Friday open thread: favourite and/or least favourite sounds

[dolorosa_12]

Just a straightforward one this week: talk to me about your favourite sounds, or your least favourite sounds, or both.

My favourites are, I suspect, pretty basic:

The movement of water (waves breaking, rivers flowing, water tumbling over rocks, etc)

The wind moving through leaves, or bare branches

Onions frying

Fire crackling

The crunch of dry leaves, twigs, or snow underfoot

Lots of sounds related to paper — pages turning, paper being cut with scissors or folded precisely, the sound of a fountain pen moving across the page

Babies laughing, or babbling, or small toddlers learning to talk

The song of Australian magpies

My least favourite sounds (other than obvious stuff like sudden unexpected loud noises) are audible chewing, or anything that sounds like lips smacking wetly — even just thinking of those sounds makes me grimace involuntarily.

What about you?

Comments

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Ooh, this is a fun question! I'm autistic and have near-perfect (and frustratingly sensitive) hearing, which is often a trial. I can't stand ticking clocks, background electrical noises like fridges or freezers, beeping, motorcycle engines, traffic noise or garden machinery. But I do love the sounds of nature - birdsong, rustling trees, flowing water, sheep and cows...all very soothing

[dolorosa_12]

I definitely don't have perfect hearing, but I have a hard time tuning out those sorts of irrelevant background noises (like right now the sound of our fridge is really intrusive), including stuff like other people's conversations in restaurants or bars. All very irritating noises indeed.

Nature sounds, on the other hand, are very soothing, as you say.