A report from north of the river

Cheers to Debby H for getting in touch and for letting us know that things are starting to hot up in the garden. “We have germinated about 30 dwarf sunflowers which will need to be potted soon. Also, our tomato plants have finally started to shoot.” Brilliant.

“The cosmos are ready to be planted in pots and put in the cold frame. We have already put some in our plastic greenhouse. We are going to see which environment they prefer.” Great stuff! Please let us know the outcome of that Debby.

She also mentions a plant we have never heard of before (pic above). “Last year our neighbours gave us some plants that we think are called Doronicum. We had seen them giving a good display in our neighbours’ garden and praised them, so they gave us some which we planted last autumn. They are all now beginning to flower. Lots of buds there.” They look a lovely flower!

We look forward to more reports Debby!

An oldie but goody

We don’t usually go back in the archives for mixes but found this one by accident this evening. One Deck Pete‘s “Bouncing off the ionosphere” mix which was transmitted on Free Radio Skybird via Channel 292 on 6070 kHz on 8th December 2019.

Tracklistings:
UKDD & Spoonbeats – It’s time to tell you
KoKo – keep down
Maxime Tisne-Versailles – Roi De Plaines
AMY Root – Elif(OIJ_remix)
Ernest freeman – Live it up

It’s been years since we’ve heard these tunes especially the wonderful Maxime Tisne-Versailles tune Roi De Plaines. Sometimes those old ones come back to haunt you.

 

It’s nice today but not nice enough for ice creams

An excellent dub from Gregory Morris of Johnny Osbourne’s/Makka B‘s Cease Fire. A great tune for a sunny spring Saturday. And here’s the vocal.

So nice we had to play it twice

We’re just researching another shortwave radio mix and remembered this wonderful track from Triptica out of Alajuela, Costa Rica called Mysterious Radio Signals. This was recorded off air from One Deck Pete’s “Interval Signal Tea break” mix which was broadcast on KMTS on December 17th 2000 at 2300 UTC on 9670 kHz. We do love the track and its cut and paste video.

Destination: all over the map

This weekend there was a edition of Skybird Radio International featuring DJ Frederick and Justin Patrick Moore, who journeyed all over this globe of ours in an all genre style. You don’t need a passport, or carry over-packed suitcases to go on this international musical coach trip as itwas transmitted over those shortwaves and now on Mixcloud:

 

At 3.38 there’s a mix from One Deck Pete and here’s the tracks:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (excerpt – full track here)
Les Maîtres Fous – La Mort d’Icare
Aselefech Ashine & Getenesh Kebret – Wegenne
Narcy – Nehaya
Wilmoth Houdini – Blow Wind Blow
Unknown Track off “Cantos Oscuros” from Little Axe Records

And Justin Patrick Moore played this obscure one from Jodie Foster, released in that heady year of Punk, 1977.

A mix containing flowers from Bristol

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

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

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

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.