I have thought about this topic from time to time. Today I heard a half hour radio show on the topic.
Usually they are dealing with the detrimental effects of noise. They deal with the lack of quiet spaces.
I started to think about noise and lack if noise in my life. Since I spend good portion of my life outdoors walking in natural areas I thought I could find lots of quiet space.
Not so! I thought of all the places I go and none of them lack noise. I couldn't think of a place that is very quiet.
Heritage ranch is a three hundred acre parcel where some land is native and other parts have been disturbed. So there are many heavily treed areas. However, this land is beside a very busy four lane highway. It's just a very noisy area. And a very busy railroad runs along the highway.
Then I thought, well Nova Natural area should be quiet. It's 30 km out in the country. This area is more than 300 acres with some native habitat and some recovered land. You are really out in the country. Then I thought that a huge world class petrochemical plant is beside the natural area. Also rail cars are being shunted back and forth 24 hours a day.
Well, where else do I go? I can't think of a quiet place without noise.
If I go back to the farm where I was born and raised there would be less noise but not entirely quiet. There is a busy railroad about 4 km from the farm. Farms aren't exactly quiet as there are chickens and other animals and machinery that make noise.
It must be difficult to find places without noise.
Can you think of areas without noise? When they do a hearing test I'm in a booth that almost lacks noise.
The quietest place I can think of is my house when the fridge compressor shuts off. The only sound left is the ticking of my clock. Even if I step outside, there is a wall of sound from the birds!
ReplyDeleteWind, birds natural sounds are not like sounds from machinery a little more peaceful.
DeleteHardly anywhere....and then you have a plane...
ReplyDeleteIt's like finding a Dark Sky area to be able to see the night sky. I have never seen the Aurora....
I haven't seen the aurora for a long time but as kids we saw aurora often.
DeleteAs I read this there's the hum of some machine in the area I hear periodically. And I live near a fire station, so often hear sirens.
ReplyDeleteMy back garden for a start - perhaps a bit of bird song - hardly noise, much too beautiful. But I do agree that the world gets noisier and noisier. Fairly quiet on the Athabaska glacier out of the tourist season I guess.
ReplyDeleteGood one about the Athabaska glacier except for those dam jets going over.
DeleteI can't think of a place with an absolute lack of noise but down at the farm, there is many a place to go where all I can hear are the birds and the wind rustling through the leaves. In fact, many a visitor to our farm cut their visit short because they couldn't deal with the silence. We never had a television so our evenings in the farmhouse only produced book pages turning occasionally along with normal farmhouse creaking sounds.
ReplyDeleteYou remind me that when the house is quiet you hear all kinds of creaking.
DeleteI should say our farm is probably 50 miles from the nearest railroad or town of any size and many fields are a mile or more from the nearest gravel road.
ReplyDeleteThat will make for a very quiet area.
DeleteI love areas when the sea drowns out any other noise in an area. Then we were on a beach last week where an excavator was digging out the mouth of a stream which crosses the beach. It is hard to get away from noise. I guess 8 billion of us make it so tough.
ReplyDelete8 billion can make a lot of noise but modern things seem to make more noise.
DeleteYou remind me that railways are more abundant and visible out west.
ReplyDeleteWell, now, you must know something I don't know. Most branch lined have been abandoned in the last 30 - 40 years. My brothers haul their grain about 30 km to elevators.
DeleteI find the noise here can be awful. So much so, that when they stop passing one another on the highway here, as I sit on the deck, I realize how peaceful it can be for 10 seconds. The gunning of engines I hear down in the forest. :'(
ReplyDeleteWe are about 3 km from a very busy 4 lane. It's noisy.
DeleteI would love to be in a place without noise. It's pretty quiet here even though we're only about two miles from the highway. Cars and trucks seem to everywhere these days. if there's a road, there are vehicles.
ReplyDeleteMachinery noise is worse than natural sounds.
DeleteSome places I go you can hear the traffic. Lots of people walk listening to music or an audio book. I guess you can make your own noise that is at least enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. A large percentage of the population is tuned in.
DeleteI live in the suburbs of a big city, in close proximity to an international airport. between a major highway and a giant freeway interchange. There is always noise, and yet this morning seems very quiet and peaceful. We learn to accommodate noise, I guess.
ReplyDeleteGood point about accommodating noise. we can somehow tune noise out. However, hearing aids pick up noise better than voice.
DeleteWhat an interesting question.
ReplyDeleteI can think of a few but they are not without the sounds of nature itself. The wind or waves.
One cannot hear silence, by definition it is nothing, so even in a booth one would hear one's heartbeat (or tinnitus?).
Definitions for noise and lack of noise is challenge.
ReplyDeleteMy room at night, without my hearing aids, is completely silent except the clock ticking and the cat playing.
ReplyDeleteWhen I visit my son, I sleep in the guest space down in the basement. It is cool and it is dark. You hear no street sounds. It is amazing how conducive that space is to a good night's sleep!
ReplyDeleteQuietest place will be where you can put ear plugs in. Then you can "hear yourself think..."
ReplyDeletethanks for sharing Red because i used to think that i am mad to think of quiet place always . i waited just like you to find one but believe me at fifty two i know there is none .
ReplyDeletebut i am glad i have memories of place which was small village with perfect vehimcical surroundings and i have moments when my being tasted "silence" and "solitude" this is something special for those who long for it and know what it has for them
You are right. It is very difficult to find perfect peace. Many people seem to find noise comforting - almost as if they would not be able to cope with silence.
ReplyDeleteMy home is relatively quiet - I live in a suburb so there isn't a whole lot of traffic noise, and when most everyone is away at work, the noise level is limited to the cat's water fountain. Outdoors, of course, there is the sound of the birds and the traffic on nearby streets.
ReplyDeleteBut, like you, I don't think there are many places where one can get away from the noise of daily life.
The desert areas around Phoenix used to be very quiet but as the city encroaches that solitude is disappearing. And, of course, there are always airplanes flying over.
ReplyDeleteI live in the middle of suburbia. At my house it is quieter than many places but we have a major road just a few blocks away and if you listen hard, the rumble of traffic is always there in the distance.
ReplyDeleteNature can often seem noisier than my quiet plot of land, birdsong and rustling leaves etc don't fade into the background in quite the same way
The inside of our home is really quiet despite living in a small city. But stepping outside is a different story!
ReplyDeleteSince we don't have trains yet, we wouldn't have those sounds. I think up in the mountains here... well... should be quiet. I should tell Art that we could try walking that trail again and see just for fun.
ReplyDeleteBirds always singing in the spring and summer, they are our noise not much traffic noise where we live.Connie
ReplyDelete