Seem to be fewer fireworks this year

The evening isn't over yet so I mustn't count my chickens but there do seem to be fewer fireworks this year around here. Looking out of the bathroom window the noisiest seem to be coming from the direction of a family who I call "the usual suspects" when it comes to fireworks! Yesterday evening I was in a building whose location and thick walls would have insulated us from any explosions so I don't know what it was like back home in my village. Perhaps the wet weather plus the recession has (literally) put a dampener on proceedings.

Having just typed this the aforementioned noisy near neighbours have just left off a few more rockets. I know this usually happens - they let off a few bangers, all goes quiet for quite a few minutes and you think they have finished and then off they go again!! For the sake of people's pets I just hope that tonight is the end of it until the usual mayhem seeing in the New Year.

Blog entry 300 and all the best for 2008

This blog entry - number 300 believe it or not - should ideally have been written yesterday. Still not too late I trust to wish anyone passing by all the best for 2008. Should you have read my blog on 1st January 2007 you will have quickly realised that I for one have zero interest in any New Year celebrations. This village is particularly noisy when it comes to midnight on New Year's Eve with plenty of fireworks being set off for 15 or 20 minutes. The question for me was whether to stay up until the mayhem had gone or to try and get a couple of hours sleep before the banging of the fireworks. I chose the latter alternative even though it meant my sleep being disrupted by this pyrotechnic nonsense!

Enough of my complaining! At least on New Years Day we had a very enjoyable local walk close to the Tamar and were overjoyed to see a barn owl flying across a meadow to the nearby woods. Wow! That was a special moment. I really love these birds - friends in the Valley have a detached store close to their house with nesting barn owls and they can see the birds emerge in the evening when sat in their lounge. Now that's what I call civilised bird watching!

Although I had a very pleasant Christmas with family in harmonious surroundings I'm conscious of the fact that many many folk spent their time in caravans as a result of their homes drying out and being repaired after the floods last summer. It was good to see that the TV news people were highlighting their continued discomfort during this holiday season. It is all to easy to forget these people once the initial shock of the effects of the flooding has worn off. The good thing to mention though is that we haven't had any prolonged rainy spells since the flooding so that the situation hasn't been made any worse.

As I said at the start I am now up to 300 entries. Hopefully you will have read something to amuse or interest you in this blog.

A very late firework display

I thought I had blogged enough about this years fireworks but unexpectedly find myself making another entry. Well into last Saturday evening I witnessed and heard another display of fireworks, twelve days after November the fifth. Now this wasn't in the village but beyond the treeline on the Devon side of the Tamar Valley. Checking with the map I'm fairly sure that they were set off at a fairly isolated property out of sight from here but barely a mile away as the crow flies.

Some of the bangs were at the loud end of the spectrum so to speak and I just got the feeling that it was all put together by a professional outfit. It's possible that the timing less than two weeks from Guy Fawkes night was coincidence and it might have been in celebration of some sort of family event.

As certain sections of the population become better off it seems that they become ever more eager to spend their cash in this sort of way. Mercifully in this instance they didn't go on for too long but for pet owners and the rest of us who wish for a less noisy environment the increasing number of these firework displays are not welcome. A further reduction in the maximum decibels these explosives produce would be a very good idea.

Noisy fireworks yesterday evening

On Tuesday evening I wrote a piece about the way fireworks are set off on days other than November the fifth. That evening, the sixth, witnessed one or two fireworks but quiet ones probably not enough to cause much distress. Sadly in the middle of yesterday evening a family about 100 yards away decided it was their turn. Many of the fireworks they let off were exceptionally loud, worse than others I had heard on previous days and they seem to have spread them out over quite a period of time so that you were repeatedly under the illusion that the mayhem was over only for another huge rocket to deafen you.

So far as I was concerned the family were totally irresponsible in doing what they did. One hears of dog owners going to the vet to get their pooches sedated for Guy Fawkes night but who would have been prepared for very noisy fireworks midweek and two days after the fifth.

Perhaps I'm naive but I believe the majority of people for all their imperfections (and I am far from perfect myself) try to behave in a responsible fashion with concern and respect for others. However certain individuals don't such as those last night. It's the same with picking up dog poo, the great majority of dog walkers in the village do the correct thing but there is always the odd one who doesn't.

Respect for others is surely something that we should all aim for.

Too many days for fireworks

Before I get started I just want to be clear that I'm not a killjoy. I'm not personally interested in firework displays but if others are well my dislike doesn't colour my attitude I hope. However one of my complaints about fireworks is that they are not confined to November 5th. In the village there have been quite a number let off on the two weekend evenings (third and fourth) but with the noisier ones seemingly reserved for the "correct" day. So far this evening practically nothing, just the odd quiet one. Now if only setting off fireworks was confined to the one evening what an improvement that would be.

There are a lot of dog owners and cat owners in the village - I'm not one of them - and it's horrendous for owners and pets as one just doesn't know when the next bang is coming. But it's not only the effect on domesticated animals that bothers me. We are in a deep V shaped valley with the village clinging to the western slope whilst the Devon side is densely wooded. A pleasure for me, and for many others I guess, is the sound of the gentle hoots of the tawny owls from the trees opposite that one hears on many a night. Owls have very sensitive hearing I believe so just what effect the sound of fireworks reverberating in the valley has on them I don't know. As I type this sentence at 8 pm I can hear some reassuring hoots so that's good news.

Maybe now there will be a lull until New Year's Eve when more explosions will be on the menu if the past few years are anything to go by.