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!
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!
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?
This Sunday 27th August 2023 at 2000 UTC (that’s 9pm UK time) tune in your shortwave radios to 6160 or 3975 kHz via Shortwave Gold for Skybird Radio International featuring the Imaginary Stations crew who bring you an hour of great music from around this planet of ours.
At 9 seconds into the show there’ll be a mix from our very own One Deck Pete with tunes from Huamansara, The Yamasuki’s, International Dub Ambassadors, Wimeanacas Cambodian Band and the Frank Gutowski Trio. So tune in via a shortwave radio or by using the online SDR here on Sunday evening and enjoy the international world of radio!
The back garden path was looking well worn what with weeds growing between the 1970’s inspired crazy paving, very loose slabs and all that combined with a sinister lean towards down the hill. Let’s say it wasn’t the most safest garden path to walk on so the other weekend we made a start on trying to improve it.
First job was to rid the path of the slabs and chuck them by the pond. It’s looking like a concrete jungle up there at the moment so it’s better we don’t show any pictures! The concrete underneath the path would take lots of work to get out so we thought we’d best leave it in.
Over a couple of evenings with 6 bags of woodchip (on offer on Wickes), some decking boards and a couple of lengths of 1″ x 1″ procured we had a go at a wood chip path, allotment style.
We remember a mate telling us a few years ago that there was a craze of people going around pinching estate agents boards for their wooden posts which were being put to better use at local allotments in the production of wood chip paths. We wonder if that was a real thing or were we having our leg pulled? Well anyway those 1″ x 1″ came in well handy for making that path safer and looking a lot better.
We’ve just finished a mix for a forthcoming shortwave radio transmission which features this classic by Felice Taylor called “I feel love coming on” which was written and produced by Paul Politi and the great Barry White. We knew the Felice Taylor tune well but just now discovered the Barry White and The Love Unlimited version. We love the spoken intro, Barry White in fine style.
Talking of the great Barry White, it brought us to thinking of this classic by Love Unlimited “Under the influence of love” which is a top tune and available on Discogs for less than £4.
Little did we know that Felice Tayor did a version of it (love the Four Tops musical reference in it) and the legendary Radio Jackie used the instrumental version by the Bob Keene Orchestra as their theme tune. We do love these musical connections!
Thanks to the catalogue of the wonderful Canary Records out Baltimore, Maryland for the Night Owl Polka from the Frank Gutowski Trio. You’ll be clapping along and shouting “Hey” in the right places before you know it as it don’t get much better than this. Do check the rest of their releases for some very interesting tune-age.
A crazy, crazy LP by Gaudi from London found by accident on Bandcamp while searching for some tunes for a forthcoming shortwave mix. This wonderful track is from Gaudi with Adrian Sherwood with Dub out of Theremin. The great Adrian Sherwood is on top form here!
Last week we received some pictures of local vegetation from our good friend Wlad (US7IGN) in Kyiv, Ukraine spotted while on his daily walk. We sadly haven’t got much knowledge when it comes to foraging but would love to know more about wild plantlife.
As for the picture Wlad sent above, these here are the same flower aren’t they? Those were seen a long while ago in the Welsh countryside (here). As far as we know from a comment posted at the time from our friend Jan, they are Yellow Toadflax. More on the plant here. Thanks for these pics Wlad as they are interesting viewing.
We’ve also just heard from Rich R in the Lake District saying he left the garden for a week and those Fox and Cubs have taken over and are a foot tall. Crazy stuff! Wild plants eh?
Weeds up to me knees 
