Do you ever think of the sounds your home makes when it’s otherwise quiet? I don’t, unless I spend a night out of home and am confronted with an entirely different set of sounds. Moving homes a year and half ago also made me more attuned to the peculiarities of soundtracks of places, so to say.
My current home produces some sounds that were not entirely straightforward to get used to. In winter, the fuses tend to buzz when the floor heating kicks in; which sounds like electrical overload to me, but I had a technician checking the fuses and insisting that nothing was wrong with them. I eventually got used to the buzzing.
In all seasons, the water heater tunes in with random screeching sounds. It sounds as a train braking in distance. It’s sometimes hard to tell from actual train screeching, which I get as well, since I live near a cargo train depot.
In summer evenings, I have noise from the pub across the street, which is actually quite pleasant. It’s good to hear that there is life going on outside even when I’m locked inside working or blogging. The pub shuts its outside seating area at 10 p.m. sharp, which is probably the standard curfew to keep if night disturbance charges are to be avoided.
The best sounds of all are the cat sounds. I don’t mean the noise of the blinds being torn down or the squealing of the toy mouse being chased around, though in the case of the latter, I appreciate it when the cat engages in human-approved, furnishings-friendly activities.
What I’m quite in love with is the sound of the cat’s paws tappity-tapping on the hard floor. I can hear her in my sleep as she is prowling around. It doesn’t disturb me, it’s a comforting heads up that the cat is live and well (and up to no good, but never mind that).
Speaking of good sounds, here’s a good song called “That Sound”. Whatever it is that works as that sound for you.
Mara Eastern 
Boy, do I remember the first night in this apartment! I believed I’d never be able to sleep here, due to the ventilation. Now, eight years later, I can hardly hear it until they shut it down. I guess that’s almost like what they refer to as “white noise”.
Most of the time, I keep the little screen window open in the bedroom, and there’s always traffic, no matter what time of night. A lot of ambulances, firetrucks and police too. It doesn’t bother me, but if they get close, I’m tempted to get up and look where they are 🙂
This post just made me think of a song with Marie Fredriksson [perhaps you remember Roxette?]. Such a shame she didn’t write it in English: https://youtu.be/Z9YCElTKwb8
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That’s exactly what I meant, how noises that are first annoying gradually fade into white noise. I’m bothered that I don’t care about sirens anymore, I grew used to them so much that now I’m quite likely to miss a disaster because I don’t notice sirens. I do remember Roxette, I used to listen to them in the 90s, and this particular song, which I didn’t know, is very good! So is the video.
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She sings something about that “the lights are on in an apartment in the opposite building” …
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That’s another thing, besides the sounds! The lights in buildings opposite. As I’m a night owl, I always look at the lights and the flickering TVs and how they gradually get switched off and all the windows get dark.
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She really should have written that song in English. That’s exactly what it was about, but sometimes there was one window where the light was on 🙂
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Our homes and environments DO have homely and comforting noises ! Soothing – like the cat tap-tapping her way around.
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I’m happy to hear that you can relate! Though it’s a dog for you where I have a cat 🙂
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She serves the same function 🙂 Hides in my son’s pile of dirty socks when she’s looking for safety and comfort !
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Ah, nice!
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We seem to have similar sounds maybe. Although your train-screeching-sounds are replaced here by the gentle sounds of the trams rolling by on the street below and the singing occasionally when the open the doors or need to warn someone. Your pub is my tequila bar 😉 but it’s generally good sounds. The soundproofing in my apartment is pretty good so it’s only when the door or windows are slightly open that I hear the street sounds. Inside, I have GG’s gentle tippy tapping on the wooden floorboards and often her little snoring sounds. And I have a clock that’s why of my closest friends gave me for my birthday which ticks away on the wall. We can hear the elevator ding sometimes as well. I didn’t really appreciate how many noises there are!
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It’s lovely to hear about the sounds peculiar to your place and familiar to you! I forgot the lift, I also get the lift sounds as my flat is adjacent to the lift. I envy you the trams. I’m obsessed with trams and I even enjoy their clinking noise – here trams are rather noisy and sound somewhat like a door bell; but I always like to listen to the sounds of traffic, it makes me feel connected with the rest of civilisation.
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Yes I really do love the trams. Coming from the country, they really make me feel like I’m definitely in the city now.
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That’s funny, it’s the same for me. I’m from a small village, and even so much later, trams still fascinate me. They mean to me that I can go places.
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Exactly. Freedom to roam.
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One place I lived had a railway line at the bottom of the garden, long trains of coal bound for the powerstaion just down the road. Woke me up for the first week, didn’t bother me after that.
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It’s funny how we can get used to almost anything.
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Apart from lawn mowers..
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The other day I observed my landlord mowing not his garden but the very narrow grass edge outside of his fence that divides his property from the common road. A very narrow grass edge. He’s a weird guy. He’s probably in love with his mower.
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Oh oops..
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I swear it wasn’t me…
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But it would be fun, wouldn’t it?
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Hell yeah!!
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A different sort of Tinder..
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