Wickham's musings from Chalke

 
I was out cycling over the farm tracks south east of my home in glorious sunny weather and stopped in a remote valley to listen to the birds. I noticed that although the valley should have shielded me from outside noises of human activity, I could hear the motorbike racing at an event some miles to the north like the buzzing of a swarm of hornets.

Then I heard and saw a light aeroplane flying low overhead; obviously a weekend leisure flight. There is nowhere now in England that you can get entirely away from noise pollution. The noise of traffic from the A354 over the hill to the south could also be heard.

When I got home I heard a microlight with its noisy motor mower engine and some weekends there is a hill climb up farm tracks about one mile to the west of me for small racing cars. It's not too noisy for me but some people living closer have complained in the local magazine about the increasing frequency of these hill climbs. There are also go-cart races on or somewhere near Wilton racecourse about four miles away and I can hear them when I go outside my house.