Soundscrapes

Montpelier v. Irene

Quincy Campbell — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:31:02 +0000

Ep 110830

Montpelier was very prepared for this week’s flooding after the devastation of May’s floods and suffered little harm. Furthermore, the capitol city did not experience the extreme flash flooding that devastated other parts of Vermont. This is a morning-after portrait of what could have been very damaging floods.

The Blueberries

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:00:29 +0000

Ep 110715

It’s opening day for pick-your-own blueberries down at Adam’s Berry Farm. A lot has changed since Soundscrapes’ last visit. The blueberries are the size of a quarter!

Savor that flavor of summer!

The Campfire

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 10:00:12 +0000

Ep 110701

Raise a tallboy to an annual tradition: camping in Granville, Vermont. Normally, our crew is alone at our “secret” spot, but this weekend there was a Circle Gathering happening in the same place! Still, the woods were big enough for all of us!

Turn up the volume, listen to the drums, but most of all, celebrate that summer is here!

The Summer Begins

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:00:46 +0000

Once again, I am both sorry and delighted to report that I didn’t have the time this week to put together an episode! As this goes to press I’m hiking the Long Trail and have been since the Solstice. I’ve happily been heralding the arrival of summer with hiking, camping, and a few road trips.

Next week, I’ll be bringing you sound from the trail!

Until then, check out this amazing project that my friends, Audrey, James, Michelle, and Samir are doing this summer! It’s well worth a visit to the website and deserves our support.

The Gem of NYC

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:00:35 +0000

Ep 110617

Away from New York City’s fabulous museums and restaurants is another gem of Manhattan: Inwood Hill Park. Soundscrapes visits the island’s only salt marsh, which is adjacent to the last remaining naturally forested habitat on Manhattan.

The Search For Breezes

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:00:26 +0000

Soundscrapes is on a short hiatus, but only for this week as I go in search of a cool breeze. In the meantime, there are a few things that I have been excited to see emerge in the last few days:
-cottonwood seeds EVERYWHERE!
-irises blooming
-warm evenings

Something that’s been around, but I can admit now:
-not feeling guilty about cremees (soft serve to you West coast people)

Things I’m not excited about:
-unseasonable temperatures
-waking up at 5am because it’s already light that early…
-and not sleeping anyway because it’s toooo hot.
Stay cool this weekend!

The Flash Flooding

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:00:32 +0000

Ep 110603

It’s officially the wettest spring on record for Burlington and St. Johnsbury, Vermont. In between those cities is little Barre, Vermont. Last week’s Soundscrapes mentioned an imminent threatening forecast of tornadoes and thunderstorms for the region. Well, the Barre and Montpelier region bore the brunt of the weather, experiencing flooding that no one was prepared for or had seen in recent decades. This week, Soundscrapes captures some of the aftermath.

The Architecture

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 27 May 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Ep. 110527

Ready for a different perspective on phenology? Instead of charting this week’s phenomena, Soundscrapes walks with Becca Reese around Burlington, Vermont discussing how a century of different architectural styles reflects upon the landscape and people of the era. Think of it as an architectural core sample.

The Backyard and Baseball

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 20 May 2011 10:00:36 +0000

Ep. 110520

A busy few weeks leaves little time for Soundscrapes! This week’s episode is a short tour of my backyard, the little things that are growing, and the prospects of the baseball season.

*P.S.–I couldn’t find my camera, so all these photos were shot with the camera on my phone! Wow!

The Buds

Quincy Campbell — Fri, 13 May 2011 10:30:15 +0000

Yesterday afternoon I walked from my house on the east side of campus to downtown Burlington so I could print and FedEx some very important documents. I’ve been thinking about those 14 pages of words for months now and sending them is the mental culmination of my spring I have so been looking forward to. But today, I took my sweet time.

I literally stopped to smell the flowers. The plants have just LOVED the past weeks of rain! Everything is budding and flowering, and I feel that my environment reflects my state of mind: emerging from a dormant winter to channel energy into beautiful, colorful, delicious things.

After seeing the state of downtown I was grateful that I had chosen to walk. It appears that most of Main Street and Winooski Ave have been grated for repaving (another seasonal event!), and traffic at rush hour was too much for even the most gentle urbanite. Perhaps it was the warm weather that enabled all that yelling out of car windows? Regardless, I was too distracted by the season to care much about anything not budding.

I lingered under the flowering trees on the sidewalk in front of the Fletcher Free Library. Their fragrance was a sickly sweet stench. Though not unpleasant, it was overwhelming. I tried to imagine myself as an insect attracted to the scent. If you were a bug, what would you love to see and smell?

I love seeing trees in their adolescent stage of leafing out when the branches are freckled with green but the shape and size of the leaves are yet to be fully revealed. The vivid tulips are wide open, on the downhill of their season, but are even now happy flowers. They are my favorite and irresistably remind me of home in Washington State. The whole month of April there is a tulip festival in Northwest Washington that is to me one of the happiest places on Earth. I’ll be visiting the Pacific Northwest in early June, so you can also soon expect a Soundscrapes video from my native land!

Check back next week for a discussion on historic preservation and how seasons past have affected an iconic part of the Vermont landscape: barns.

Until then, happy flower sniffing.