These are such strange days. Self-isolating should be a pleasure; a quiet walk on the Moor, in the woods, by the river. A chance to breathe, a chance to be quiet, to just sit perhaps. To gain perspective, or be with nature. To let the breeze and song move across the skin. How odd that such isolation now becomes a necessity for darker reasons. 

So here is a new project, a collaboration with Tony Whitehead. Every day from now on, we will record the progress of spring and summer from the spaces and silences that surround us here on Dartmoor, and share them here. Our aim is to produce 15-30 minutes of unedited sound of nature and the moor, every day, for anyone to listen to and connect to what’s going on out there as the springtime unfolds – wherever you are.

As the coronavirus lockdown intensifies, I’d just like to emphasise that these recordings are all taken during our daily walk out from home!

Click on the links for the recordings. Feel free to download the sound files – these are all commons. Shared with love.

1st April: Birch

A cold afternoon in the birches above Chagford

30th March: Churchyard rooks

Chagford churchyard on a bitterly cold day. No human conversations, but rooks…

28th March: Round Pound, Batworthy

Wild winds whipping across the moor, and meadow pipits (the picture is of nearby Scorhill)

26th March: Meldon Hill

Sleepy sunny lunchtime with chiffchaffs

24th March: Hazel, oak and willow

Near Murchington, sounds of meadow and woodland at the end of the day

22nd March: allotment at dusk

Disgruntled blackbirds and weeds growing happily

20th March – St Michael’s church, Chagford

As the pubs close their doors, here’s the sound of the centre of our little Dartmoor town

18th March – Natterdon Hill

A blackbird serenading the close of the day

16th March – Padley Common

A sparkly, frosty, sunny sunrise