Not the Sound of Silence

Late afternoon and a party is already underway in the next close.
All afternoon we have been treated to music,
with random outbursts of singing when one of their favourites is played.
Some unseen construction provides freestyle rhythm section.
However the garden is too far away for us to observe the exact nature of the project
as it is screened by half a dozen or so full height garden fences.
The only thing that is visible is the occasional glimpse of the top of a head
presumably with body attached -
though as it is out of sight we cannot be totally certain...
However, it is a lovely afternoon
and the celebrations are not loud enough to cause any annoyance -
except possibly to their immediate neighbours.
Let us hope that they thought to invite them!

Exploring

As we head out on our evening Pokemon hunt
we pass close to the property in question.
The sound of happy voices is interspersed
with the odd drunken expletive ridden rant
from someone whose temperment appears not to be improved by the intake of alcohol.
No-one appears overly concerned,
so we walk on by...

In the adjacent playing fields,
a small group of teenagers sit in a small group
close to the social club.
Are they linked to anyone inside the club
or are they just randomly sitting in the corner of the field closest to it?
Who knows?
Last week it was the grand reopening of licensed premises
 - the doors flung wide announcing the great awakening from the sleep of lockdown
and possibly providing much needed ventilation after months enforced shutdown.
This week the fire doors were firmly closed.
I might have doubted that anyone was there,
but the shutters were raised and through the windows
I could clearly see patrons of the establishment enjoying their evening.
Let us hope the club survives the pandemic.
It would be a shame if it was to be replaced by housing.

As lockdown got under way, there was a significant increase in footfall
around the perimentre of the field
that a couple of distinct footpaths were worn in the grass.
With sports halted the grass was left to grow.
The next mowing cut a wide swathe around the perimeter of the field,
(sufficient to allow for social distancing between clockwise and anticlockwise walkers)
plus eight equally spaced pathways converging in the middle of each field,
reminisicent of a union jack - except it was all in tastefully muted shades of field vegetation - green, grey and light brown.

Emptiness

Once I counted thrirteen people in the adjacent small field,
suitably socially distancing, exercising canines, children or spouse.
Amusingly some were so used to dressing up to go out
that they even dressed for their evening stroll - leaving a trail of pungent perfume in their wake
detectable in the air for several minutes after they sailed by
reminding us of how droplets of the virus could remain in the air long after we have moved on.
This evening we only saw three dogs with their walkers in our entire trip.
Are dogs getting less exercise or are they taking their owners further afield to walk?

Back in the spring the roads were quiet,
with only the occasional vehicle on the roads,
Everyone was staying local to avoid the spreading or catching the dreaded virus -
taking their daily exercise in their neighbourhood.
Now we are allowed to travel much further
the highways hum with the passage of former pedestrians
incarcerated within their cars,
We no longer notice the sound of each individual engine,
as they are now part of some vast orchestral movement
with only the occasional vehicle being able to be individually identified by both location and classification.
"Can you hear the motorbike on the cloverleaf?"

Everything is moving up a gear, but the virus is not yet beaten, lurking as on unseen presence.
Masks designs are researched as the we enter the next stage of living with the virus.

I miss the relative sound of silence,
and the sight of the local community discovering the local community.