The sounds of Summer!

Reported

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Unfortunately we have scheduled building work both inside and out from mid-August until October/November. Whilst I appreciate the birds and peace and quiet, I try to be mindful that jobs have to be done. As a Granny of 6 (5 of whom we have contact with) (3 of which we have on a regular basis) I ask them to be respectful of my neighbours and get them out of the hot tub by 8pm. I do have exceptional neighbours one side, the other side, well the least said the better.

Did have a good old grumble to myself on Saturday morning when someone was using a petrol hedge trimmer 6.30am, very antisocial in my opinion.

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere I think you just have to be very patient and try to remember all the times over the years when you have been the 'noisy neighbour'.

Nothin will stop me enjoying the sounds and smells of summer.

oldbatty
The 'fact' may be significant to those with teeny tiny brains!
To the normal folk amongst us, it has no significance at all

Love your question oldbatty

The first swifts were screaming over the house today. I stopped the lawn mower to listen to them

I used to live in a quiet seaside town and we'd sometimes hear a lawnmower next door, I don't recall any strimmers. There was barely the hum of traffic, just lovely birdsong.
Back in a large town I often hear car/burglar alarms and sirens with the occasional youngster on a 'souped-up' motor scooter making a racket. It makes me feel a bit wistful.

We have a building site next door at the moment, and the sounds we hear are the thump, thump, thump of the pile driver. They've been at it for 5 weeks now, but I understand that they've got to stop before exams start at the grammar school.
Still at least they've moved to the other end of the site now.
When they were pile driving 10ft from our retaining wall , I was in terror of seeing our shed tumbling down the side.

I don't like the smell and smoke of burning burgers.

We have lots of birds about singing their hearts out. They can be very loud but the blackbirds in particular are lovely. They sit on top of TV aerials and proclaim their territory.

I definitely think some jobs should be avoided at certain times. I’m not grumpy but sometimes I just need peace and quiet in the garden - there aren’t that many opportunities.
I was away at the weekend and nearby caravan allowed their little dachshund to yap incessantly. My tough Stafford’s never made a sound. I’m afraid I did and told the damn dog to shut up. It was moved inside.
We all need peace in our increasingly noisy world.

I used to have older neighbours who liked to get roaring drunk on a Saturday at home, have loud country music blaring out from hi fi speakers placed outside their back door. Some weeks they would fall out and the air was blue, they also threw each other’s possessions like missiles out into their back garden. At that point I would close my back door and windows.
One year he waved his pellet gun at her during a fight, she came around to me, I was happy to shelter her as the police marched him off in handcuffs to cool off.
I could see quite clearly what he shouted in the direction of my house as he was marched off.

I’m in lovely Wales on the Cambrian coast, sat on a bench this afternoon looking over Harlech Beach, with Snowdon as a backdrop. Not a strimmer, mower, bbc, or vehicle to disturb this tranquil moment. Just silence. It truly does restore the soul.

Phoenix you are forgetting the sound of digital keys opening and closing cars carrying on the soft summer breeze. I am sure they could turn them down but they want us to hear them.

Hi . This all rings true with me . Don't mind mowing and power tools as these finish shortly and quite early . My neighbours have bought a hot tub . Their mate come round .On goes the barbeque until almost midnight . They stay outside . Children are reasonably quiet but the male member / my neighbour is crazily loud . Do I confront /Why should it be me ? or post them a no thank you note.

It’s your own fault Craftycat for lying outdoors in your bikini and looking so attractive! The man is only human after all.

I don't mind the noise children make, even the endless thwack of one of those tennis ball on a string things. I don't object to lawnmowers and strimmers because almost everyone has some grass to be cut and, once the job's done, the noise stops. What I object to is a radio in the garden all day long. Half the time, my neighbours aren't even outside! Listen indoors, switch off or use headphones! I fantasize about taking a potshot at the radio with a catapult. If I could choose to have a superpower it would be noise blocking ability...

