Peaceful
It is a very peaceful Sunday afternoon. An occasional light aircraft bustles across the sky and birds call sleepily. No children are giggling and playing in their gardens. Maybe they’ve all gone away, the school holidays having started on Friday. Even the ice-cream vendors are silent, their jangling jingles mercifully absent.
Saturday afternoon was a different matter altogether. A helicopter buzzed and clattered above the trees, describing circles high and then low. Around and around it went, for what felt like hours, never hovering.
We established that it was a police helicopter and wondered if it was searching for someone. As with most of these occurrences, it is unlikely that we shall ever learn why it was circling. Local social media has not shed any light on it, though lots of people have had a merry time making ‘humorous’ comments.
Today, however, the sun shines gently, a soft breeze blows, butterflies dance in the warm air, and all is well with the world.
Sometimes it’s perhaps better not to know.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
DeleteSometimes the helicopter spends a lot of time flying circuits. It's annoying.
ReplyDeleteIt was noisy.
DeleteCuriosity arises when a helicopter is hovering over a location. Sometimes you find out, more often not.
ReplyDeleteWe expected it to hover, but it didn't.
DeleteI always wonder where those helicopters are going too. I'm glad you were having a peaceful day.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a half-told story, with no ending.
DeleteAlmost always, if a helicopter flies over here, it is a "Flight for Life" transport to the hospital to the south of us. The only one that hovered/circled was many, many, years ago (35-ish??) when the authorities were in search of a man dubbed "Rambo" who avoided captures for months by hiding out in the woods near here. It was the only time I remember that people actually thought to lock their homes.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like too much excitement too close to home.
DeleteIt's been a very peaceful weekend here, too. The local airport is just a few miles away from us so the sights and sounds of helicopters and small planes is not uncommon but they seemed relatively few for the weekend.
ReplyDeleteI never mind small aircraft flying over and just think how lovely it must be to be up in the sky on a fine day.
DeleteOur school holidays finished last Friday and today the kids are back at school. We get helicopters circling here too but usually at night when they are chasing criminals.
ReplyDeleteWe all live such different lives with different patterns. It's fascinating.
DeleteWe get them oergead clattering between various Big houses... Cowdray Part, Goodwood, plus an extraordinary number of experience mansions.
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate dream - one's own helipad!!
DeleteWe could have done with your researching skills last night Janice when someone asked, 'why can't helicopters land on Everest' but the answer came this morning from my co-pilot! Sunday is a lovely peaceful day, because hopefully everyone has done their shopping on Saturday and everyone can relax without worrying.
ReplyDeleteI had to look that up, Thelma, as you knew I would! 😄
DeleteAn idyllic afternoon.
ReplyDeleteIt was very pleasant. Incidentally, I'm not ignoring you. I cannot access your blog again, at least not without seriously disrupting my pc. I don't know why.
DeleteIt was almost uncannily quiet here too. I think everyone in the street, except us, had gone out.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you wonder what's going on and why you haven't been invited . . . 😁
DeleteOur school holidays start on Thursday, we get a lot of helicopters locally, with bases at Portsmouth and Gosport our airspace can get busy, often big chinooks fly low, they are noisy. I do love the quiet in our back garden, bliss.
ReplyDeleteWe get Chinooks from RAF Odiham, not very far from here. A quiet afternoon in the garden is worth more than a bushel of gold.
DeleteThe same happens here. When there is a police helicopter searching for someone you get speculation but no real information
ReplyDeleteIt's annoying not knowing the outcome!
ReplyDeleteI always find it interesting here 1 hour National Guard flies over in their Giant green helicopters on the maneuvers.
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining giant green helicopters looking rather like grasshoppers! 🦗🦗🦗
DeleteThere used to be a landing pad at our local hospital, and I think it was used once in our 20 years here, but I think it was removed when the hospital expanded for a new emergency ward. I will look closer, however.
ReplyDeleteSo, a new emergency ward and no emergency helicopter to service it . . . sounds about right. 😉
DeleteSuper quiet in our neck of the woods Sunday too……not that it’s ever really noisy……although we do get the occasional low flying military aircraft to shake us up 😂
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
They really do make you sit up and take notice when they scream over, don't they?
DeleteWe are still in the midst of heat and humidity for another week or so.
ReplyDeleteLuckily we have escaped to the mountains of North Carolina a couple of times to stay cool.
I'm ready for Fall!!
It's such a shame when we wish our lives away because of awful weather.
DeleteMaybe just pilot training
ReplyDeleteWe did wonder that. I suppose flying in circles can be useful . . .
DeleteWe have had helicopters flying over our little town for the past couple of weeks. come to find out, they are trimming the trees along side the railroad track.. they have a huge piece of equipment hanging from the copter and I can only guess that a crew is on the track, using this piece of equipment.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds extremely hazardous, but I expect they know what they're doing. 😄
ReplyDeleteSunshine, a soft bree, e, and butterflies. What a delightful scene. No noisy children, helicopters or here it would be barking dogs
ReplyDeleteIt was blissful.
DeleteWhere I live (western Canada) we see helicopters all the time...they are transporting people in the oil and gas industry as well as checking for wildfire hotspots.
ReplyDeleteEssential work, especially the wildfire hotspots.
ReplyDeleteWe see helicopters here all the time. Some in training some doing their job I guess.
ReplyDeleteThey become part of the background then, really.
DeleteHow strange that you blogged about a helicopter and this morning there was one that kept circling my neighborhood. I always wonder if there was a bad accident somewhere or if the police are looking for a missing person. I'm glad the rest of your day was peaceful.
ReplyDeleteCoincidence is a strange thing.
DeleteI love peaceful days when I can completely relax. Al ltoo often someone calls, texts or needs me for something, and I never seem to get back on task.
ReplyDeleteInterruptions can be very irritating, especially if you're in the middle of something meaningful.
DeleteMake the most of peaceful days ... bliss :)
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Total relaxation is a gift.
DeleteGoogle Pensacola Beach flyover. Hegseth trump and his ilk are all excitedl and applauding that buzz. The pilot made a mistake and "found himself in a situation no pilot wants to find himself in." What is being lauded as a demonstration of America's military might and precision skills was an eyeblink away from an unspeakable catastrophe..
ReplyDeleteThat looked terrifyingly close. Well done to the pilot for admitting his error.
DeleteI understand that he is so haunted by what nearly happened that he may not be able to fly again.
DeleteA lovely post. When we get aircraft noise here, it is almost always the armed forces moving helicopters. The commercial planes are high before they reach this location and mostly we see contrail and hear, if anything, a distant hiss.
ReplyDeleteIf we have a helicopter circling, someone is lost. That has happened twice in the 30 years we have lived here. We live in Canadian Shield' country, mixed hardwood forest cover on a lot of it because it is not worth farming, and many small lakes and streams with a lot of boggy areas, beaver ponds, etc. Easy to lose a child or vague elder.
I make my husband take his phone when he goes away from the house because, amazingly for the last few years we have complete coverage on the 300 acres we live on and with.
You really live in the wilds. 300 acres is a lot to look after. My husband has nagged me into taking my 'phone with me every time I go out. He's right, of course, but I still find it a bind.
ReplyDeleteI just looked up Canadian Shield and was amazed at the vastness of it.
Delete