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

[lirazel]

WATER MOVING! The greatest sound in the world! I also love the wind, too.

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

Yessss!!!

Birdsong in general is a fave, of course, as are cats purring.

It's not exactly a favorite in that I don't love it for its own sake, but the sound of cicadas singing far away (not close!) just sounds like summer to me, and I enjoy that.

Sounds I hate: STYROFOAM!!!!!, anything scratchy, anything to do with chalkboards, etc. Basically: anything that sounds too dry? Idk how to explain it, but that's how it feels to me. Also: dogs barking, especially little yappy dogs.

[dolorosa_12]

Ooooh, cicadas are great! They have that same intense summer association for me too, although I don't hear them in the UK, of course. So they have a kind of nostalgic, childhood mood as well.

I know what you mean about those dry, scratchy sounds — styrofoam is awful. And I agree about the yappy dogs.