Ebbw Vale in South Wales holds many secrets, not least within the water-rucked hillsides that feed the valley. On one such slope there is an ancient woodland. At its base a river sparkles beneath a canopy of fresh beech leaves. You cross it and climb steeply, first through trees then heath and grassland. Bluebells bob in the May breeze; a lizard rustles in the warm bracken; streams gurgle in the sun.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In episode 2 of season 16, we’re talking about walking, but in the context of a curious new film: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry starring Penelope Wilton and Jim Broadbent – about a man in his 60s who embarks on an unlikely 450 mile pilgrimage across Britain to see a dying friend.Plodcast regular Maria Hodson went to see the film – and meet Penelope and Jim, as well as the original book’s author (and writer of the screen play) Rachel Joyce to talk about the project – and their own connections to countryside. Later, Maria and Plodcast host Fergus test the power walking with a trip to the Mendip Hills near Bristol…

This is episode 2 of season 16: Get Active in Nature

Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Write to us:

Plodcast, Countryfile

Eagle House

Bristol BS1 4ST 

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We're in Velvet Bottom nature reserve in the Mendips where woodlands and wildflowers have overun the old lead mines. It's still early spring and mistle thrushes, willow warblers, goldfinches are establishing territories in the most enchanting fashion.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Maria Hodson, presented by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected].

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the first episode of a new season, the Plodcast team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack meet up with naturalist and One Show regular Mike Dilger to search for some of Britain’s rarest plants in the magnificent Avon Gorge on the edge of Bristol.Along the way Mike shares some astonishing stories from his quest to find 1000 plant species in the UK in the course of a single year. His book about this adventure is called 1000 Shades of Green and is published by Bloomsbury.

This is episode 1 of season 16: Get Active in Nature

Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Write to us:

Plodcast, Countryfile

Eagle House

Bristol BS1 4ST

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We're on the northern edge of the Cotswolds in South Warwickshire – a vast open field of young barley stretches to the horizon. Quietly at first, then all of a rush, a hidden chorus of skylarks rises from the vegetation, singing exultantly, ever higher until they become specks in the cloudy heavens.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Maria Hodson.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We wandering in deeply rural County Armagh. It's early spring and the rooks rule the woodlands. Nesting close together in the canopies of a dozen roadside trees, the birds create a bustling city of more than 300 birds. Pairs greet each other and squabble with neighbours – and all the while the excitement rises as the first chicks begin to hatch.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewherebeautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Plodcast – the nature and countryside podcast from BBC Countryfile Magazine. This is a preview of season 16 of the Plodcast where the regular team of Fergus, Hannah and Jack celebrate early spring, talk about upcoming episodes and invite you, the listener, to get involved. The new season of the Plodcast begins on 2 May.

Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected]. If read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Write to us:

Plodcast, Countryfile

Eagle House

Bristol BS1 4ST

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're in Blawith Fells in the Lake District. he walk up to the tarn felt a little like a dream; the sun-warmed lane rising gently – rhythmically – between trickling brooks and beds of bracken, beyond which rolled the flaxen commonlands of the Blawith Fells. You reach the pool and settle on a tussock of grass beside it. Water trickles and birds sing as Lakeland’s higher fells glow to the north in the rare spring sun.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sun spills over the Avalon Marshes, driving away the last vestiges of winter. Chiffchaffs have arrived, bringing their flinty song two-note song to the reedbeds and willows. Across the water comes the hysterical giggling of courting little grebes.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The first inklings of spring are stirring in the Rhymney Valley in South Wales. Down at the foot of the dell, where the two streams meet, there is a mossy bank. You lay down your jacket and sit upon it to gaze up at the trees, which soar like skyscrapers into the plain white sky, as spring rain and birdsong spiral down.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be. Recorded by Daniel Graham, presented by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Visit the Countryfile Magazine website: countryfile.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices