It is dawn in midsummer after a night of rain. Drip falls from the treetops, splatting against leaves and the ground. Wood Thrushes sound off in the distance and a lone cricket trills. Such an exalted mix, an elixir so pure. How careful we must be to keep our minds calm and quiet and our senses free of interference, so that we do not miss the extraordinary beauty that nature showers upon us.
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In mid-Apri, I visited Lost Maples State Natural Area in the Texas Hill Country. Shortly before dusk, I hiked to the Grotto, a drippy limestone bluff overhang located along a tributary of the Sabinal River. There I recorded the variable plops, plinks, splats and thunks of droplets landing in pools or on wet stones in the stream-bed below … while a pair of screech-owls added their musical trills to the magic of the night.
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Happy New Year 2021! After nearly a year of ignoring my blog (a break I sorely needed), I’m jumping back into it, with the goal of posting regularly in the weeks and months to come. To commemorate the new year with nature sounds, I spent a number of hours attempting to record light rain falling in an oak woods, the raindrops splatting against compressed leaves and patches of snow. Altogether I’m quite happy with the result …
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Braving the elements on a frigid night in late February, I captured one of my favorite elemental soundscapes … cold, blustery waves of wind blowing powerfully through pines and spruces …
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Spring is just around the corner here in upstate New York. Jefferson Salamanders migrated less than a week ago, the woodpeckers are drumming like crazy, and I heard a cardinal singing in my yard this very morning. How exciting … such a delicious taste of things to come!
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As an experiment in the realm of nature sounds and meditation, I just collaborated with meditation expert Allen Weiss who heads up Mindful USC, a mindfulness program at the University of Southern California.
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