Here’s a tune we found by accident and it’s a grower. It’s on the fantastic Cosmic Spy Music label out of New Jersey and it’s called Don’t Blame it on Elvis by Fabulous McClevertys. Enjoy!
A song for a hot Sunday
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There’s no real reason
Yesterday with no plan in our heads we tidied up what we call the “wild bit” at the bottom of the garden. We used to grow veg there but it doesn’t really get that much sun so a couple of years ago we sowed some “bee bombs” and what other wild seeds we could find and the area went a bit wild.
We were very influenced by this wonderful pond made by Bill Shimmers at the time of sowing the wild seeds (above) and added our own versions in a smaller and cheaper way utilising a slow cooker crock pot, a dutch pot that only had one handle and a tupperware box. An example of “down at heel” pond construction at its finest and nowhere as great as Bill’s. We are sure at the time Bill replied to our tweet at the time saying kindly that even the smallest addition of water in the garden will help the wildlife. What is great though yesterday we saw the odd frog in one, a drowned slug or two in the other and some very strange moving things that could have just been the “floaters” in our eyes playing up or the effects of dehydration. That was without our glasses on as well so there could well have been more stuff moving about.
As it was very cool down there for most of the day (compared to the 32 degrees C in the sun) we just started and kept on going, taking stuff away and adding the odd different plants and herbs we have about the garden already. We reckon it will be an ongoing project as we can see a couple of plants we want to take out but we don’t want it too sparse as the wildlife needs a hiding place. There was no plan, make it up on the spot gardening innit?
Enjoy the last couple of days of intense heat as we’re supposed to be going back to the early 20 degree C next week. Here’s to more wildlife in the garden.
Man-dolins in the street, oh yeah
Yesterday we found this copy of The Mandolinist (no. 33) in what we thought was a violin case left out someone’s front garden with “take me on it”. We don’t know that much about the mandolin sadly apart from John Peel appeared on Top of the Pops in 1971 pretending to play one alongside Rod Stewart and the Faces on “Maggie May” but we’re always up for finding out any good tunes featuring said instrument. Here’s a few we found tonight, the first is by Ekss called Dub des Deux Mandolines. Some nice vibes on here outta Sweden!
And one from Prakash Hariharan, Mandolin Prakash playing the electric mandolin on Kanchadalayadakshi. This is some wonderful classical mandolin playing!
And to match the current heatwave here in London (32 degrees C here in SE23 today) here’s some balearic mandolin business from Residentes Balearicos with Mandolina Suave.
As you can see the mandolin may not be easy but it is pretty and effective!
A strange strawberry and a tune for a Wednesday
A few months ago we got some seeds (we think they were from Mr Fostergills) and they were a mixed strawberry (red and white). Turns out they are an alpine type strawberry and they are not too bad taste-wise. It was like having a white beetroot a few years ago, it was great but we’ve had some many red beetroots our brains couldn’t compute when it came to a white one!
And found on Bandcamp last night while researching a forthcoming shortwave mix we came across this great stripped down version from outa Darlington from the band Bubamara called Lu Core Meu Dub Version. An excellent tune!
Around the garden and SE23 this week
Here’s some mad pictures from a week around the garden and one from the locality of Forest Hill. The first (below) made us think of Wlad (US7IGN) and his good friend Sergiy (UT3UFD) in Ukraine who is growing a banana plant in his apartment (post here). We are sure that this is a banana tree growing outside in a front garden in SE23. God knows how it survives the winter here, we could be wrong but it looks very much like a banana with fruit on it as well. We love the flower as it looks like someone’s carved it out of wood or it could even open up and start talking.
And the other day we were complaining that we weren’t getting much action from the courgettes (zucchini) in the raised beds until we moved a leaf and found this giant in hiding.
And in the tiny bed at the bottom of the garden there is some sort of melon (we think) and some peppers and chillies. Now it looks like there’s a self seeded cape gooseberry in there too and it’s only a tiny bed as well. A good example of square metre gardening gone wild!
One radio show is never enough
This Sunday 3rd September 2023 the Imaginary Stations crew bring you two shows via the ionosphere on shortwave. The first transmission will be beamed to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold in Germany at 2000 utc on 6160 kHz and it will be WTBR, tea and biscuits radio.
Expect a teatime assortment of tunes, some musical crackers (without cheese) and a urn full of the finest tea money can buy!
Then later at 2200 hrs UTC on 9395 kHz via WRMI we bring you another episode of CTRN for all of us who love that wonderful mode of transport, the train.
So tune in, make yourself comfortable, please don’t put your feet on the seats, do have your tickets ready for inspection and enjoy a nice ride across the country by shortwave radio.
One for the Bank Holiday
Around the world, around the world – Part 3
A recording of this evening’s Skybird Radio International is now up online on mixcloud. The show was beamed to Europe via the services of Shortwave Gold from Germany and features a mix of sounds from around the world and is a great listen if you want to hear some interesting international tunes.
At 9 seconds in is a mix from One Deck Pete in a worldwide style. Here’s the tracklistings:
Madtone – Diamonds in the sky (Excerpt)
Huamansara – Cazador Huanca/Orq. Ayllus Del Centro
The Yamasuki’s – AIEAOA
International Dub Ambassasadors – La Cascada dub
Wimeanacas Cambodian Band – Flower In The Lake
Frank Gutowski Trio – Night Owl Polka
So tune in and enjoy an hour of travelling around this world of ours without baggage or a ticket!
Around the world, around the world – Part 2
A big shout to Jesse Yuen from the excellent North of the River Swan radio show (which is on a sabbatical for the time being) from RTM FM presently living in Bassendean, Perth, Western Australia. He sent us some pics of a job he did yesterday taking Frangipani cuttings that he’s been drying out over the last few weeks.
We don’t really know much about the plant (aka Plumeria) apart from it grows in the subtropics, has distinctive smelling flowers and the plant can only be grown here as a houseplant. Best of luck with the cuttings Jesse, they look like trees compared to the tiny cuttings we usually take over here, blimmim’ eck!
Also a big thanks to our good friend Wlad (US7IGN) in Kyiv for sending us some more excellent pictures from a Ukrainian countryside garden (below). Cheers Wlad, some great stuff and appreciated as always!
Why ain’t plant varieties named after punk bands?
Here’s some pics taken around the garden in a week that has has some varying weather to say the least! What was funny was that last Friday the night of a torrential downpour, a couple of hours before that we were meticuously going around the beds with a watering can. Exactly the same thing happened this week across the pond to our good friend Justin Patrick Moore (just before an almighty storm).
The tomatoes (below) we think are the San Mirzano variety we obtained a couple of years ago at a seed swap at Glengall Wharf Gardens SE15. They’re fine tomatoes and wish we had some more! Now these tomatoes appreciate water and also a regular comfrey liquid feed.
And at the bottom of the garden (below) there’s a small bed that has a right mixture of stuff in the tiny space include chillies, some mini-melons and these peppers that we think we may have been given when we swapped some plants earlier this year.
And in the wild bit down there you can’t forget those proud cardoons that are as spikey topped as you like. Punk ain’t dead in that part of the garden, it really ain’t. Why in the world hasn’t anyone named a variety of cardoon Charged GBH or Charlie Harper yet?
Weeds up to me knees 