Thursday 12 April 2012

Thoughts on a Thursday


Meet Maya the latest member of my family. Well, I’m assuming she must be because she’s joined the family photos on the study wall. Actually she’s a member of Silke’s family of artwork from Savannah in Georgia. If you like this innocent young girl you might want to look at Silke’s artwork for sale on her Etsy site.

It appears I am now officially a spammer! After all the trouble I’ve had with people spamming me and nothing being done to stop them I’m now getting comments rejected because, to quote the sites concerned, ‘Your comment appears to us to be spam’. So what the hell does one do about that? I now can’t leave any comment on the sites concerned – I appear to have been barred! So I’ll have to resort to one of my other identities (the ones I use to really spam with – just kidding) to leave a comment saying I can’t leave comments any more. Are there times when you wonder why you take part in this blogging game at all????

(See my comments below for even more reasons to wonder why one bothers!)

One of the reasons may be that I’m a sucker for memes – the sort where people are asked a set of questions, answer them and then other bloggers do the same on their blogs. But I like to pick and choose the ones I adopt and even then I like to pick out the questions that most interest me. One I came across recently asked, inter alia, 'What is your most favorite sound and what is your least favorite sound?' Apart from the fact that, being pedantic, I don’t think you can have a ‘most favourite’ of anything it set me thinking.

I’m not sure I can pick out one sound that tops them all. Among my favourites from days-gone-by would certainly have been the sound of a zip being unzipped on a pair of girl’s long boots or the silky sound of a slip falling to the floor. Nowadays my mind goes more to the sound of the electric kettle being put on, the Blackbird singing its dawn song, the back door opening to signal the arrival home of Partner-who-loves-tea, the thump of mail or an Amazon parcel landing on the mat, or the ‘bing’ sound as an e-mail lands in my in-box.

My least liked sound, before they died last year, had to be that created when one accidentally stepped on Meek or Samantha’s tail! A screeched Meeooww! Nowadays it is the perpetual noise of one sort or another created by the adjacent nursing home in the middle of the night. The only consolation when they drop a load of dishes in their kitchen is that it stops the hysterical shouting and laughter which seems to be an otherwise necessary part of the staff making breakfast for the residents at five in the morning.

What sounds do you like /abhor? By all means share them as a comment or point us to a blog posting where you pursue the subject!

16 comments:

  1. You asked for it - here is the link to a post I wrote last year in summer on the subject of noise:
    http://librarianwithsecrets.blogspot.de/2011/07/all-that-noise.html

    My favourite sound? Hmmm that depends... I like the blackbird's dawn song, and the church bells (yes, I posted about those, too!), and of course the cry of the buzzard (you guessed it - there is an extra post about this on my blog as well).

    Least favourite sounds are those made by my inconsiderate neighbours, stomping up and down the stairs, banging doors that can be shut perfectly normally, and so on.

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  2. I recsll you mentioning bells, Librarian, how I wish we had church bells within hearing - that would be lovely. I suspect noisy neighbours are going to figure highly with a lot of people! As I write this at twenty five to seven in the morning the nursing home has just emptied its bins and had a bin lorry reversing in 'Beep, beep, Vehicle reversing. Beep, Beep, Stand clear, vehicle reversing'... Good job I'm already awake!

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  3. OK - so why, when I have just posted at 7.40 am is the comment showing as 10.39 pm last night? Must go and check my settings. what was I saying about this blogging lark and wondering why one does it...

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  4. Checked settings - they say my blog is set to GMT and it's 6.42 am. Pardon me while I scream!

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  5. The Blogger comment time has been whacky for weeks. Doesn't fit neither sender nor receiver time.

    One of my favourite sounds is running water (n.b. in a place where it is supposed to be running). One of the least favourite is indeed noisy neighbours. I suspect strange noises in one's own home feel particularly invasive because there's nowhere to go to escape them.

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  6. The sound I really hate is of the answer machine, when it is Kate's voice saying "Will try and ring you next week Mum.Love you. Bye." If only I had my door key in my hand instead of at the bottom of a very large bag!

    My most favourite sound is of the plane landing at Stornoway airport - bringing family or friends home safely.

    Of course I love to hear the birds, kettle singing, church bells and even the chickens across the road but these sounds happen all the time and the first two not so often so they are special.

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  7. Scream - and become a noisy neighbour yourself :-D

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  8. Good morning!! What a surprise - I just came to your blog to link to it from my latest blog post and saw a familiar face! Thank you!! You are so kind! :)

    As to sounds, there are many I love - church bells (we have many here in Savannah), the sound of horses hooves on pavement (we have those too here in Savannah), the birds singing in the backyard, Ramses purring, the fish tank gurgling, the clicking of my knitting needles... I could go on and on!

    My least favorite sounds are those of modern machinery. It seems that gardening in our part of the world has gone from peaceful to extremely loud as everything is done with either gas-powered lawn mowers, weed whackers, chain saws, and (the worst of them all) leaf blowers. It makes me feel sad for the plants that are being tended to that way...

    Anyway, wishing you a great day!!

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    Replies
    1. Welcome to the club, Silke - I have dedicated a whole blog post to those dratted leaf-blowers!

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  9. Sounds I love:

    * the intro music to films on "Turner Classic Movies"

    * my garden birds

    * rain

    * the Glenn Miller Orchestra

    Sounds I hate:

    * neighbors arguing / hammering / playing loud music

    * sirens

    * cats horking up hairballs

    * alarm clocks going off

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  10. How strange, I have never had anything bounced from a blog comment box. I suppose there's always a first time.
    I'm sorry for the poor old souls in the nursing home if there is that amount of noise.
    I think my favourite sound is the skylark, when I'm cycling across sunny English countryside, and can hear it very high in the air above. My least favourite sound - well there are many because I'm easily distracted by sound. But loud boring muzak always gets me down and depresses me. Apart from the obvious ones of people shouting angrily at each other, babies crying in distress, etc.

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  11. Favourite sounds -- happy children's laughter, the twittering of birds outside my window, the distant sound of a jet flying overhead which conjures up visions of people and places both far and dear, the sound of a loved one's voice on the other end of the telephone

    Least favourite sound -- lawn/leaf blowers!!

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    Replies
    1. And yet another member to the club of leaf blowers haters!! We should really sign a petition and hand it to... hmm... maybe some UN committee.

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    2. How right you are, Meike! Worst of all, I'm not sure they even do any good -- they just move the stuff around from one place to the other, they don't pick it up!

      If you start a petition, I'll gladly sign it! :0)

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  12. There is a certain irony in the most spammed person I know suddenly being the victim the other way around.

    My favourite sounds that spring to mind are nowhere near as imaginative as yours. Amongst my favourites are the loud and clear songs of the Bellbird and the Tui outside The Cottage and rain on the roof or windows when I am snug in bed. One of my dislikes is the adverts on TV (particularly in NZ) when the sound is ramped up so much over the set level for the programme.

    What I really love, though, is that I live in environments with few neighbours and only the noise of the countryside to listen to (other than, of course, my music which I can play without disturbing anyone).

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  13. After completing 100 things about me I decided it was time to give up Meme's though I enjoy reading about others.

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