Reply to: The sound of silence

[gingerjedi]

Pneumatic drill on a ripped up concrete. Baby wails, a stray dog howling

Jam or Morrissey version? I can never decide, The Jam musically but Morrissey vocaly... the should have done a collaboration for the ultimate version.

[Zippy]

The sound of a horse beathing as it chlls out with its head in your lap. Wonderful

[vetran]

the swoop of a heron's wing as it reclaims the canal as its territory.

oh and to lower the tone - oh yes oh yes harder!

[shoes]

get a job

[RichardCranium]

That's some odd nature.

I know. And I sat and thought about it too.

What is 'nature'?

Is it the pruned-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life garden with it closely shaved lawn?

The completely artificial moors?

The planted woodland?

The manufactured farms?

The hand-dug Norfolk broads?

The dredged estuaries?

The man-made beaches with their groins and retained cliffs?

Or is it an appreciation of the environment around us? That environment, for me, includes the artificial water channels and the life that goes on around them. I most appreciate nature by the slow and gentle nature of canal navigation. I can take in what is around me and see things that even the towpath walkers do not see.

But it is the engine that makes it special. The rhythmic thumpa-thumpa-thumpa-thump of the engine at a low heartbeat rate makes the world slow down. All the little noises of day-to-day disappear, particularly the planes overhead and the traffic noise from the roads in the distance.

After a few moments you do not hear the engine, it is like gliding along in silence. And all around you is hedgerows and birds and little mammals and fish and ducks and insects. And you can hear the gentle little splashes fish make, the chirruping of grasshoppers, the chatter of squirrels in the trees, the tiny splash of twigs falling in the water.

Yes, it is an odd nature. But you're nearer to nature on the canal than in a garden.

[snaw]

Pneumatic drill on a ripped up concrete. Baby wails, a stray dog howling

[PRC1964]

is it me, or is that bollock getting hairier ?

Just like me, as it ages it has new hairs sprouting from everywhere except the top.

[Cliphead]

Cicadas on a warm mediterranean evening.

+1

[Churchill]

Defo the sea.

Doing what?

If it's crashing onto a rocky shore then yup, whs!

[HairyArsedBloke]

Defo the sea.

[EternalOptimist]

That's some odd nature.

is it me, or is that bollock getting hairier ?

[PRC1964]

The steady thump of the diesel engine on a trad narrowboat.

That's some odd nature.

[RichardCranium]

The steady thump of the diesel engine on a trad narrowboat.

[BrilloPad]

What is your favourite sound in nature ?

It will be the sound of my ex-wifes ashes being scattered on the wind.

[PRC1964]

Cicadas on a warm mediterranean evening.