After the frost has gone

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We just may be out of the frost danger zone here in London what with the forecast for warmer nights of 5 ºC next week. We’ve still got those teepees made out of broken bamboo canes and chucked out fabric on hand just in case as you never can tell with the crazy weather we’ve been having.

At the time of writing (9 am on a Sunday morning) we can hear the sound of a lawnmower which will not win the hearts of anyone living next door to them.

We here prefer to listen to the sounds of the above, a garden related tune called Dahlias by Asta Hiroki. Far more mellow sounding on a Sunday morning than an engine of a Hayterette. Enjoy the lovely weather we’re supposed to be having this week!

A transmission from the lamp

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Via WRMI we have another transmission from the mysterious Radio Lavalamp this Sunday/Monday 18th/19th April on 9395 kHz. When the clock strikes 2300 UTC or Midnight UK time DJ Frederick takes to the helm to sail solo in the Lavalamp studio. Expects some chilled tunes!

Coir baby that’s really free!

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The above looks more like a construction project especially with the wood saw and the B&Q 99p bucket but we were trying out the coco grow+. It’s that coir stuff that when you add water it becomes potting/seed compost. Not bad if you’ve had sciatica and your carrying skills ain’t as good as they were last year. We didn’t want to use all of it so took the hint from Shannon’s who told us to use a saw to cut it. A good tip if you don’t want to use it all at once. We’ll keep you updated on how it goes and if the plants like the medium.

We also couldn’t get to the garden fork today to turn over the compost heap for the first time this year so grabbed a spade that had it’s uses to cut in half some old cabbage stalks and gone off sweet potatoes. It’s hard trying to turn the compost in those dalek bins but as long as you don’t mind the odd scraping of the knuckles it sort of works. Well sort of.

And here’s a tune you may hear on a forthcoming mix, it’s from Khotin and the track’s called Heavy Ball.

An alternative to a touch of frost

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We’ve had a bit of sunshine here in London over the weekend but the nights have been cold. Last night we’re sure we had a frost and there’s a good chance of one tonight so we’ve been out with the plant protection earlier just in case.

Next Sunday expect some sunny vibes and great tunes from KSOL “The sound of sunshine and soul on shortwave” on 9670 kHz at 1500 UTC (4pm UK time) and also repeated the week after on April 25th 2021 via Channel 292.

There’s a mix by One Deck Pete called “A bit of sunshine and soul” which’ll feature tunes by Jackie Lee & Delores Hall, Cat Stevens, George McCrae, Carl Bean and Love Unlimited. Tune in for some so(u)lar warmth! #soulonshortwave #shortwavesnotdead #whenwillspringspring?

John Wayne won’t be big leggy

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We don’t know if it was the great Joe Maiden or someone on the council who told us this great “pinching out” tip that makes sweet peas that little bit bushier but whoever it was, it works.

We’re also not sure if we should have waited a little longer (when there were more sets of leaves) but the other week we just went for it and nipped the growing end out (just above the leaves) and you can see now some new growth from out of the lower leaf nodes. The whole idea is to stop the plants becoming tall and “leggy”, encouraging more side shoots which in turn will bring more flowers. We haven’t done too well over the last couple of years with sweet peas so let’s see if that changes this year.

Locking stable doors after horses bolted

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Yesterday was a funny old day, cold with a bit of sunshine and then in the late afternoon a very light slurry of snow! Crazy eh, but then again it’s only the first week of April.

This morning there was a light frost on the grass, thank God we put out the teepees of old fabric as protection yesterday afternoon. Walking back into the house we thought of the site someone told us about a few years ago that has a frost predictor of sorts. Just go here, tap in your location and it’ll give you a rough estimate of when you can expect the last frost but then again it’s no guarantee so our fabric teepees are going to be on hand for a few weeks yet!

And talking of stables here’s a couple of tunes that’s just came to mind. The Billy Hope version even has a sort of “Steptoe and Son” vibe at the start (very in keeping with the horses theme!)

So the neighbours think we’ve gone mad again

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So it’s been another nice day with some sunshine here in London but there’s reports of snow and Arctic conditions up north this afternoon. It may have been nice in the sunshine but when you walked out of the sun it weren’t half nippy!

The forecast tonight is for possible frost so we got out the protection for some newly planted shrubs in the form of old bits of fabric flung around a trio of small bamboo canes in a tent formation. We’ve made sure the cloth don’t touch the leaves, there’s no gaps where the cold can get into and a few stones at the bottom to anchor it down. We can only hope for the best!

Lidl and soul

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We made a nice purchase from the centre aisle of Lidl this week, another Clematis Montana (Cheers to Nancy B for the original recommendation a couple of years ago). It went in yesterday with a good bit of water. Let’s hope it can stand the weather over Monday and Tuesday next week where it may be down to minus 1! It would be very nice to think that the variety was named after the great Vincent Montana too, you never know.

And talking of of soul and good vibes KSOL “The sound of sunshine and soul on shortwave” takes to the airwaves in a couple of weeks time on 9670 kHz at 1500 UTC (2pm UK time) on Sunday April 18th and repeated on April 25th 2021. There’s a mix by One Deck Pete called “A bit of sunshine and soul” which’ll feature tunes by Jackie Lee & Delores Hall, Cat Stevens, George McCrae, Carl Bean and Love Unlimited. Tune in for some so(u)lar warmth and after next week we reckon we’ll be needing some! #soulonshortwave #shortwavesnotdead

And now they’ve told us it’ll snow

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We’ve made a good start on the garden over the last couple of days, it’s had a good bit of tidying up, some seeds were sown and even a few chitted seed potatoes have gone into the raised beds with the handmade potection on the top. Typically we’ve been told we may be having wintery conditions over the next week. No worries then, it’ll be a mad dash out with the newspaper and old net curtains if anything looks like it’ll be needing protection.

At the bottom of the garden it’s a little darker now due to the fence going up so we’re in the process of tidying it up and seeing what can go in. The cardoons are coming on well and there’s some red onions that never done much last year that have now resprouted so we’re leaving them in for a bit.

We’ve still got more packs of seeds to sow but we reckon we’ll hold onto them for a while. We didn’t do too well with green beans last year so this year trying a new variety to us called Python, a french climbing bean. Years ago the great Joe Maiden mentioned that runner beans in general don’t like sitting around in cold soil so we’re not going to sow them till mid/late May when the soil is warmer. Was it Joe who also passed on the tip that you know when you it’s the right time to sow seeds outdoors as it’s when you put your hand into the soil and it feels pleasant not cold. It may have been. So wait a while until you sow outdoors (unlike us who have already started!)

A guide to independent thinkers

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Tune in this Sunday 4th April at 2300 UTC (Midnight UK time) to a repeat of the first transmission of DJ Frederick’s Radio Lavalamp on 9395 kHz via WRMI. 

The broadcast originally from last year features amongst other things One Deck Pete‘s The Purple Nucleus of Creation 001 with tunes from Carlos Pizzetti, Zane Moss, Julie Østengaard, Mahamboro, Blundetto and 100th Monkey. The mix was very much influenced by this video below which we have posted up many many times it’s so good. “A lady did this for me…They come from the 2nd planet from the sun Kruger, 60 B”