I was just standing out on the deck listening to the evening, and realized that it would be possible to determine the time by the sounds outside.
By the time I rise in the morning, the roosters are kicking up a fuss down the hill at my sister's. As the morning goes on, the guinea fowl are just learning to vocalize and they are practicing. The next sounds will be farm equipment or milk trucks out on the road, while the songbirds flit about calling to each other. Around 11, the chickens calm down.
Sometime between 1 and 2 in the afternoon, I will hear the mail delivery jeep.
A little bit later, people start to return home from work, and I'll hear their cars on the road. The folks across the road tinker on some antique farm equipment, with lots of hammering and ruckus. It's a good racket, though. Sometimes they mow instead.
The neighbors on one side work on their yard, while on the other side the dog welcomes hia people home.
As the sun goes down, the birds whoosh and swoosh through the branches, occasionally letting out a squawk, getting settled for the night. The bullfrogs down at the pond set up their chorus for the evening. The peafowl a couple of farms over start to call to each other. I honestly have no clue where they live, but can hear them very clearly.
Soon there will be the sound of the train whistle in the next town over every hour or so.
Then around 11:30, the cat bird outside my bedroom window will set up shop and sing me to sleep.
All of these sounds are pleasantly in the background and I barely notice them unless I listen for them. Even in what I think of as silence, there is a rhythm of people and animals living around me, and it is comforting.
