Covert Plant Book launch

I am very proud to be have a chapter included in this fabulous book!

I spend a lot of time working on country, listening to and feeling the sounds produced by birds, trees, water and earth so it was great to have the opportunity to write about one specific tree here. Each tree has its own acoustic signature and generates energies which extend into the soil through its roots, into the air through its leaves, and into the bodies of insects that come into contact with its trunk, branches as leaves who can feel the sap as it pumps through the plant’s body.

I love recording the sounds of particular trees in a way that attempts to capture these different acoustic perspectives. A transducer microphone can be buried in the soil in the roots of a tree which responds to the energies transmitted through the earth, as the roots are gently pulled by the tree as it moves in the air above. A stereo microphone senses the sound of the leaves which produce a range of different sounds as individual leaves are moved by specific movements of the air. The sound produced by this movement of leaves and branches varies throughout the tree, and with each air movement producing different sounds.

The sound produced but the sap pumping through the tree’s body and limbs can be easily sensed by gently pressing a transducer microphone or even a doctor’s stethoscope  against the trunk. The sounds of this fluid movement, and the movement of leaves and branches, can all be hear through the trunk of a mature tree.

So listening to a dingle tree can easily take me a whole day!