Earlier this afternoon we tuned into Downbeat on Shortwave (brought to us via Imaginary Stations) using The University of Twente’s online SDR here. Propagation wasn’t brilliant but we got a signal, unlike the sound of static on our shortwave receiver at home. Hopefully tomorrow’s conditions will be better and the later timing of the transmission helps. Here’s what was heard.
Imaginary Stations bring you music you don’t usually hear on the shortwaves every week and has an archive that is well worth looking through here. Expect the unexpected as they say and a whole lot more! Never mind the genre, it’s all about great music on the shortwave bands with some added remixing thanks to the ionosphere and those groundwaves.
Tune in here tomorrow at 1300 UTC (2pm UK) and 2000 UTC (9pm UK) for some chilled out sounds from Jesse Yuen and One Deck Pete. A big shout to all the Imaginary Stations crew: Fred and NanSea, Justin Patrick Moore and Marc from Belgium. Here’s to more eclectic programming on shortwave!
Here’s a few pictures from around the Weeds HQ garden.
One of the great poppies that are just popping up all around the garden. They can seed where-ever they want in our garden, as we love them so much.
And finally, the mad plant that is the 
Cheers to our gardening/radio friend Kit, G5KIT for sending us a picture (above) of a reecnt find. “These poor cacti and a lovely little succulent were just crying out to be rescued from a garden wall in Bristol. All dried out and the soil had gone crumbly. A little TLC and now they’re looking much happier!” Great to hear that Kit and they look great!
And he also let us know that he has some seedlings starting to appear: “They’re Chilli plants, a variety called Demon Red (nice ‘n’ spicy!) and apparently they’re attractive as well as tasty. The picture from the seed company (below) looks pretty good!”.
A big thanks to Debby H. for sharing an update from her north London garden! While we sowed ours directly outside this year and are still waiting for them to pop up, Debby’s cosmos are already starting to flower even though the plants are still small (see her photos above).
Yesterday was a lovely day. We started on the garden early, around 7:30am, when it was still grey and a little cold but as the hours passed, the weather gradually improved. After lunch, the grass was cut and looked great in the sunshine. The top right-hand corner of the lawn is the “wild area,” a tribute to a cat who passed away last year and loved to sleep there among the longer grass. Now the cat has gone, a fox has been kipping there on and off.
The side bed towards the bottom of the garden was cleared, and in place of the weeds, wildflower seeds were sown. It’s still cold, so whether they’ll thrive remains to be seen as it’s a bit of frost pocket down there. We were also told by a neighbour a few doors down that an underground stream runs through the gardens around that area. Whether that is true or not we’re not sure, but the soil is a bit on the boggy side around there.
Talking of seeds, one of our favourites plants has to be 
Weeds up to me knees 