Nighttime on Still Waters

A narrowboat-based audio journal on canal life, living aboard, the elements, and the night. Perfect late-night listening for dreamers, insomniacs, night owls, nocturnalists, drifters, and nomads. For lovers Fagen's 'Nightfly', Auden's 'Night Mail', Hopper's 'Nighthawks' and the 'drifting sea-dark streets' of Dylan Thomas. For all those who used to listen to the transistor under your pillow, love the sound of distant trains and rain against the windowpanes, canals and drover's tracks, lost music, splashed puddles, fireflies and bats, hares by moonlight, windsong among pines, owl-light, the shipping forecast, and all the wonderful, terrifying, grand and tawdry avenues of the night. Cosy listening for bedtimes.

All Episodes

Nighttime on Still Waters

The Hill

December 19, 2021 • Richard Goode • Episode 59

Send us a text

As tonight’s full moon is shrouded by the fog that rolls down the hill and curls and drifts upon the water join us aboard the NB Erica as we fall once more in love with the commonplace and overlooked things. The hill may not be named, or even be awarded a contour of its own, but it nevertheless is the place of gentle and unremarkable miracles.

Journal entry:

“17th December, Friday

It didn’t take long
For those three years of growth
To lie cut upon the ground.

Penny sniffs the torn and broken stems.
I step over teasel heads
Trodden into the mud. “

Episode Information

In this episode I read:

Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem ‘Pied Beauty’ from Poems and Prose published by Penguin Classics (1985).

Tim Hennen’s (2013) ‘What the Plants Say’ from his Darkness Sticks to Everything published by Copper Canyon Press.

I also read a quotation from Arthur Machen’s (1924) The London Adventure: Or the art of wandering. Republished by Tartrus Press.

General Details

In the intro and the outro, Saint-Saen's The Swan is performed by Karr and Bernstein (1961) and available on CC at archive.org.

Two-stroke narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence.

Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.

All other audio recorded on site.

Contact
For pictures of Erica and images related to the podcasts or to contact me, follow me on:

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoswPod

I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com

Support the show

Become a 'Lock-Wheeler'
Would you like to support this podcast by becoming a 'lock-wheeler' for Nighttime on Still Waters? Find out more: 'Lock-wheeling' for Nighttime on Still Waters.

Contact

Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/noswpod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nighttimeonstillwaters/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/noswpod.bsky.social
Mastodon: https://mastodon.world/@nosw

I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon.

For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters

You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.