Shaw Taylor we need you!

It’s been a funny old week, the weather did’t know what it was doing and we have sunflowers reaching silly sizes which is brilliant. As you know we love any seeds that say they’re “giant” or “massive”, half the time they don’t live up to their promise on ebay but the ones we got this year have.

The sunflowers down the side bed are doing well they’re well over 8 feet, a few have flowers. The ones that don’t have, have been the victim of the squirrels. They seem to be going for the buds this year rather than waiting for the large seed heads, very strange. We awoke this morning to one of the largest ones that was well over 9 feet, broken in half (below). To say we’re fed up is an understatement but they’re next to a fence so what can we do?

On a brighter note our Sweetcorn plants we got from Shannon’s and Chilli’s (Jalapeno) we grew from seed are coming on great guns! Whether we get any cobs on the corn to eat for ourselves are another thing. Squirrels aren’t keen on them are they?

And if you look hard enough you can see the Jalapeno’s we’ve already had a few off them and they’re great. Well worth growing.

This blog post was written whilst listening to This is a music show 125. Thanks to Dazman for putting it up on his cloud and cheers to Your Host for the selection. Some great stuff as ever including a lovely bit of reggae and some nice dub including the version of this.

A show always worth listening to and it’s on the shortwaves! Have a listen below, you won’t regret it!

Tune into the Skybird

This Sunday 4th July 2021 Free Radio Skybird is being beamed out of the WRMI transmitter from Miami on 9395 kHz at 2300 utc (12 midnight UK time). Expect some free radio goodness from DJ Frederick and the Free Radio Skybird crew. Tune in here on Sunday if you’ve no shortwave radio.

Out of the storm

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!

It can’t be June already!

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!

Fog on the 49 Metre band

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! 

The truth on a Tuesday morning

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)!

KDUB on WRMI

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!

Welcome to the night train, welcome

Yesterday evening just after sundown we wandered to the bottom of the garden just to take in a bit of the night-time air. With a little bit of light coming from the back of a neighbour’s house we could just make out two frogs “doing lengths” in the newly renovated pond. Lovely to see them back. Nice to hear their croaks too!

The netting which keeps the Lewisham Heron from getting its beak in has a few raised areas at the side that night visitors can get in and out of and in the top left hand corner is a moss covered stick come frog ladder. it was great to see we have visitors making a trip and it’s been a while since we noticed we had frogs and we wonder if it was the ever decreasing depth of the pond was putting them off before.

It was also nice to see that the Tree Lilies we got given from our good mate Marc B (cheers for passing them on Marc!) have started to sprout! Here’s one of them above. That’s what’s good about gardening the receiving and passing on of surplus plants and seeds.

We’re writing this while listening to an old Ross Allen show on NTS and this is playing from the late great Bunny Wailer.

And a couple of posts ago we posted up the track by L.S.Diezel called Volume 1 that had a lovely Yabby You sample in it and Ross has just played the tune that was sampled in a remix style. Tune! Roll on the good weather so we can play tunes like this loud!

It’s an alternative dimension

From the great WRMI we have another transmission from KSOL – The alternative dimension/universe edition this Sunday/Monday 16th/17th May on 9395 kHz. When the clock strikes 2300 UTC or Midnight UK time expect some chilled tunes including a mini-mix from One Deck Pete at 40 minutes in.

As soon as the transmission is over it’ll be up on the KMTS Mixcloud here. And here’s KSOL from last week whilst we’re there. #shortwavesnotdead #KMTS #KTMS #KDUB #KMRT

In the Air Tonight

In a few hours time the intergalactic and the very interdimensional sounds of KSOL will be back in orbit on the shortwaves. The satellite of love will hopefully be keeping out of the way of the Long March 5B rocket body which is heading to earth too (we’re keeping our fingers crossed that the rocket body lands in the middle of nowhere or in the ocean).

Tune in on 3955 kHz via Channel 292 at 2200 UTC (11pm UK time). The show will also be repeated next Saturday the 15th May at the same time. Radio conditions are good this evening and if by chance you haven’t a shortwave radio give this SDR a go here.

Expect a mix called “In Orbit” from the urban spaceman One Deck Pete at about 35 mins in which’ll feature tunes by A Man Called Adam, Rubin Steiner, Rockers Interplanetary and this great tune by AVEM. #KSOL #shortwavesnotdead #shortwavelistening #channel292

And talking of good tunes here’s one we were directed to on friday by L.S.Diezel called Volume 1 that has a lovely Yabby You sample in it. #dubsnotdead

UPDATE: And here’s the studio audio of KSOL with One Deck Pete‘s “In Orbit” mix at 35 mins in.