Quiet Places of The Earth

[SusanLR]

It is quiet where I live even though it's a part of a city.
A large area called Countryside, for a good reason.
Small roads, big houses on large lots. My road is a dead end, so no cars come down here except for
the few houses at the end of the street. That's where I live, at the end on 1/2 acre with nothing behind
the house except some woods, small lakes and one hole of a golf course that is hardly used.
No children around. A retirement community.

Normally it would be totally silent right now, but, the man that owns the house has fallen asleep
watching TV so I can hear it in the distance.
Night sounds just outside my windows are usually owls or coyotes.
Last night- rain.
There are a lot of birds around the lakes and the sure sign of Florida winter coming is the
Canadian Geese, Sandhill Cranes and small birds like flocks of Robins and Finches.
The birds of prey are here year around. Eagles, Hawks, Falcons and Osprey.
Deer come out at night in a park close by.

Yet we are only about 5 mins. drive from shopping and grocery stores. Handy.

 

[garnetflower13]

@Gerald Wilgus and @Varzar ,

Right now the bay is like being on a water battle ground with white and brown pelican torpedos. At least one bird is hitting the water in a massive feeding frenzy every second. When the pelicans fly close to the boat their wings make a loud hummimg whistle sound. If you didn't know the sound came from a bird you might imagine japanese robotics are responsible.
There are also cormorants makeing lound grunts and roars and growls. The snowy egets sound like old men with a cold blowing their noses. The resident osprey is calling out so loud with its high pitched cry and if you listen closely through the din you will hear another osprey answer from miles away. I haven't described the Clarks grebes, Pacific Oyster Catchers, the owls or other land birds. There are dozens of those here.
Nature can be quiet, but it is often a noisy place!
Oh, and did you know, a schoal of fish jumping out of the water all at once will sound like ice cubes in an ice maker when they hit the water again.

I love the pictures that are painted by these words.

 

[Suzette]

 

[Skittlebisquit]

View attachment 71660 Being someone who loves spending time out away from town - whether it’s a beach, a trail, or off-trail in the mountains - I think quiet places with little to no machine or engine noises are vitally valuable for out health, (not to mention plants and animals) and they’re becoming rarer.



Quiet Parks International


“Help us save quiet”

“As the world gets louder, quiet sanctuaries grow ever more important. Respites from our noisy and hectic lives are essential to offset the din and peacefully ground us. Moreover, stillness and time to listen to nature is not just a human necessity. All life forms on this planet need quiet. This is a letter asking you, who share our love for quiet and dedication to honoring and preserving the pristine sound of nature, for help.

Stop - Listen - What do you hear right now?

I hear a fan and the refrigerator in the kitchen. When I walk out my front door I hear a few birds, water dripping from the roof, the hum of a river far away - a digger in the distance and a few cars.

Our days are filled with sounds, many of those are manmade, many are loud. When was the last time you experienced quiet nature and enjoyed the sounds of nature?

The whisper of the wind in the trees, gentle birdsong, the murmur of a small creek or ocean waves.

The non-profit organization Quiet Parks International (QPI), was founded in 2019 by Gordon Hempton and Vikram Chauhan to save and preserve quiet for the benefit of all life. In 2020 we awarded the first Urban Quiet Park - Yangmingshan National Park, Taiwan, and the first Wilderness Quiet Park, Zabalo River, Ecuador.

Although slowed by the pandemic, we have pressed on. In June 2021, we recognized Hampstead Heath in London as the first Urban Quiet Park in Europe. A second European Urban Quiet Park, Spain’s Parc Del Montnegre i el Corridor, followed on October 9. Next aboard: Belgium’s Dender-Mark will be awarded on October 29. More Quiet Parks will be awarded in 2022. Stockholm has five parks readied for the Awards in the spring of 2022 and Urban Quiet Parks have been nominated in Paris, New York, Thessaloniki, Toronto, Wellington Town Belt and Brisbane.

Wilderness Quiet Parks are concurrently being evaluated. This fall we will assess Glacier National Park, Montana, USA; American Prairie Reserve, Montana, USA; Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada; and Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Minnesota, USA.

Our mission and growing roster of Quiet Parks have not gone unnoticed by the world’s media. To date, we’ve been covered by Newsweek, BBC, CNN and other media outlets. More stories are in the works.

We have accomplished all this thanks to untold voluntary hours from our founders, our board, our executive directors, and scores of volunteers out in the field all around the world – a groundswell of engagement and enthusiasm from people who love and care for quiet and want to help. We are and will remain a slim, efficient organization that gets things done. But having bootstrapped a meaningful, attention-getting debut, we need funding to take the next steps forward.

We seek to raise $50,000, which we will use to evaluate and assess nominated locations for future Quiet Parks and pay for award ceremonies. Donations will also enable us to hire a part-time financial manager to help direct our longterm mission and future fund-raising campaigns.

We ask for your financial help directly and/or by forwarding this letter to others you know who share our love for quiet and dedication to honoring and preserving the pristine sound of nature. We are a 501-C3 non-profit charitable organization and all donations – small, medium, or large – will help our quest to recognize and preserve the world’s dwindling quiet places, an often overlooked and unprotected natural resource.”

— Gordon Hempton
— and Vikram Chauhan
Founders, Quiet Parks International

You take the most amazing pictures, thank you for sharing

 

[watersprite]

You take the most amazing pictures, thank you for sharing

I didn’t take that, as with the quoted rext the pic is from the website (or their email I forget which).

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I always know that it has just snowed because all the world is silent. No freeway noise, no traffic, no pedestrians, no children, no dogs, not even a bird song.

I go out and see the fluffy, white world and I just stand there in awe of creation. So clean and crisp and bright. I crave silence so much, and I look forward to it each winter.

It makes me laugh when I see little juncos making forked footprints in the snow as they hop around looking for seeds. Or the funny squirrels leaving their cacophony of trails up and down and up and down the trees.

It's so nice to light the fire, maybe a couple oil lamps just for ambience and warmth, and sit with a cup of cocoa or ginger tea, and watch the world turn white and clean as I quietly knit or sew.

 

[garnetflower13]

I love the snow, too. When we first moved back to PA from Florida, in 2015, I was highly upset that we were in a weather pattern where we only got one snowstorm, the entire winter. The following year snow was scarce again. It wasn't until 2020 that we started getting normal snowfalls. And yes, that silence is magical when it happens as the world transforms to a snow blanketed landscape.

There is also nothing like the aftermath of an ice storm, which leaves the trees arrayed in a sparkling raiment of diamonds...

 

[watersprite]

Hope.