Living With The Window Open

This sounds like a bit of a weird topic but it’s kind of true I love living with the window open and have done pretty much since I got the half of the bedroom with the window. That was in my old room, the window opened up on the flat roof (which I never sneak upon to watch the sunrise) and looked over our garden and the hills and trees and a small car park which lead on to a road; looking left you could see into the town centre’s big building and carparks, on a quiet day even hear the tower clock ring; and right the garden going up the hill.
I stayed in that room from the age of eight until Christmas this year but it wasn’t until I was thirteen I got the window side of the room. In that time rain and shine I loved having the window open. Don’t get me wrong I hate being cold! And in the last few years it has become apparent I get cold very easily but it’s definitely worth those three extra layers to here wind bellowing through the trees in December. When I was in that room (the back room) I was not directly near a road or street you got the occasional siren or boy racer but it was usually pretty quiet; well not really if you had woken up earlier enough or gone to sleep late enough you got to hear the birds sing in the garden and there’s a very unique sound of rain hit a curtain which is so beautiful. I find the sound of rain eternally beautiful the sound of it rushing through the atmosphere, the classic pitter patter as it hits the earth and thunder and lightning awwww there’s just not words. There was other sounds to listen through that window as well; the neighbours sitting on the deck with their friends or having a barbeque, the boy next door with his band plenty to be noisy on. But it’s like leaving the radio on, background noise, you rarely tune in for the really juicy stuff.
However back up a few months ago literally days before Christmas I swapped bedrooms and know find myself in the front room facing the road and adjacent houses. The sounds were all different! Birds still sing as the sunrises but the wind seems to take a different path between the tall houses compared to the shallow gardens. And there so many more people I could lay in my bed and listen to the sounds all day.
First the birds wake and sing this weather at about four – four thirty
Then at about six cars begin to start and shock the birds in to silence
Dribs and drabs at first before they all start rushing off to work
Now there are kids and parents on the school run, push chairs and scooters and little feet all tottering away about to start the day
‘hurry up’s and checks of P.E kits, practising timetables for some ‘really important test’
And the bus has started with a loud engine that chugs like a grumpy old man compared to the cars
Suddenly there’s no more rush, the road gets on with its day accommodating the odd car and hourly bus
Hearing the cuts of the rose bush and muffle of the radio as someone is purging there garden of what was struggling to grow
Neighbours collide as they walk to the shop to pick up their papers, cigarettes in a little gold box
Polite little chatter the odd argument about the parking of one’s car or a noise student
Then the kids are released and you can hear them running up the streets
More mellow then in the more morning at a leisurely speed mums talking to together as their children play hide and seek
As the road drifts in to a slight peace cars become parking people are home for tea
From the early finishing on Friday to those who work late shuffling in between cars to find their place
It appears to be quiet but that’s not really true sirens stream bring you back to reality
And as they come the clock reaches twelve, starting a string of partyers begin to walk home
They argue and fight; dance and sing turning pavement into a noise thing
This goes until at least two, three on events giving the road a little time to rest before the birds make their come back.
There so much to hear by just leaving your window open, the little you can gauge from someone’s life for the twenty seconds you can hear them. I am sorry for anyone who expected this post to be deep or mind opening in a sense this very literal tile is misleading, however I just love listening to the life and sounds coming from my window.