning to like the idea. I think it’s the council gardening background made us a bit reticent to let the lawn grow more than a few inches. The only thing is now that we can’t see where our old cat leaves its “presents” so we have to go by smell and tread very carefully in the evening.
The pond is going great after the big pond liner change. The fish seem to like it and we’ve even got tadpoles in there now and we didn’t even spot any frogspawn beforehand. We were told many years ago by a workmate that down the Walworth Road one Sunday in the 1960’s “It rained frogs” (a report of raining frogs in Croydon here), perhaps it could’ve been raining tadpoles overnight in Forest Hill recently?
And the bed next to the new fence has come alive with new plants procured from the market, garden centre and seeds off ebay and friends. The comfrey plants that usually go mad have probably been checked when the fence went in so the comfrey feed has suffered so far but you never know as we’ve got a few months yet. But can you believe that it’s really June? We cant.
Whilst we’ve been writing this, the below was the musical background. One of the best music shows on the shortwaves!
KFOG takes to the high seas via Channel 292 on Sunday June 20th 2021 at 1200 utc (1 pm UK time) and on Saturday June 26th at 0900 utc (10 am UK time) on 6070 kHz. Expect tunes in a nautical style and “see the glimmer from a distant lighthouse, as the buoys ding and the (radio) waves crash onto the rocky shore. This is music from the mist!” as they say at KFOG HQ.
Expect a mix from One Deck Pete called “A mix from across the Pond” with tunes from Kiyoko, Honeychild & DJ Olive, BOATS, Robert Mellin and The Congo’s. Grab yourself a lifejacket and a shortwave radio and tune in. If the shortwave radio is a problem tune in here at the alloted time. If you haven’t a lifejacket we’re sorry but we can’t help you with that!
We were listening to the excellent Sugar B show on his daily 7-10 am spot on 4Tune FM and today being a Tuesday it was full of roots and culture classics. It was brilliant to hear this belter of a tune “The Thruth Theme” from a few years ago made by the great Joey Jay and co. A tune and a half!
Do yourself a favour and tune into Sugar B in the morning (he’s also on from 3pm-6pm on a Sunday too)!
It’s been a while since we’ve heard about our friend (and musical collaborator) Paul Greenstein‘s garden in Melbourne, Australia. He’s sent us over a few pics and news of what he’s up to now. For around a year he’s been keeping bees.
“We started with a ‘nucleus’ hive, which is a small box with 5 frames. We’ve now grown to 3 full-sized boxes (supers), although we’ve packed the bees down into 2 boxes for the winter. For the bees, it’s about staying warm. From the beekeeper’s perspective, you want to make it easy for them to stay nice and toasty, and not to have to worry about heating a lot of empty space. Kind of like downsizing your house to save on the bills, except they keep warm by vibrating their flight muscles while keeping their wings still. Amazing little creatures.
We haven’t harvested any honey this time around, preferring to let the bees keep it for food during winter, building up a strong hive. We live very near a creek (basically a river, but not a very big one) – and there’s loads of stuff for bees to forage. Lots of Eucalypt trees, although there’s a particular type of Eucalypt called Stringybark or Messmate, which for some reason makes bees angry. Maybe they don’t like the way it smells. Hopefully they’ll avoid those and we won’t get stung by grumpy foragers…”
He also mentioned the subject of the last but one post about cicadas from Justin Patrick Moore:
“We get incredibly loud cicadas here – in fact they’ve been known to drown out conversation! Apparently the version we have here are called Greengrocer Cicadas, and can go up to 120 dB – louder than an ACDC gig. Our cats occasionally get fed up and swat them with a paw – they’ll go silent in shock for a few seconds, then start up again.”
Below is a pic of a Bramley apple that he’s put in as “You can’t get decent cooking apples over here!” We do like a cooking apple here especially in a crumble with custard! Do have a look at older posts about his garden here here and here.
And here’s a couple from Paul’s musical output, a lovely garden related tune called “Rose” that has a lovely ambient feel to it and one with a Jah Wobble type vibe called “White Blinds“, excellent stuff indeed!
As it says on his soundcloud “Sometimes inwards is the only way to go.” He and the bees are 100% correct! Cheers for the pictures Paul and keep us updated with how things are getting on!
Just a quick one to report that the KDUB broadcast from earlier this year will be repeated on WRMI this Sunday May 30th at 2300 UTC or Midnight UK time on 9395 kHz on the shortwaves. There’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “In Dub for KDUB” at 3.09 minutes in.
All the shows from the KMTS (or is it KTMS?) back catalogue are available on Mixcloud here if you’ve missed any of them. Tune in and dub out!
Weeds up to me knees 