Ah yes - the music-lovers Our road is usually fairly quiet and peaceful, with not too much noise -- until summer comes, and a couple of neighbours decide to delight us all, one by having BBQs in the back garden (complete with pounding music relayed through speakers) and one by occasionally inviting his friends round for karaoke - in his front garden (he's explained that it's bigger than his back garden...!)
Fair enough, neither goes on too late - usually between 11pm and midnight - but it does mean having all doors and windows shut to deaden the sound (& allow us to watch TV and hear what's being said) and it definitely precludes sitting in the garden with a nice glass of something chilled...
If we know it's going to happen, we usually go out for the evening - but in both cases it's often decided on the spur of the moment. Both families are lovely, and good neighbours, but those 6 or so weekends a year seem endless... Hey ho - it's called living in a community I suppose

Agree about the barbecue smells. They seem to waft across from all direction on hot afternoons and evenings obliging us to close windows and doors. Another annoyance is next door’s grandchildren playing football in the the garden with constant loud bangs against our fence. I did suggest they use the length rather than the width of the garden but the neighbour said “what, and have a broken window?” I try not to get annoyed about what are probably minor irritations in the grand scheme of things, and just take steps to remove myself from the annoyance. There are lots of peaceful moments too and I try to enjoy them when I can.

I love the summer with all the birds darting about enjoying the day.

I can, however, live without the complete prat to my right, and his gfriend who decided to have a ‘domestic’ at 1/4 to one on Saturday morning- with all doors and windows open - using some utterly vile language. I called the police as I actually feared for her safety.

And naturally, on Sunday the newly loved up couple were billing and cooing louder than the resident wood pidgeon.

Our Saturday was blessedly quiet, but our Sunday was also graced with our neighbours to the left emptying their shed with much banging, clanging and rending of timbers - who then polluted the afternoon air with a stinky barbecue which heavily featured fish!

The detritus is still there (shed and barbecue), right next the the fence. An eyesore and nose-sore.

I will wait until Thursday when both sides have a day off, and begin my day nice and early by mowing the lawn.

A petty revenge - but pay-back no less

starbox I can sympathise with that problem. When we lived in London our neighbour's children (3 doors away) shouted at the tops of their voices to their friends (2 streets away!) from 7am asking them to come round to play! Then we had to suffer their foul language, and that of their parents, for the rest of the day, all through the long summer holidays. Any request to lower the volume was met with further abuse or we were called snobs.

Is the fact that they are Asian significant?

Well this summer our Asian neighbour's sons seem to have gone away- so no hours of bouncing on giant trampoline with gangs of their friends all f-ing and blinding for all their worth! (And the build-up of fury when your polite requests over fence that they stop are met with sullen silence- and five minutes later they're at it again as if you hadnt spoken. Hope they don't come home till winter...

My neighbour to the left has a motorbike so I know what you mean happysexagenarian. He doesn't just get on it and ride off either , oh no, he has to rev and rev and bl**dy well rev before he sets off.

As we are retired we endeavour to do any noisy gardening or DIY tasks on weekdays when many neighbours will be at work, and never too early or late in the day.

But my pet hate noise-wise are motor bikes. The road outside our house is a main thoroughfare across the island, though not particularly noisy even at 'busy' times. But at weekends and when there are motorcycle events taking place the noise is horrendous. The bikers ride slowly through the village (low speed limit) but just before they get to our house they know they are approaching miles & miles of open coast road and they open the throttle making the most awful din!! Have even seen some of them doing wheelies past the house. It frightens our youngest grandchild and terrifies our dog. Thank goodness it is mostly confined to the summer months.

I agree, it's awful when the peace is disturbed by mowers, strimmer etc. But we do it ourselves so we cant really complain. As we are retired now, i do find that we can usually get peace and quiet during the week when most people are working. I am sitting, as I type, listening to nothing but Bird song. It's lovely.