Today, Sunday, I went for a ride. Simply to change my mind from house renovations and everything. In other words, to take a break. In the middle of “nowhere”, here in Nova Scotia, I stopped by the side of the road.
The road was a secondary one, not even called a highway.
In some parts of the world, the summer is over. School has started and we can relax. For those who cannot thank schools to provide some relaxation time, I have decided to try and do it with a little audio.
This is real sound, no loops and no edits of any kind.
When one thinks of “the beach” it’s almost always about sunshine, sea and sand. Preferably warm or hot sand. Some beaches, however, are a little different.
When we went on vacation to the Mediterranean as kids, we always avoided the pebble beaches as they were not comfortable to sit on.
Or I should say a one-bird orchestra. The Northern Mockingbird is a critically imperilled species in Nova Scotia. It seems that thanks (or because of) its wonderful singing, the bird was often captured and sold as a cage bird.
Northern Mockingbird
What this bird does best is sing.
Dawn, a time of the day that shouldn’t be missed. Most people are still asleep at that time in the summer. The birds, however, are already up and singing.
I have no idea why this is called a “chorus”.
Springtime, at last. It has been a while since we heard any wildlife, even here on the east coast.
So now that the sun finally shows up for extended periods of time (read hours), it’s time to record some sounds to go with the feeling of spring. 
For the last twelve years I have been using the Zoom H2 as my primary sound recorder. From footsteps to trains and whatever else was presenting itself. Yet one thing always lacked. The ability to connect more microphones to the unit and have them all work together.
While for now I have no external mics, there will be a time when I can put the system in place in a forest and come back the next day to collect the recordings.
Normal times, who doesn’t want those? 
I would! When part of your world is on fire, there is nothing normal around you. The pleasure of listening to your surroundings, let alone record them seems far away. Yet something tells me that I need to keep my head calm and not overreact.
That’s easier said than done when your family is close to be in the line of fire.
Some go to the sea, some to the mountains and some to the forest. To each his own as far as relaxing goes. But not many people go to the woods when it’s raining.
Normally, I wouldn’t do that either, but once you start listening aka field recording, your senses become somewhat more keen on more.
It’s midwinter. No surprise for anyone. We’ve all noticed that there is hardly any daylight left. It makes me remember when the days got longer and stronger. The silence is overwhelming when you get out of the inhabited areas. Or is it?
It looks like the holidays will bring the cheer. But in reality, it is all silent outside. Cheer may be hard to find for some. For those people, only nature can bring the cheer in their life. So here is a bit of that cheer that is hard to come by in this time of the year.
At times it looks like there is nothing to record. Snow makes no sound, rain destroys your gear on top of destroying your mood. Nothing to be had out there. So, as a sound and vision collector, you dive into your archives to come up with something to show. Preferably something nice and pleasant.
But is that the right thing to do?
Ever wanted to go to a cemetery around midnight? For me that was always a hesitant Yes. Well, a “perhaps”. I’m not scared of anything in a cemetery, most of what is there is dead stuff anyway. Liverpool is home to a cemetery called the “Congregational Cemetery” as it was called in 1764, but burials were Carried out here since 1759.
Since I live fairly close by, I decided to give this a go last week. Armed with my camera and my Zoom H2, I wanted to find out the atmosphere of an old cemetery at night.