early sunday morning, back in thornton cemetery—this time at the west end of the long, straight, grave-lined avenue known as “the prom”.
thornton cemetery is more park than cemetery, and the prom is one of the few areas containing graves. i was thinking i’d be the only [living] human being around so early in the morning, but i was mistaken.
i love the way the hard tarmac surface subtly transforms the acoustics here.
a lovely sunny day and the first cricket of the season—a “ladies” match—at thornton hilltop cricket club.
the women’s game seems to have quite a different atmosphere from that of the traditional male version. a different way of displaying cameraderie, mainly. reminds me in some ways of the girls’ hockey games i used to see at school.
but, of course, nothing changes the classic sound of “leather on willow”, or the gentle ambience of english sunday cricket.
5.30pm, thornton cemetery, with the birds tweeting in the trees, both my dogs wandering around by my feet, and mad holiday traffic racing along on the road just down the hill.
5.45am in our garden.
i originally set up the mics to record the dawn chorus, which was well underway some distance down the hill, and couldn’t believe my luck when our local avian sonic artists—the starlings—turned up just at the right moment, making an amazing array of sounds. they’ve just added a couple of new impressions to their repertoire, now imitating moorland birds and house sparrows.
inside a barn, on a farm near the little hamlet of moscow, thornton heights.
a very windy easter sunday afternoon. easter celebrations were going on in the nearby farmhouse, but the empty barn was making plenty of sound of its own, aided enthusiastically by the wind.
leeds railway station, near the ticket barriers, just after 6pm.
to mark the imminent arrival of spring, here’s some indoor birdsong, recorded in a bradford pet supermarket.
these lovebirds seemed to get rather excited by the sight of my camera, and began to make some pretty impressive alarm calls—unlike the canaries, cockatiels, budgies and zebra finches, who’d obviously seen it all before.
anyway. i decided at this point to go record the fish [a much quieter option].
