Ah, the sounds of spring, bees buzzing, birds singing their hearts out in a throaty robust manner. Then there are the humble but still melodious voices of the trees swaying in the wind, the leaves rustling against each other sparring for the best access to sunlight.
But wait there is more. Mechanical, abrupt, a cacophony of sounds, like what you'd hear if you gave instruments to a group of four-year-olds and asked them to play one of Beethoven's symphonies.
Oil and gas-powered lawnmower number one starts up having arrived at the music hall early. Shortly after that mower finishes, a second lawnmower starts up in time for our morning coffee on the back stoop. Just before that one finishes up, yup, you guessed it, number three roars away to serenade our lunch. No worries, we will digest our meal and enjoy a cool drink in the backyard mid-afternoon. Except that number three is still mowing a very large lawn. Ah well, soon the sun will be setting the spring peepers will do their best to out peep each other, and all else will be settled and quiet. Except that a late bloomer has just started yet another lawnmower.
Oh well, we have the rest of the week. Except that nearly every day someone nearby starts up a gas-powered lawnmower, leaf blower, chain saw wood chipper, or another mechanical implosion of disturbing noise.
If only each neighborhood could come to an agreement to either try to mow on only a certain few days of the week or to at least ensure a few days of the week were not mowed, sawed, leaf blown, or chipped.
I am only one, but I will commit to trying to mow only (with my electric mower on my reduced lawn) when someone else is mowing nearby, thus reducing the amount of time my mowing is breaking the little relative quiet time we have.
Quiet and stillness, another resource nearly extirpated from our town. As our moms perhaps told us when we were kids, "If only you could all play quietly together".
Will Jericho, Vermont get the silent treatment?
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| Which way to quiet? |
Connecting community with Nature.
Reader Comments
What day can I use my new 72" mower?
Trying to help out.
G.R.
Gerald, is it electric? I am curious if the electric mowers are quieter than the gas-powered ones, and if so by how much.
As far as what day, well that would take a neighborhood consensus. Like I say, I try to time my cutting to match up when I hear someone else start theirs up. But not everyone has the time latitude that I do.
Cheers, and thanks for your interest and willingness to help!
Bernie
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Sounds like a good plan.
One of the things I miss about living in Switzerland is that no motorized tools and no loud noises outdoors were allowed after 6 PM M-F, afternoon on Saturday, and at any time on Sunday (the times may vary a bit by Kanton: this was Zürich a few years back).
N.G.
Underhill
It’s spring, so people are going to be getting after their spring clean ups and yard work. The world doesn’t revolve around you. We can now whenever we would like to! Some people are very busy and only get certain days or a small amount of time to do their yard work.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea, a day for quiet. It will never happen here though, because as someone said above, people are busy. People in Switzerland must not be busy. Probably because they don't have to work obscene hours in order to earn the right to pay obscene amounts for health care and higher education.
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