April 2023 - The MrT Podcast Studio

MRTGY Ep03 April 3rd to Easter

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April 3rd to Easter – MrT’s Gardening Year – Episode 2023 03

In ‘April 3rd to Easter’ MrT’s week in his garden is punctuated by rain.

To view the photographs that accompany this podcast:

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Tuesday, April 4th:

A cold night with a frost first thing. The sun comes out and there are bees and butterflies gathering nectar from the grape hyacinths (Muscari). These have spread over the years and appear to be easy to grow!

MrT gives the lawn at the back of the house it’s first cut of the year. The mower is set high and it is much tidier afterwards.

At the front of the house MrT rakes some more moss up and sows more wildflower seeds.

Thursday, 6th April:

The first day of the new tax year!

The lettuce seedlings are coming up, time to beware of slugs as MrT doesn’t want to share his lettuces with them.

There are many primroses growing in the shrubby areas of the garden and they are starting to look lovely.

MrT removes a lot of dead wood from the dog rose hedge. This self seeded some years ago and when it flowers in the summer is loved by the bees.

It rains during the afternoon so MrT sows some more petunia seeds – the first lot didn’t come up! The seeds are like dust so it is very difficult to see if they have been sown evenly.

Sunday, 9th April – Easter Day:

Bright but cool when out of the sun.

Sadly the daffodils are past their peak however the tulips in the main border are starting to flower. At the bottom of the garden the first bluebells are in flower, in another week or so there will be a ‘haze’ of blue.

Next up:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed joining me in the garden. Please keep your eyes open for my next gardening week.

Links:

Many resources to help you in the garden can be found on the RHS website. You’ll find information on all aspects of gardening and news about their five wonderful gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Bridgewater (Salford), Harlow Carr (Harrogate), Hyde Hall (Essex) and Rosemoor (Devon).

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses the theme Horticulture for use in this podcast.

USRJ S3 Ep 07 Cary to Rocky Mount

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Through North Carolina from Cary to Rocky Mount – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 7

In ‘Through North Carolina from Cary to Rocky Mount’ the Silver Star travels through 79 miles of North Carolina.

View the photographs that accompany this podcast:

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Cary:

Today Cary is served by the Silver Star, Carolinian and Piedmont services.

In 1854 the railway reaches the the town when the North Carolina Railroad arrives. This is Cary’s northernmost track and regular passenger services start in 1867.

A second line opens in 1868 when the Chatham Railroad creates a railway crossing in the town. By the early 20th century local residents use both railways for shopping trips to Raleigh.

Demolition takes place in 1976. Amtrak resumes passenger services in 1995 and because of this an ‘infill station’ is used.

Between 1996 and 2006 new platforms are built. Further expansion takes place in 2010/11 because of $2 million of NCDOT and Federal Railroad Administration funds. The station fully reopens on September 1, 2011.

Raleigh:

Raleigh Union Station opens on July 10, 2018. Amtrak uses the main building and GoTriangle will use an adjacent building as the bus terminus. The station is at the Boylan Wye which is a railway junction used by CSX and Norfolk Southern. It is next to the Depot Historic District in downtown Raleigh. The station is the second busiest in North Carolina.

Rocky Mount:

Rocky Mount station, officially named the Helen P. Gay Rocky Mount Historic Train Station, is an intermodal transit facility. Amtrak uses the main building and an adjacent building is the bus terminus for the Tar River Transit and Greyhound. The station is part of the Rocky Mount Central City Historic District.

The dark red brick Romanesque Revival style building dates from 1893 when the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad build it. Between 1911 and 1912 the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad rebuild the station, then again in 1916.

You can get the feel of the original station in the attached photograph gallery because of the 21st Century major restoration to the original style.

Next up:

If you enjoy these podcasts please join me in a couple of weeks for the next part of my journey on the Silver Star to New York.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses Steam Railway for use in this podcast.

MRTGY 2023 02 March 27th to April 2nd

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March 27th to April 2nd – MrT’s Gardening Year – Episode 2023 02

In ‘March 27th to April 2nd’ we join MrT in his garden as Spring marches forward rapidly.

View the photographs that accompany this podcast:

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Monday, March 27th:

MrT starts his day by going into the greenhouse because he wants to see how things are progressing. The trailing lobelia seeds are now germinating, however it will be a few weeks before they can be pricked out.

