Heard on the radio this morning, one we didn’t know about by The Heptones with a tune called Crying Over You, production services by one Lee Perry at The Black Ark studios. Wonderful stuff!
And here’s a version with Jah Lion on the microphone.
A big season’s/holiday greetings to all our gardening, radio and musical mates from everywhere around the world. A big thanks to everyone for supporting the blog and whatever you celebrate at this time of year, make sure you have a great one!
And for this time of year, here’s a wonderful tune from Lord Nelson (from Trinidad & Tobago we reckon) called A party for Santa Claus. It’s a brilliant 7″ on Camille Records with some very funny lyrics and a great tune too.
“Christmas is here and we’re all having fun
Santa brought presents for everyone
But he had to squeeze through a chimney Poor Nicholas
What a horrible place to pass
Why not open your window
Or your front door
So Santa could bring his gifts?
I find that climbing on a rooftop and coming through a chimney’s
a whole lot of stupidness.”
Many thanks to our friend Adrienne for sharing this photo of her geranium (or is it a pelargonium?) still flowering outdoors in December. It’s a wonderful splash of colour for this time of year and we can’t believe that it’ll be the winter solstice in a few days time as well.
If you remember, last year we were at a summer fete and purchased a pink geranium (above) in a church sale in Hither Green for a fiver and it was well worth the money. We loved the plant so much and wanted other people to enjoy it as well so we took a few cuttings and gave them away. As the old gardening saying goes “Pass them on!” Cheers again Adrienne and ta for letting us know how the plant is doing.
Cheers to Spike from Morschen43 for sending us the video for his single MV Ross Revenge For Ever! which we featured in the last post.
Here’s more on the great boat from the great offshoreradiomuseum here.
This weekend, a show called Great Lakes Pirate Radio Ships from the Imaginary Stations crew was broadcast to the far flung reaches of Europe via those old shortwaves. It was a programme that celebrated the spirit and sound of those offshore stations of old. Here it is in its full glory below.
At 33.27 there’s a mix from One Deck Pete called “Have you ever been to Windermere?”. The tracklistings are:
Imandra Lake – VööImandra
Lake Radio – Culture Veins
Zap Pow – River Stone (Lee Perry Prod.)
Morschen43 – MV Ross Revenge For Ever!
The Cats – Swan Lake
And as the song below goes from Morschen43:
“To you, web radio director, presenter of radio show,
And for all music programmers!
Real people!, real music!
Said their radio slogan”
By the way there’s a great archive of the pirate radio ships here.
Thanks to Gerry Hectic for sending us this very grim public information film from 1989. There’s two deaths within a minute, this is heavy going stuff. They don’t make them like they used to. After watching this, we are going to stay put if we see any footballs in power stations.
While we’re onto electricity and safety, here’s a track from Madtone Safety Council Vs Tommy McCook called Fix things properly, a 1970’s public information film/reggae mash up.
Big shout to Fenny for playing this on last week’s On the Wire. It’s a wonderful bit of music from Cerys Hafana called Helynt Ryfeddol which features a triple harp. It’s a tune that reveals itself with every listen and one that will fit in just fine on the next instalment of HARP from Imaginary stations.
The other month we heard from Wlad in Kyiv (here), where he shared some pictures from his friend Sergiy, who has been growing an impressive collection of plants on his balcony—everything started from seeds of whatever he eats, the last time it was photographs of his avocado plant. We’ve got more this month!
The avocados (above) that featured the other month are growing really well with strong stems, big leaves, and looks like they have no intention of slowing down. On top of that, he experimented with the seeds from a pitaya he bought and they’ve started to germinate (below). We had to look up what a pitaya was as we never heard of it before, it’s also known as the strawberry pear or dragon fruit. More on growing those here. Good luck with those, Sergiy!
And to add to those bits of tropical delight, he also decided to try growing pineapples (below).
It’s hard enough as it is to grow stuff like that anyway but at the moment in Kyviv electricity and heating have been unreliable again, so he improvised: he built a small stove on the balcony and added a new battery-powered lamp.
And that is some bulb!
And if you love a bit of circuitry as we do, here’s what’s inside it:
Now that’s what it’s all about, being inventive and making use of what you you can get your hands on. Great stuff Sergiy! Thanks again to Wlad for sending us the pictures, it’s appreciated. Keep safe the both of you, and do send us more updates.
A big thanks go out to our old friend Chris D (who we went to see The Clash in Bury St Edmunds with many moons ago here) who now resides in Adelaide, Australia for getting in touch. He’s got a new house and has been busy transforming the solid clay and weeds that were there beforehand into a smart looking garden (above and below).
It’s still only early days yet and things will progress but it’s looking brilliant. The two pics below were at post weed eradication stage. What started as rock-hard clay in summer and sticky, mud that sticks to your boots in the winter is now turning into something special. We know what you mean about that clay soil Chris!
He did a lot of the work himself but got a bit of help in where he needed things building, pavements laying and gravel being put down. We love the idea of the raised beds (with decent compost in it) which’ll give the plants a fighting chance in the tough conditions out there what with the snakes (!) and rabbits combined with the searing sun.
He’s already watched blackbirds helping themselves to his strawberries he told us. It’s annoying but in a way it’s a sign that things are growing. We reckon it’s out with the old strawberry nets or put those old CDs on string which’ll move in the breeze that’ll hopefully deter them.
Alongside strawberries, he’s managed to get a great range of things growing already: herbs, carrots, beetroot, strawberries, raspberries, capsicum, beans, peas, cucumber, chilli, spinach, tomatoes, asparagus, Jerusalem artichokes, lettuce, tangelos, kaffir limes, Tahitian limes, mandarin, nectarines, pear, apricot, and even honeydew melons. Wow, that’s a load of stuff.
We’d love to see how the garden progresses so do keep us updated Chris and send us some pictures of how things get on. That hard work has really paid off we reckon and there’s some nice ideas in the garden as well. We love that container below by the way. Cheers again Chris and good luck with everything.
He sent us a couple of tune recommendations. First The Wiggles covering Tame Impala.
And a bit of a classic from the production talents of Mikey Dread with Parrot Jungle.
And Fat Freddy’s Drop with Blackbird.
Here’s something a little out there: a dubbed-out, globe-spanning tune from Free Soul School with Red Dragon. Ideal for those grey Sunday mornings when you’re not quite sure if the garden is calling or if the weather has other plans (clearing out the shed, perhaps?)
And a nice piece from Scientist & Dubiterian called Jah Light Dub from an LP called A Tribute to Augustus Pablo. Lovely stuff!
Weeds up to me knees 