New paintings and regular art updates.
Painted in 1991? that was when I flirted with getting my first studio, but one of the three people sharing it enjoyed playing loud music too much. Eventually it drove me out. I just wanted to paint in quiet and peace.
The cat was one of the first cats I had when I came to live in Stoke on Trent. She was extremely intelligent and followed me everywhere or rode on my shoulder. I was in my early thirties when I painted this. It was acrylic on canvas. Called familiar friends.
Next door is banging and drilling again! So much for a quiet day. I live in a terraced house and there is no soundproofing between us, so the noise can be distracting.
This has been going on for probably a year. I thought the drill was going to come through my wall a few minutes ago. He must have been drilling a deep hole. I presume he’s fitting the house out now?
Last week I found half a window frame in my yard. I was tempted to try and throw it back but I don’t have the strength and I don’t want to break anything! And there goes the drilling again. I will have to go out.
SWEARWORDS!
Something was happening. The whirring sound of a helicopter grew closer, then it was overhead, I was inside my house and didn’t know exactly where it was but it was very loud! Then three police cars, sirens blaring, drove up the street.
I decided not to go out and look, as I didn’t know if it was some sort of car chase and my front door opens directly onto the pavement and street. I’d just watched the news about speeding cars and I didn’t want to see a crash.
The Helicopter was circling overhead, but with a phone flat battery I couldn’t take a photo (usually helicopters here are transporting supplies or patients to the local hospital). The helicopter got very close and very loud which was a bit frightening. More police cars shot up the hill, what was going on? After about a quarter of an hour things calmed down. I used the excuse of going out to pick up my milk off the garden gate at the side of the house to see what was happening. What I saw about 50 to 100 yards up the hill were some police cars, blue lights flashing, on the street and more inside the yard of the local pottery factory. Something has clearly happened there. I guess I will have to wait for this afternoons or evenings news.
Name your top three pet peeves.
They go together
Revved engines
Traffic fumes
The smell of petrol and diesel.
More than pet peeves
Dangerous to the planet
But when a motorbike
Or a car,
Revs it’s engine at the bottom of our hill
Then speeds up
Exhaust banging
Then I’m really peeved!
What makes a good neighbor?
I don’t care who they are as long as they are friendly.
Respectfully, I think the best neighbours need to be friendly, but not always friends. We all have different ways of doing things. Some people have noisy pets or play loud music, but as long as you can speak to them and work things out you have a chance of living in harmony. I always try and be polite and considerate. I’ve only ever fallen out with neighbours once in 30 years. They were students and we’re playing loud music day and night for a week.
They were disturbing my next door but one neighbour who was due to have a baby. They would not answer the front door. So I stuck my hand through the letterbox with my panic alarm beeping very loudly. Eventually someone came to the door. I asked them if they were at college? Yes. So I said, you understand you are creating a nuisance as you are intelligent? The student told me they never had problems in their halls of residence. I then explained the street was full of normal people. She apologised and the noise stopped! Not my friendliest action but it sorted out the problem!
Interview someone — a friend, another blogger, your mother, the mailman — and write a post based on their responses.
I talked to my hubby about being deaf.
What’s it like being deaf?
I have gradually lost my hearing over several years. It can make me feel grumpy, angry and lonely.
When did you first notice it?
I first noticed it when I was working in heavy industry for several years, but I was the child of a mill worker and the children had a creche at the mill, so I was always in a noisy environment. I really noticed it while working at my final job in a warehouse. There were conveyor belts everywhere and trucks, with loud music blaring out.
What can you hear?
I can hear very loud noises but without my hearing aids speech is just a wah wah wah noise.
How do you cope?
I have to try and lip read sometimes unless someone has a really loud or low voice. I can’t hear the higher registers of singers and music is distorted. It frustrates me when people have to repeat themselves and I know my hearing is diminishing. My mind retreats into childhood memories, it’s very isolating and now I’ve retired every day flows one into the next.
What about entertainment?
Subtitles on the TV help but I have to turn up the volume sometimes. I can use a hearing loop with my hearing aids but we don’t go out much anymore to the theatre or cinema.
What other things bother you?
Sometimes I get tinnitus or burbling noises like rushing water. I think that’s the blood pulsing in my ears. It’s hard to sleep when that happens. Also I think my brain fills in the gaps in the silence, I sometimes hear my name being called, or loud noises when there are none, it can be very disturbing.
We hadn’t really talked about it much so I’m glad I answered this prompt. It’s given me a bit more insight into how things are for him. I get frustrated that he can’t hear me, but it must be so much worse for him.
Tuesdays#bandofsketchers prompt – sound. I went abstract with this, drawn in felt pens then adjusted digitally in photodirector. It represents the cacophony of sound someone with hearing difficulties suffers. Hearing aids boost hearing but also don’t differentiate sounds.
I think Hooley is a phrase meaning a gale or stormy. It’s a more picturesque word, probably quite old.
Despite our double glazing I can hear the wind soughing around the house, the vuuumming noise through the gap around the kitchen window. The cat flap opening and closing as if a fat, invisible cat was coming in and going out of the door. The overgrown bushes by the side of the house sometimes scrape along the wall. I’m used to it now but it used to be quite creepy when I first heard it. And of course it’s dark outside, dead leaves scatter and blow about on the wind, and litter scurries along the gutter on the road, picked up by the wind and dumped damply in heaps.
In amongst all these noises the cats use the cat flap, coming in and purring at me, purr-miaow? Where’s my tea? It’s not the wind this time, it’s me
I wish I lived in a detached house, not one with thin walls and a neighbour who’s TV is right next to the wall. We don’t complain because he is deaf and I think he would struggle to hear if he moved it anywhere else. Also you don’t want to fall out with your neighbours if you can help it. Most of the time it’s OK, especially when we have our TV on, but sometimes we like to read in silence and then, well if there is a football match on next door the volume is so high that we can tell when someone scores a goal!
I think the volume next door has gradually increased over a few years. You get used to it. But late at night it can also be disturbing. I don’t think there is a solution unless we have noise lowering insulation put in.
Unexpected item in the freezer area..
The ice cream is defrosting
Icebergs float past
My glacier is shrinking
Mussels in an icy glaze are thawing
I’ve deleted my icecubes
The TV is not drowning the beeping
In fact the ice water might flood
With teeny tiny icebergs
Floating past…and me
My heart is frozen stone
My dreams destroyed by BLEEPing!
But only a first world problem….
Mallaband-Brown