The first of the Amarylis (Hippeastrum) bulbs is starting to show a flower head. A quick clean up to remove any snails and it can go indoors to flower. I have three – two are children of the first one!

Tuesday, 28th March:

Its drizzling however MrT continues with weeding his main border. Luckily most of the soil is sandy so it drains quickly. Sandy soil is not particularly fertile so each year MrT adds a significant amount of well rotted compost to the bed.

The bed suffers from ‘ground elder‘ which, if not controlled, gets out of hand and is very invasive. Because of this MrT regularly has to dig up plants that are mature to pick the ground elder roots out.

A few weeks ago I put a frame on the raised bed where we grow salad and green vegetables because this helps warm the soil. Today I’m sowing lettuce seeds in it.

Friday, 31st March:

The daffodils are at their peak but I need to deadhead the ones that have flowered to stop them setting seed. If they set seed all their energy will go into the seed rather than the bulb and that can reduce next year’s flowers.

Saturday, 1st April:

Time to pot on the fuchsia cuttings that I took last Autumn when putting the fuchsias into the greenhouse. They’ve got good roots and so I need to be careful as I put each one into it’s own pot.

They’ll look good when they flower in the summer.

Sunday, 2nd April:

My last task for the week is to cut back a rosemary bush because it has suffered badly during the winter. The suggestion (from the experts) is that it has suffered from a fungal infection – all I know is that it died back in the very cold weather.

Lets hope it starts to grow again!

Next up:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed joining me in the garden. Please keep your eyes open for my next gardening week.

Links:

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses the theme Horticulture for use in this podcast.

TH2022 Ep15 Thomas Lipton

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:36 — 28.9MB)

Season 2022 – Talk 15 – Thomas Lipton

In Thomas Lipton we hear the second of Jo Watson’s talks with the theme ‘some inherit wealth, others create their own fortunes’. Thomas Lipton is a classic story of a ‘self made man’.

Click a thumbnail below to view the image gallery that accompanies the talk.

Family and early years:

The Liptons were longstanding smallholders in County Fermanagh. In the late 1840s Thomas Lipton’s parents leave Ireland because of the Great Famine of 1845. They move to Scotland and, by 1847, settle in Glasgow.

Thomas Lipton is born in a poor area of the city on 10 May 1848. His siblings, three brothers and one sister, all die in infancy, but Thomas, the youngest, survives.

He goes to St Andrew’s Parish School close to Glasgow Green between 1853 and 1863. By the early 1860s his parents own a shop at 11 Crown Street in the Gorbals selling ham, butter and eggs. Thomas leaves school aged thirteen so that he can supplement his parents’ limited income. He finds work as a printer’s errand boy, then later as a shirt cutter.

America:

In 1864 Lipton becomes a cabin boy on a steamer sailing between Glasgow and Belfast. He purchases passage on a ship bound for the U.S.

Lipton spends five years working and travelling all over the country. He works at a tobacco plantation in Virginia, as an accountant and book-keeper at a rice plantation in South Carolina, a door-to-door salesman in New Orleans, a farmhand in New Jersey, and finally as a grocery assistant in New York.

It is in the US that he learns the power of advertising.

Building his business:

He returns to Glasgow in 1870 and initially helps his parents in their small shop in the Gorbals. In 1871 he opens his first shop — Lipton’s Market. It is very successful and he establishes a chain of grocery shops. First across Glasgow, then the rest of Scotland, until he has stores throughout Britain.

In 1880 Lipton invests in stockyards in Omaha, Nebraska and opens a large packing plant in South Omaha. He enters the tea trade in 1888, bypassing the traditional trading and wholesale distribution channels, selling teas at low prices.

Lipton visits British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1890 and, with James Taylor, develops the tea industry in the country. He establishes the Lipton tea brand which becomes a market leader in the US.

Sportsman:

He is interested in yachting and between 1899 and 1930 challenges the American holders of the America’s Cup five times. His yachts are all called Shamrock, running to Shamrock V. Sadly he is unsuccessful but is presented with a specially designed cup for ‘the best of all losers’. This helps make his tea famous in the United States.

He also sponsors a number of sports awards, many in the countries where his company operates.

Listen to the podcast and hear Jo tell the full story.

About this podcast:

This is an edited recording of a talk given to the Farnham u3a World History Group.

