There’s a moving truck out back. A neighbor is leaving. I’m not used to seeing this kind of action. My neighbors were farther away in Connecticut. Everything happened discretely. Shhh. New England.
I’m more connected with the outside here. That makes little sense since I’ve got a lot less outside to play with.
The four windows in my office are wide open. I’m on the patio daily. There are sounds. In Connecticut we spent 23 years hearing nothing but nature.
I like hearing the kids playing. They ride their bikes and generally have fun below my window.
Sometimes I hear kids crying. I have a child. I have that experience. It still upsets me.
At night I’ve heard loud family fights somewhere in the extended neighborhood. I now know the “F” word works in Mandarin.
Mostly, the night is quiet. This is an early-to-bed area.
When I cut audio tracks in my former closet “studio” the windows go down. Blinds too. I’d wake the neighborhood.
Once or twice a month cars let loose on Irvine Blvd, over a half mile away. The speed limit is conservatively sixty, but it’s an inviting few miles of sparsely traveled open road to test your ride. In some cases they’re also testing their tires.
We are the next to last home before a farm owned by UC Irvine. We are separated by a high berm, fence and lots of flowers and shrubbery.
Pack behavior howling from coyotes happens nightly. There’s a bunny population explosion every spring. Bunnies are scarce in October.
We hear the Disneyland fireworks. Anaheim is 14 miles north. They’re in the background here, noticeable at 9:30 sharp. You can set your watch to Disney.
In the summer they’re nightly. This time of year, just a few times a week. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of the sound.
Well it is pretty quiet in Orange Ct. We here the trains going along the Housatonic….my husband loves model trains so that works. we hear the Sikorsky helicopters . My husband worked for them as an engineer for 40 years…that works too. The noise from trucks down shifting on RT 34 not so much. I wish we heard children playing but we have lived here 41 years……the neighborhood is changing but the children are not up by us. We saw some jamming at the block party and young ones running around, that was nice. We are the oldsters.We almost ran into 2 deer crossing our road coming in at night…..they are getting bolder. Also the 15 turkeys in our backyard. I would love the fireworks not the coyotes!
We are the opposite here on the Connecticut coast in East Lyme –homes close together, small lots, lots of activity much of the year. We hear boat horns, cars, kids, speedboat engines racing – and yes the yelling and craziness that comes with summer and the beach.
I also think we who live on the seacoast are always more connected to nature and especially the weather. Being on the coast, we are speared the worst of winter compared to inland areas and points north, thus we seem to speed much of our time on the patio or walking the beach 12 months a year. The coast always seems restless, always up to something, always taking things out and bringing things in on the tides. We’ve found fish from the Bahamas, boat parts from Nova Scotia, and even a mast from a boat we traced to Morocco! I’m sure living inland in rural areas has in advantages, but I would trade living be the restless sea for anything.