Radio connects us all

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Cheers to Kit, G0JPS presently on a boat on the Grand Union Canal who told us earlier he was listening to the “Alt Universe Top 40” on 9670 kHz on his XHDATA D-808 portable. As he reported: “Lovely reception. Hot Butter’s seminal track, “Popcorn” is currently playing.” Brilliant stuff Kit!

Then around the same time we heard from Debby H who picked up a couple of pepper plants from a few streets away (there was a mixture of plants on a wall with a sign “please take me” on it) and guess what one of the varieties was called? Marconi Red. Radio (and gardening) connects us all!

Top buzz

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We were watering the garden early this evening (we know morning is better as those later waterings bring the slugs and snails out) and at the bottom of the garden heard the loudest humming and buzzing sounds from the flowering pyracantha. Looks like the bees love those flowers!

North London news extra

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And we mentioned, here’s a part two from Debby H. She wrote “Here’s a photo of our tomato plants in our little Lidl greenhouse (above), plus one of a couple of them that we planted in a “Grow Zone” that we bought last year, also from Lidl (below).”

“Regarding indoor plants, I have attached a picture of my cactus which blooms every year with dozens of little red flowers, and also one of a flower that has appeared on a succulent that we have had for several years but of has never flowered before.”

Brilliant stuff as ever Debby! Thanks again.

North London Report

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Thanks to Debby H for sending us some recent pictures of her garden. This may turn into a two-part post as she sent us some great images.

We must start with the cosmos (above) that have been planted out and you can see still in the cardboard toilet roll inners. As Debby said “(it) makes the planting much easier, which is good when you have dozens of plants” and she’s right. The loo roll inners look like a part of the display too. A winner all round!

Here’s a couple of pictures of French lavender (one under the netting protecting some strawberries). We bought a plant of the same a few months ago and we do love the overall look of it.

And we love the blossom on her red robin tree (below). She said that it seems to have more blossom on it than previous years this spring.

“The peonies are doing well (above). Here’s a picture of one of the flowers just opening (below).” Great stuff!

Thanks again Debby and we’ll post your other pics later this week.

Please no frost now…

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It look’s like everything’s on its way now what with the good weather we’re having. We’ve got some different coloured love in a mist up at the top of the garden alongside some tomatoes and whatever else that came out of the packets of seeds we regularly randomly sowed.

There’s a self seeded hollyhock that is really giving it some at the side bed where there’s a load of different stuff growing in a small space, tomatoes and potatoes and random wild flowers. The veg bed at the bottom of the garden is starting to grow now after the cats kept away what with the trick of random twigs and sticks. How’s your garden growing? Pictures to one deck pete (at) gee mail dot com.

Tunes for a Thursday night

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Thanks for Vintage Obscura Radio for putting this up on their bluesky feed and what a tune. It’s from Fadoul aka Bob Fadoul and it’s called Fi Jamique. Yes it is a familiar rhythm (None Escape the Judgement) but it’s a lovely take on it! And there’s more!

More from Tallinn

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We’ve just heard from The Rhythm Doctor who sent us some pictures of wild garlic last post. “We saw this strange flower the other day in the same area as the garlic”, it turns out to be the common toothwort.

Turns out the plant is a bit of a parasite “The genus produces no chlorophyll and parasitises host trees, often hazel, beech and walnut, to acquire nutrients” more here. Cheers RD that is one strange looking plant!

World news

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We venture firstly to Tallinn, Estonia for a few pictures from our good friend The Rhythm Doctor. If you remember we mentioned wild garlic a few posts ago here after a pic by Mike and Julia. Well near The Rhythm Doctor’s abode there’s a lovely woodland area that has lots of wild garlic (above – here’s one big clump of it) and some great woodland plants.

We’ve done a plant.id on this pic below and this is coming up 77% as a dwarf marsh violet or one of that family, lovely picture by the way!

And this one below is a geum rivale (AKA water avens, purple avens but not richie avens), thanks to plant i-d. Cheers for the pictures RD, brilliant to see your locale there in Estonia.

Also cheers to Rich R from the Lake District for sending us a couple of great pictures this week.

He had a trip up the coast last week (above – it looks lovely and in the distance is Scotland) and found these lovely Sea Pinks AKA Thrift (Armeria maritima) (below). Cheers Rich!

That’s all for our reports this week but do send us some via one deck pete (at) gee mail dot com.

Local news

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Thanks to Penny Golightly, here’s news of a great little plant mart in Lee next Saturday May 17th from 2-4 p.m. outside 2-6 Micheldever Road, Lee SE12 8LX and the event is a fundraiser to get money to plant more trees in the area. There’ll be a wide range of plants for sale at a good price as well as lots of other stuff (cakes, books and CDs, cream teas and 2 botanical watercolour workshops at 2.30 and 3pm). Looks great! Cheers Penny!

It’s been a long week even if it’s been a short week

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Two great sides of a 12″ by The Gladiators with Evil Doers and Pocket Money and an additional version by the great U-Roy. Trying to rack our brains which charity shop in the midlands in the long long past we found it in.

And talking of U-Roy, here’s the great man talking about King Tubby and his electronic and pirate radio wizzardry near the end of a track by Lapa called the 45th Parallel.