Across the border

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We’ve had these plants in the soil for a year and a bit now and we are sure these are the penstemons we bought from QVC. Nothing happened last year and we were going to give up on them it now looks like they’re starting to give us a bit of a show. Here’s more about penstemons here. We’ve a few more of them dotted around the garden so hoping they all start taking off soon.

Here’s two tunes off the radio today. The first was heard on the excellent This is a music show (above) and it’s by Jackie Wilson and called You bought about a change in me and we don’t think we’ve ever heard it before even though it’s a bit of a classic and the B side of Reet Petite from a few years ago. It’s a tune! Cheers Your Host for playing it on the show. He’s right what he said that it put him in mind of The Supremes My world is empty without you.

And here’s something we’ve never heard before Sons of the Pioneers – Old Man Atom. Thanks to Justin Patrick Moore for linking us up to the Amsterdam Radio Collection (1991) on archive.org here. The track was played well speeded up on Maurice Di’s Happy Dirge Day recording at 19 minutes in. Crazy stuff!

And back to the garden, albeit the mad bit down the bottom, we’ve no idea what this wild plant is but it’s looking great and we reckon it came in on one of the Bees Bombs we got years ago or failing that a result of anarchic gardening, the scattering of seed from a random packet and hoping for the best.

More is less

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It’s funny, we’ve had a week off work and one job we specifically wanted to do was tidy the front garden. Well how come we spent so much time in the back then?

The other day we tidied up the bed near the house and we blocked off the end of it and made a small veg plot (above) using old crazy paving slabs. In the top right-hand corner of the pic you can just see the seed potatoes in hanging bags (off the strange coat holder thing we found in the street). We chose growing the spuds like that this year as we hoped it will be easier to harvest them rather than the usual forking them up in the ground only to accidently leave some in that’ll wind us up next year.

Today we cut down a load of overhanging branches of the Pyracantha over the pond and gave the Ivy which is holding up the back fence a light cut. The last time we removed Ivy in force was on the front garden wall during lockdown. It looked great after the job but a couple of weeks later part of the wall fell down so we’re taking no chances this time.

The pond area is now looking a bit bare but we now have a blank slate to think of what to grow between the cracks in the slabs. If you remember we had lots of broken ones to get rid off as we took up a large paved area in front of the back door which we subsequently grassed over. There was no way we could hire a skip to get rid of them so stuck them around the pond. It may look a bit sterile but at least it keeps the weeds down. Touchwood we may start on the front tomorrow. Or will we?

How much more can you fit into a raised bed?

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A few years ago just before lockdown we were given some ace pallet box collars which were ideal to be used as raised beds. The one above is packed to the brim now so God knows what it’ll be like later this season. The top contains some giant garlic, below that from left to right: parsley, the early tomato plant under one of the two cloches and in the third column an end part of some shop-bought celery which is regrowing. Below that some marjoram bought from Shannon’s years ago and a solitary egyptian onion. That’s one variety pack of a raised bed isn’t it?

Above is a simpler arrangement of some giant garlic with a seed potato stuck in the middle. We may get away with it what with hopefully harvesting timings but who knows. The seed spuds we put in a couple of large pots are doing well (below), fingers crossed we’re into the frost-free zone now.

Also we’re starting to use some of the nettle tea we made a few weeks and and starting to get some comfrey veaves going for a herbal compost brew. It all helps and it’s all free.

Imaginary vibes all served in a Collins glass

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Below is the studio version of Sunday night’s Skybird Supper Club Imaginary Lounge Episode 2 live from Paris, Maine programme on WRMI for your chilled out, silk dressing gown wearing, listening pleasure.

At 39.49 in is One Deck Pete with a mix called “There’s someone sleeping in my lounge again” mix and here’s the tracklisting:
Opal Vessel – Libidine
Sounds for the office by コディ (Kodi?) – Clocking in
Godspeed – Night crawling

So enjoy your complimentary totally free cocktail possibly the “73” (Premium Vodka, Vanilla Liquor and half a Guiness), slump down on the sofa and chill out to the show. To apply for your free cocktail there’s more details of the offer at 1 minute into the transmission above (*Subject to availability of course.)

We’re talking numbers here

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Big shout to Sam O for letting us know yesterday about this great video by Ringway Manchester of numbers stations used in popular culture notably ones used on musical tracks. To get around the issue of copyright Lewis (Ringway Manchester), lists the actual tracks and plays and names the sample used in said track. We didn’t know half of the tracks chosen and we do love a tune with a number station in it here.

Big thanks to Lewis for featuring two tracks from Madtone at 2.21, Calling Live on Channel and E3 both from the Garden of Earthly Delights session from 2006.

He’s done some great research with the video and above are a couple of tunes featured in it. He has many a good video on his youtube channel about number stations and radio based stuff as well, so do yourself a favour and have a good root about here. We’ve got a good bit of discovering to do ourselves there. Cheers again Lewis!

It may (not) be winter outside

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It isn’t officially winter anymore yet it still doesn’t feel like spring all the time does it? We’re getting some lovely days then a few days of cold.

Perhaps April is always like this but here’s an excellent set of dubs to cheer you up from Mad Calypso & Apocalypse Dub Faction called Winter Skank. We’ve a soft spot for Winter Dub 2 here. If these tunes are Winter, we don’t mind it!

Do not buy this album as it has no commercial value

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Big shout to the Institute for Alien Research in Bath for letting us know that the Nocturnal Emmissions Tribute LP is now out and about. It features Madtone with the track To all of our friends across the pond and our good radio friend from across the pond Justin Patrick Moore with Transcranial Emulsions. Big shout to Cowboy Joe and all our friends in Leeds, England.

We’re pushing the (seed) envelope again

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The shoots are coming through from one of the chitted seed spuds we planted in a big pot in a Monty Don style. We’ll stick an old jam jar on the top as soon as we’ve covered it with some more soil as you never know it’s still frost season and it has been cold in the mornings here.

Talk about being keen, we’ve even stuck a tomato plant outside (talk about a gardening sin of sins) after a quick harden off (keeping it outside during the day and bringing it back in at night) over the last few days so it could get used to the weather outdoors rather than the warmth of the kitchen windowsill.

We covered it with a small plastic cloche that we found in the street years ago and then covered that with another larger plastic cloche. We’ve been influenced by the great Bob Flowerdew there as we reckon that’s the sort of thing he may do. Looks a bit mad but why not as they say. It may be too much for the poor plant but we’ll take either one or all of the protection off when we get a warm day. It’s all about giving it a go and getting one step ahead.