It is not possible to use some of the images from the original talks for copyright reasons.

The Farnham u3a site is here.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

AKM Music licenses Media Magazine for use as the theme music.

MRTGY 2023 01 March 20th to 26th

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:17 — 9.4MB)

March 20th to 26th – MrT’s Gardening Year – Episode 2023 01

In ‘March 20th to 26th’ we follow MrT as he prepares his garden for the Spring.

View the photographs that accompany this podcast:

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Monday, March 20th:

This series starts on the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. For many this is the first day of spring. Spring is many people’s favourite season because it is a time of renewal in the world around us.

MrT has a very good show of Hellebores this year. They grow in the shade of an apple tree and provide a colourful show in the first few months of the year.

I have potted on the tomato seedlings that will, hopefully, give us a good crop in our greenhouse later on this year. The two varieties I’m growing are Gardeners Delight and Moneymaker.

Tuesday, 21st March:

I get on with a job I’ve been putting off for ages and clear the weeds, undergrowth and sprouting hazel on the far side of the fence at the front of my house. I leave some of the weeds loved by pollinators to encourage them.

MrsT helps me cut up the material which we put it in our garden waste bins. The local council collects this every fortnight.

Wednesday, 22nd and Thursday 23rd March:

My main task is working on our front lawn. We intended to change this to a wildflower meadow last year but the pigeons got fat on the seeds that we sowed. We’re trying again! We won’t be defeated by the pigeons.

Friday, 24th March:

A wet day so I retreat into the garden shed and pot up some bush cherry tomatoes. These will go into larger pots. 6 will go to our daughter in London because she loves tomatoes! We’ll keep the rest.

Saturday, 25th March:

A day to do some work in the greenhouse. When I open the door the humid warmth hits me!

Sunday, 26th March:

I end the week preparing some Clivea plants to go inside. They’ve been in the greenhouse and some of the leaves are damaged because of a very cold spell. The flower stems are growing rapidly so I’m looking forward to seeing their beauty.

Next up:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed joining me in the garden. Please keep your eyes open for my next gardening week.

Links:

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses the theme Horticulture for use in this podcast.

USRJ S3 Ep06 Palatka to Southern Pines

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Through the Night from Palatka to Southern Pines – US Rail Journeys Series 3 Episode 6

As ‘Through the Night from Palatka to Southern Pines’ begins I’m sat with other passengers in the dining car where the crew are working hard to keep people fed.

View the photographs that accompany this podcast:

Please click on a thumbnail to open the gallery:

Palatka:

Palatka station dates from 1908. Amtrak‘s Silver Service trains stop here and 7,171 passengers used the station in 2021. The station building is also home to the Palatka Railroad Preservation Society and the David Browning Railroad Museum.

Note: The museum and the preservation society share the same website.

Jacksonville:

It is getting late and we are behind schedule when we reach Jacksonville.

Amtrak’s station opened in January 1974 when it replaced the Jacksonville Union Terminal situated in the downtown area. At the time of opening the station served 8 trains each day. They were the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Champion, and Floridian. The Floridian and Champion were discontinued because of the 1979 budget cuts.

In 1993, the Sunset Limited extended east from its New Orleans terminus to Miami, with a stop at Jacksonville. Today the Sunset Limited again terminates at New Orleans. You can listen to my journey on the Sunset Limited here.

Jesup:

Normally the Silver Star doesn’t stop at Jesup, however whilst the Silver Meteor is not running we have a stop here.

The station dates from 1899. A fire in February 2003 results in significant damage and the station being boarded up. A federal grant in 2005 enables the building to be refurbished to its early 20th-century appearance.

Through the night:

As we travel through the darkness we stop at Savannah in Georgia, and then Denmark, Columbia, and Camden in South Carolina.

Morning:

We are running late so I’m up by the time we reach Hamlet – I wonder whether a Shakespeare lover had a hand in naming Denmark and Hamlet, it’s Prince.

We continue our journey through woodland towards Southern Pines.

Next up:

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this podcast. Please join me in a couple of weeks for the next part of my journey on the Silver Star to New York.

Links:

To visit the Amtrak website please follow this link.

This podcast is also available through Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Castbox , Deezer, Podchaser, Spotify, Stitcher and Vurbl and others.

Music:

AKM Music licenses the theme, Steam Railway and The 60’s searching for the 60’s for use in this podcast.