Haarsteeg, North Brabant, somewhere between Hedikhuizen and the village proper. Easter weekend, and the polder has thrown its doors open to spring. The sky is wide and Dutch — the kind of sky that takes up most of the world here — and the wind moves through in soft, irregular pulses, brushing the microphone now and then like a curious animal. Far off, the church bells of Vlijmen ring out across the fields, slow and unhurried, holiday bells with nowhere to be. Birds scatter their voices through the air, a chorus thinned out by distance: a finch here, a blackbird there, and somewhere among them, a cuckoo, repeating its small two-note miracle into the afternoon. A public bench sits just out of frame, and cyclists keep arriving — the country has more bicycles than people and today it shows — pausing to rest, trading bits of conversation that drift in and out of earshot, Dutch vowels rolling soft across the grass. A bell rings as someone passes. A moped buzzes through, briefly indignant. Then the polder reclaims itself: wind, birds, bells, the faint hum of a country at ease. Lie back in the grass, close your eyes, and you are already there. BACK

Hedikhuizen – Netherlands

Haarsteeg, North Brabant, in the Netherlands. Easter weekend, somewhere in the open farmland between Hedikhuizen and Haarsteeg. A bright day, a little wind passing now and then. Church bells from the village of Vlijmen carry faintly across the polder. Birds call from the fields, scattered and distant — and somewhere, a cuckoo. Near the recorder, a public bench where cyclists stop to rest and chat, voices drifting in and out as bikes pass on the path. The occasional moped, despite the signs. The wide flat land stretches out, the sky enormous above it. Lie back in the grass, close your eyes, and you are there. Gear: Sennheiser mkh30/50 MS, in Rycote cyclone small, windjammer – Sound Devices 302 – Tascam dr-100 Mk2

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CC BY 4.0 — recorded by klankbeeld — https://freesound.org/s/467532/

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outdoor countryside netherlands

Recorded by klankbeeld

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